The 2nd Time Around

It's June 6, 2010 and it's time to go to the Expo again. This time, I went with an old friend of mine. I took he same routes as last time, but was by the security gates before 9 am. This meant we had to wait until 9 before the lines would actually move.

As I mentioned earlier, the Metro 13 stops are a little confusing. Even after knowing there's only two places you can go to, I still managed to confuse my friend, and instead of going to the planned the Puxi side, we found ourselves on the Pudong Side. Since we there early, we immediately saw open lines. Our first visit? The Malaysian Pavilion. Aside from the pretty decorations inside, what caught our eyes were the big massage chairs. The massages were free, and there was no line, so we each took a chair. Though the person originally said the chair massage would last for 30 min, my friend convinced him we only needed 15 min. Off the shoes went, and into the chairs. The person pressed a few buttons, and we soon became part of the Pavilion sightseeing line. As we sat there getting our backs, feet, and hands massaged, people continuously walked past us, starring, wondering what was going. If I had gone alone, I probably wouldn't have done the massage. Thank you friend.

My goal is to better understand the World Expo so I'm always looking for little things to write about. One thing I found interesting were the English translations in the bathrooms. No, it wasn't something worthy of posting on Engrish.com (?). What I found interesting was that I found different translations in different bathrooms. For instance, while one bathroom said the sink water was "not portable," another said "not drinkable." While this isn't something I'd usually find unusual with two different places, it is something that I think is weird for two bathrooms in the World Expo. Were the bathrooms built by different people? Another possibility is that they were built at different times. Maybe one was built first, and then the builders decided to change the English for the new bathrooms, they never changed the old ones. Evidence that the bathrooms are still being worked on (or just aren't completed) are the seat cover signs. In another set of bathrooms (Expo Day 3) all the stalls in the second bathrooms had seat cover signs, yet none actually had seat covers. Three bathrooms, all the same design, yet seemingly all at different stages of completion.

Speaking of construction, it is clear that for each day that goes by, the World Expo is discovering new things, and making new changes. On my first visit, you could have an unlimited number of passports to be stamped. You could also have almost anything stamped. During this second visit, rules were set up. Only the official passports could be stamped (no maps, etc.), and a limit was set for the number of passports you could asked to be stamped. That day, I also got a performance and events at the entrance. I didn't get one the first time. Are they new? Or was I just early this time?

China has these new trash/recycle can things located in the World Expo. They're supposedly connected to some underground tunnels. I had saw news about it on TV, and they made it seem like they would be everywhere at the Expo, but they were hard to find. One in particular, was hidden by plants. How is that a useful trash/recycle can? Those should be more in the open, not in the middle of plants.

One change I think the World Expo committee worked on, was the free 200 RMB cards they gave out to each household. It seemed like the first batch that went out, had problems. That's a lot of angry Chinese people.

It seems like the World Expo seems to make things convenient for you. Located all over the Expo are cellphone charging stations. You can also add money to your phone (I did!)

Maybe I had noticed before with other Pavilions. But the New Zealand made a mark in my mind by asking the question "What is a Better Life?" at the entrance. As I walked through, I looked at everything thinking, "Is the answer?" It was nice to see the pavilion follow the World Expo theme of "Better City, Better Life"

Another interesting pavilion I went to was the Urbanian Pavilion. I hadn't actually heard of it before, so I went in with no expectations. However, having now been there twice, it is one of my favorites. Though I like the designs, the questions, the different aspects of life in six different cities that they depict, I am probably biased toward it because Phoenix was one of the six cities. With each separate are we walked into (Home, Work, Health, etc.) I looked for a glimpse of my lifestyle back home. I know that place! I've been to that ice cream place! Do I now that school? What's that mountain called?

lmost every cellphone user is doing everything on their cellphones (aka internet, texting, music, etc.), I can't believe they couldn't send a quick message. Maybe I just wanted the cellphone charm, and they just didn't care. I also remember that at the US Pavilion that while the volunteers were almost rude at and irritated with the Chinese visitors, they seemed more polite and nice once they knew we were Americans. After finally leaving the US Pavilion, I later realized that I had forgotten to get a stamp. Yes, I had forgotten to get a stamp from my own home country.

That day, Al Gore also supposedly visited the US Pavilion. According to the numers online, there was also a weird spike in visitors in the aternoon. Could the two possibly be related? I have yet to see a spike like that again.