Around the World in 48 Hours

Lithuania, Hungary, Iceland, Cambodia, South Korea, Luxembourg, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Singapore, Canada, Maldives, Iran, Ukraine, North Korea, Lebanon, East Timor, Argentina, Vietnam, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Uruguay, Italy, Mongolia, New Zealand, Angola, Russia, Cuba, Poland, South Africa, Norway, Paraguay, Moldova, Malta, Nigeria, Philippines, Algeria, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia, Peru, Myanmar, Laos... these are just some of the countries that I visited two weeks ago.

Ok, not exactly.  I can only imagine what it would be like to see all of these countries in person for myself.  But the World Expo was basically the next best thing and the closest I'll probably ever get to some of them (I'm looking at you, Iran).  September 20 and 21 were two of the loooongest days I've ever had but it was such a worthwhile experience that I didn't even mind the excruciating pain on the soles of my feet.  Well, almost.

This year's World Expo in Shanghai is the biggest, most expensive, and most highly visited Expo in world history.  Only three countries on the entire planet (Bhutan, Kuwait, and Burkina Faso) chose not to have any form of representation at the Expo, with the other 190+ all contributing either an entire pavilion building or a "stand" within a larger regional pavilion.  Not to mention the 50 international organizations that were represented and the numerous themed pavilions focusing on subjects like urbanization rather than on individual countries.  The place was freaking huge.  Tegan and I were very happy that we visited on Monday and Tuesday before the Chinese holidays began because Thursday the 23rd actually had the highest attendance of any day yet, with over 630,000 people showing up to see what various countries around the world had to offer in terms of culture, food, tourism, and business investment.

Haibao, the Expo mascot, styled after the Chinese character 人 which means man or person.
Haibao was everywhere. 

When I met up with Tegan on Day 1, she brought with her an American friend named Josh, another English teacher from Korea who was on vacation in China.  The three of us all agreed that we needed to maximize our day at the Expo and see as much as possible.  We'd heard about numerous tricks to avoid some of the ridiculous queues and get access to the pavilions through VIP entrances, and became determined to wait in as few lines as we could. (Saudi Arabia, for instance, supposedly had an incredible pavilion, but with a queue no less than 6 hours long on average, there was no way we were going to see it!!!)  The most well-known trick was to jump the queue of your own country's pavilion by showing your passport at the VIP entrance.  Since we didn't feel that two Americans and one South African was quite good enough, we befriended Phillip and Amy, two Canadians, at a restroom just outside the Expo gates and asked them to join our great queue-avoidance quest.

The "cattle queues" to get inside the Expo entrance gates.  Thank goodness it was 9.30 am on a Monday.
All I could hear was Jim's voice in my head from our trip to Disney World when I was 14.

Before we started on our quest, we had to purchase our Expo passports.  This was something we were told (read: warned) about before we arrived.  Every country's pavilion offers a stamp that goes into your Expo passport so you can have a souvenir that shows everywhere you visited.  Well, almost every country.  As it turned out, there had been some serious crowd (read: mob) control problems earlier in the summer in which so many pushy, crazy Chinese visitors were trying to get their stamps that people were getting trampled and injured.  Not to mention that the poor individual doing the stamping was facing a terrifying daily bombardment of people who could care less about what was actually on display inside the pavilion but really just wanted that stamp.  So unfortunately for us, a large number of Asian and Central American countries did not stamp passports.

The wooden design is supposed to represent the timber industry.

Anyway.  We started off at Canada, since Phillip and Amy could use their passports to get us all past the large queue.  It seemed almost too easy.  The Canadian employees at the pavilion were so happy to see us and so cheerful, Phillip and Amy immediately broke into anecdotes about Vancouver weather while the rest of us non-Canadians kept our mouths shut, and no one checked a single passport.  Success!  The Canadian pavilion was really dark inside and weirdly trippy; I'm not sure what kind of impression they were trying to give off about Canada, but it seemed very odd.  It was cool, but looking back on it after 2 days worth of pavilions, it was actually pretty weak overall.  Sorry, Canada.

Really?

But I will still take Canada over the freaking United States.  Our attempted stop # 2 was the (depressingly ugly, office-park-like) American pavilion, appropriately just around the corner from Canada.  We got to the VIP entrance only to discover that the US was the only country in the entire Expo that does not allow its own citizens to jump the queue.  The very very very long, multi-hour queue.  Josh and I were, to put it mildly, really pissed off.  Thanks for alienating those few Americans that actually made it halfway around the world to see how our country is being shown off to other people!  Go USA!!!

Ugh, that whole debacle still really pisses me off.  Moving on.

Outside Guatemala.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Americas.  A large number of Central and South American countries apparently couldn't afford full pavilions for themselves so more than a dozen ended up in what I dubbed the "strip mall" pavilion.  There were quite a few of these, for the Americas, the Pacific island nations, Africa, and smaller European countries.  Just a couple of rows of mini-pavilions inside of a large building.  The benefit of the strip malls, though, is that there really aren't any queues since there is nothing to "wait for," per se.  So we got to see cultural artifacts from and learn random bits of information about tons of different countries in a short period of time.  Some of the more notable things:  Bolivia seemed unusually intent on using its exhibit to focus on the production of coca leaves, Guatemalan xylophone-playing is really really cool, Argentine Malbec is very good wine, and the Dominican Republic apparently has a thing for really scary monsters.

