Bartending, Balloons, Basketball, and Bicycles

...That is how I would describe Lithuania - the 4 b's - after attending the 2010 World Expo :-)

^^Lithuania Pavilion (inside features included bartending competitions, beer, hot air balloons, Lithuanian basketball, and bicycle racing)

Rich, Ree and I decided that we wanted to go see the Expo yesterday and it was pretty spectacular. It costs $15 USD for a one-day student admission, so overall the day wasn't too expensive - although food was quite pricey. The event was HUGE, and there were probably hundreds of thousands of people there. It was like a small town, essentially, with a new country on every corner of every street. Being there was an incredible experience - we couldn't believe how intricately designed each country's pavilion was.

Here's how it works: Much like an amusement park, you walk around and there are restaurants and gift shops everywhere along with lots of different 'attractions.' Most of these attractions are pavilions of countries, and when you see one that interests you, you get in line. The Expo offers 'fast passes' to attendees who don't want to wait in line, but unfortunately they were all out of the fast passes when we got there. Some lines are small, some are massive...it all depends on how cool the pavilion looks and how popular the country is. Pavilions of the UK, Germany, Russia, USA, China, France, Italy, and Hong Kong seemed to be the most popular. The lines for those were probably over 3 hours long (needless to say, we were not interested). In China, waiting in line is much different than one might experience in the U.S...you're constantly on watch because if you're not paying attention, the person behind you will jump in front of you without thinking twice about it. When making a turn in a line, you have to take the inside route because if you leave any space open, crowds will storm through from behind you. I'd compare it to nascar racing. :-)

The pavilions that we were able to go inside of were: Peru, Monaco, Slovenia, South Africa, Chile, Poland, Mexico, Congo, Chad, Lithuania, Brasil, Ireland, and MeteoWorld. Some were kind of lame (i.e. Peru and Slovenia), while others were very cool (i.e. Monaco, Mexico, South Africa, MeteoWorld, and Poland).

^^The Monaco pavilion featured a movie of the country's history, a small replica town, a Formula One racing exhibit, and other bits and pieces of the country's most prized possessions.

^^Poland seemed to know exactly what to do to draw a crowd. They were performing Polish dances, songs, and mini plays outside of their pavilion all day long. People were eating it up.

^^ The South African pavilion had many exhibits on the 2010 World Cup (being held in S. Africa from June 11 - July 11, 2010), they were even doing a foosball tournament outside for people waiting in line.

^^ Ireland Pavilion: Ree and I (pictured above) turned the Irish pavilion into a pretty awesome adventure. Most pavilions had people from their country inside of them, stamping expo passports, taking pictures with expo attendees, and answering questions about the country. However, Ireland did not have anyone their doing these things. So we took it upon ourselves to represent our ancestors' homeland and we decided that we would be 'participants' of the "Student Exchange Ireland-Shanghai." We told visitors that we were from University College Cork and Trinity College in Ireland and that we were visiting Shanghai for the summer during the Expo. Chinese people love taking pictures - especially with foreigners - so we snapped some shots, answered some questions, and I even autographed two men's hats and a little girls t-shirt! After a while, an Expo security guard came up to us and we thought that was the end of our fun, but he just wanted to tell us that he was from Limerick, Ireland and that he was very excited to see us entertaining people at the Irish pavilion. We explained that our lack of an Irish accent was because we are originally from the U.S. but we go to college in Ireland :-) ...It was a great time.

Here are some pictures of other pavilions and things at the Expo...

^^Here's the pavilion for China - very impressive!

^^ This is "Haibao" (pronounced 'eye-bo'). He is the little blue face of the Shanghai World Expo. People loved buying stuffed Haibao dolls in the gift shops. He is all over the city of Shanghai right now :-)

<-- Here's "Zakumi," I guess he's the South African World Cup 2010 counterpart to Haibao :-) I'm sure he's plastered all over the cities of South Africa just like Haibao is around here.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to accomplish all that you want in just one day at the Expo, so we'll probably go back another time, just not today because yesterday wiped us out. I came back after about 9 hours at the Expo and went right to bed! I would like to take a day to go to the more popular pavilions, but I'll have to pick a day when I'm feeling patient enough to wait in super long lines =)

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PMM