Exposition of the World Exhibition

6/11

To me, the World Exposition is a romantic antique from a bygone era when men wore top hats and laid their jackets in puddles so women wouldn't dirty their petticoats.

I can't resist nostalgia that strong so today, I visited the Expo.  I met two people from my hostel who let me drag along with them for the day since I hadn't actually planned anything inside the Expo besides walking around.  They wanted to go to the city pavilions, which were interesting.  The best of these was London's, though Madrid's was also impressive (and had a great flamenco/ fake bull-fight show that was fun, lovely and funny).  Montreals was also surprisingly cool due to a video they played on a moving screen.  The screen was tilted at about 45* and was made of many (over 100) white blocks that formed a flat surface when all at the same level.  During the movie (about a garbage dump transformed into a park) the blocks rose or retracted differently in accordance to each part of the picture on screen, making the movie 3-D.  It was interesting, and something I've never seen before.

Later in the day, we wandered over to the Country Pavilions, which are the real exhibits, but had lines that lasted for hours so we chose carefully.  We all went into the Medina exhibit and I got a "passport stamp" on a piece of paper since I'll never actually get to go there.  Qatar had a surprisingly good pavilion, and it was really interesting to see North Korea's (which I also got a stamp for).  There were several that we visited, mostly any without a line at the entrance, but few were particularly interesting inside.

One of the people I was with wanted to see the talk that was supposed to be given by President Ahmadinejad of Iran.  It would've been interesting, but we discovered it was canceled.  I imagine this was somehow related to the fact that this morning the U.N. imposed nuclear sanctions against Iran.

Oh well.  We went over to the Danish pavilion, and it was the only one (of all the ones we saw) that was as interesting inside as outside.  This was due to the Little Mermaid, taken on her rock from her corn-blue waters to rest for a while in a small tank inside a white swirl of a building, like Shamu at SeaWorld.  The Danish are apparently quite pissed about having their national treasure borrowed (with the water actually taken from Copenhagen's harbor).  Anyway, it was really cool to see because, even though I'd seen her before, The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite stories, and it is a beautiful statue.

All of the other pavilions either sucked overall (like ours- it's obvious this is where they're really cutting the budget) or had great architecture and were really interesting from the outside but not very interesting inside (like Australia's, for example).  For whatever reasons, there just weren't many interactive exhibits and it was really disappointing.  I felt like I could've done a much better job on any of the interiors with just a few thousand.

That all said, just looking at the architecture was really interesting and most of the buildings were really incredible- it sucks that the large majority of them will be removed (torn down?) after the Expo.

I didn't get to go into the China Pavilion because the wait was over three hours at pretty much all times, and someone said that only the Chinese were allowed in (though I don't believe this part).  It was lovely from the outside though, a huge interpretation of tradition in a modern way.  It was a red inverted step pyramid, that I couldn't get a good picture of since my new camera is still giving me a bit of trouble.  The concert (convention, culture?) center they'd built was also really cool- it looked like an Apple designed flying saucer.

Looking back, I would've preferred to spend less time looking at the City Pavilions and more time just wandering around the outsides of the Country Pavilions since they were so interesting.  And I really would've liked to see China's.

Overall, the World Expo felt like an adult Disneyland with propaganda; lots of lines, sanitized, aesthetically pleasing, but when honestly assessed, there wasn't that much to do and it was not really that interesting.  Still, I'm glad I went- I know now, and it was an interesting experience mostly due to its novelty.

Before leaving the topic, I have to mention the mascot of the Expo which is a blue guy that is supposed to represent the Chinese word for people (人) but it really looks more like a bit of toothpaste turned into a cartoon character like you'd see at a dentists office.  I kept expecting to see one with "Make sure to brush and floss daily for healthy, pearly teeth!" written in a word bubble over its head but sadly, I never did.

I finally have a final, unchangeable return date- I'll be back in the U.S. (L.A.) on October 24.
It feels weird, but I can't figure out if it feels weird because it seems strange that I have that little time left, or if it feels weird because I'll be away for that long. I leave New Zealand at 6:30 p.m. on October 24th and get in at 10:15 a.m. on October 24th because I'm just that cool.