Yeah.

Starving at this point, we decided to head over to Peru for lunch, as I'd heard from my couchsurfing host that the Peruvian food was amazing.  When we got to the Peruvian pavilion and saw the huge line, we just said screw it, walked up to the guy at the VIP entrance and told him we were really hungry and just wanted to eat at the restaurant inside.  Shockingly, he just let us through!  This little tactic would also prove useful later on for dinner in Poland.  Turned out Meg was right on and the food was freaking incredible.  Since there were five of us, we each ordered a different main course and then shared family-style so we could all try a bit of everything.  Oh man, that food... turns out there is allegedly a Michelin-rated chef working for Peru's restaurant, so maybe that explains it, but man was it awesome.  After a very long lunch, it was off to South Africa.

Josh and me with the South African World Cup team :)

Despite the fact that we had only one South African in our group, Tegan was able to use her passport to get us all in the VIP entrance, much to the continued chagrin of the embarrassed Americans.  South Africa's pavilion was quite well-done and Tegan was practically bursting with national pride, which was very cute.  South Africa was the first pavilion in a long row of buildings that represented different African countries, so we spent the next couple of hours traveling through Africa.  We were surprised to discover that Tegan's passport held some serious cachet not only in her home country, but pretty much all over her home continent.  We got treated really well nearly everywhere in Africa thanks to Tegan.  Angola in particular was awesome; they jumped us ahead of the 30-minute queue for the 4-D tourism movie and gave us a bunch of free souvenirs like hats and pins.

(l-r): Tunisia, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, with Croatia and Europe in the distance.
One of the best things about the Expo is the insane architecture of many pavilions.

For example. The Netherlands as a tulip.
(And grammatical mistakes, which is bizarre since all Dutch people speak English.)

Romania, looking suspiciously like EPCOT.

The UK. Lord only knows what this monstrosity is supposed to be.
(Supposedly a seed bank? Made no sense to us because the queue was too long to get inside.)

Luxembourg. I think it looks like a church out of Beetlejuice.

As is probably clear from the last several photos, our group spent the entire remainder of the day traveling around Europe.  Unsurprisingly, since many of the wealthiest countries in the world are in Europe, this area had some of the most innovative (read: batshit crazy) architecture and some of the longest lines.  We kept hearing great things about Russia and Italy but just couldn't bear the insanely long wait times.  It was interesting to see how some of the tiniest nations in the world, like Luxembourg and Monaco, liked to flaunt their wealth by erecting ostentatious pavilions that are probably almost as big as the countries themselves, while a few pretty big countries were relegated to tiny pavilions because they just couldn't afford anything else.

The paintings outside the French pavilion, which seemed to depict children with their faces melting off.
Inexplicable and disturbing.

Toward the end of the day, Phillip and Amy went home and the remaining three of us hit a few of the eastern European strip malls.  We had an unexpectedly pleasant experience in Montenegro of all places, I guess because it was 9.30 pm and pretty dead.  The extremely bored Montenegrin staff members started a conversation with us and the one girl got so excited to tell us about her country (it's the newest country in the world, only becoming independent from Serbia a couple years ago) that we couldn't help but stop and listen.  She was really sweet and ended up asking us if we wanted to have a beer with her.  We were confused because normally the tiny strip mall pavilions don't sell food and alcohol but we quickly realized her co-worker was getting their private, secret stash of Montenegrin beer from the back room and giving it to us for free.  They were such nice people that we hung out there for over 20 minutes, and I must say that now I'd really like to visit Montenegro.

After nearly 12 hours of walking around and seeing the sights, Josh and Tegan and I realized that we hadn't even seen Asia or the Pacific at all, so we decided that we had to come back for a second day.  The next morning we returned to the Expo even earlier in the hopes that we could hit Russia and Italy before the queues got too long and then finally head over to Asia.  Russia was kind of a letdown for me personally, mainly because I didn't see how anything on the interior had any connection to Russia but I suppose I see why the queues were so long.  The inside of the pavilion looked like it was designed by someone on acid.  It was a giant multi-story land that looked like a cross between Avatar and Willy Wonka, huge plastic mushrooms and plants and waterfalls everywhere and lots of video screens showing children in strange futuristic clothing.  It was utterly bizarre.

Russia's exterior, completely masking the madness within.

We went to Italy next, but since it was by far the best pavilion in the entire Expo, I am going to save it for last.  Italy was also unfortunately when my camera died and, try as I might, I couldn't find any batteries for sale in the Expo, so Day 2 is largely photo-less.  After Italy, we hopped on the shuttle bus to Asia.  Kazakhstan was the first pavilion we ran into, and the queue was about an hour long, but Josh surprised Tegan and me by revealing that it was his birthday and decided to try playing the birthday card as a means of jumping the queue.  He showed the Kazakh staff member his passport to prove it was his birthday, and the guy let us right through.  It was pretty awesome.  Kazakhstan was surprisingly cool, with a literal room made of ice and snow to represent the winter (such a relief from the heat and humidity outside) and a musical performance by some gorgeous lady at the end who I am still convinced must be a minor Kazakh pop star or something.

In another part of Asia, the pavilions for Iran and North Korea were literally right next to each other, which we of course thought was hilarious.  The North Korean pavilion was pure propaganda at its finest; it was in fact the very first Expo that North Korea has ever participated in.  All of the "tourism videos" were from the late 70's or early 80's and there was a sign that said "Paradise for People" above the TV screens.  Amusingly, this was the only thing I saw in any pavilion over the whole 2 days that was written only in English and not translated into Chinese.  I'd say this was the closest I'd ever get to North Korea but considering I live only 2 miles from the border and will finally be visiting the DMZ this weekend, I suppose that's not exactly true.

Perhaps because it was a Tuesday right before the holidays, many of the very large pavilions had shorter lines so Tegan, Josh and I were able to see some bigger countries like Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia without too much hassle.  Australia in particular had a freaking awesome show inside a round theater with huge rotating video screens and lights that is really hard to explain, but was definitely one of my favorite things at the Expo.  South Korea had an enormous pavilion with equally enormous lines, but the three of us were able to use our Alien Registration Cards and the explanation that we teach in Korea to get VIP access.  I had heard before coming to China that Korea had spent an absurd amount of money on the Expo this year, but I have to say I was pretty proud of what they put together.  It was a genuinely impressive and interesting pavilion.  It definitely did more to promote business investment here than many other countries did.

Showing off the Ferrari.

Finally, Italy.  This was something else.  Gigantic, classy, bright and open, it felt literally like a modern art museum.  They had a fancy expensive Italian restaurant and a legit Italian cafe with amazing espresso and tons of displays showing off the country's contributions to art, cars, fashion and music.  I guess Italy went all out since the next World Expo is being held in Milan in 2015 and they need to get people excited.  I have to admit, after seeing the Italian pavilion and spending an entire day later in the week hanging out with someone from Italy, I really wish I felt more of a connection to the country.  Other than my last name, no one, including myself, would ever think I have any roots in Italy, and honestly I think the same would go for my siblings and most of our cousins.  I understand that Dad was so young when the family emigrated to the US that he never really spoke the language like a native, but I don't believe that even our older aunts and uncles taught Italian to their kids.  Without the language and with no family back there to visit, it's sometimes hard to believe that we are all technically first-generation Americans, at least on one side.  It all makes me want to live in Italy someday, if just for a short while.

A full orchestra displayed sideways on one wall of the main atrium area.

The other 3 sides of the atrium:  1) A giant mural.

2)  The cathedral-esque escalator up to the cafe and restaurant.

3) Dozens of dresses and suits on display.

The running theme for our whole Expo experience was that we seemed to have a lot of great conversations with really interesting people.  After our conversations with Canadians and Montenegrins the day before, Day 2 found us talking to Australians, Kiwis, and Timorese people who had a lot to say about their time working at the Expo.  The thing that stood out the most was that every country hires its staff very differently and treats them very differently once they are on site.  Montenegro, for instance, makes its staff work 7 days a week with no days off, which I think would be a nightmare.  It definitely sounded like a competitive hiring process, though, no matter what the country.

By the end of Day 2, we had spent approximately 24 hours total at the Expo.  Based on the 46 stamps in my passport, we estimated that we saw the pavilions for about 60 countries, including the ones like Indonesia, Brazil, and most of Central America that didn't do stamps.  Considering there are over 190 countries, and we didn't even step foot in any theme or organization pavilions, we really saw just a fraction of the whole Expo.  I could easily spend a week in that place and still not see everything.  Still, we were proud that we were so smart about queue-jumping and visiting smaller pavilions so that we could see as much as possible.  My friend Jonathan went to the Expo on Saturday, a really busy day, and essentially did a walking tour just to look at the architecture but didn't step foot in a single pavilion.  That would have killed me and I'm very glad I got the experience that I did.

Overall, if I had to rate the pavilions, there were a few that definitely stand out in memory as the weakest:  Lebanon just seemed run-down and ghetto; Hungary was aesthetically quite good but had literally no point (if I had spent any amount of time queuing for that pavilion, I would have been livid); but the prize for most pathetic goes without question to Estonia, which had, I kid you not, a giant screen playing a video of church choirs singing to Michael Jackson and giant piggy banks scattered around on a bunch of steps.  What any of that had to do with Estonia, I have no idea.


The strongest pavilions, the ones that actually succeeded in making me want to visit their countries?  Angola.  Iceland, which played a movie on 4 walls that was just beautiful.  Slovenia.  Montenegro (solely because of the people, the pavilion itself was nothing special).  Indonesia.  Italy.  It was also really fun to learn about tiny nations like Brunei and San Marino that I really didn't know anything about before the Expo and wouldn't mind visiting in the future. 


Tegan and I had both heard nothing but complaints and negativity about the Expo, but in the end, I don't think I could have enjoyed it any more than I did.  But that shouldn't really come as a shock.  I really am an international studies geek at heart.