Shanghai 2010: Part Two

Finally some free time! Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow, so I've got about five days to do nothing. Phew. So back to where I left off; at the World Expo in Shanghai, just had lunch on the rooftop of the French Pavilion.
Food was great and the building was really nice from outside, but the inside left a lot to be desired.
Random centrepieces and sculptures in every room, with famous photos and paintings along the walls. Honestly it's nothing that you can't see online.
Tourists were pretty funny though.

Yeaaaah quite a fail.
Whoop-dee-doo, went all the way to China and (could have) queued up for three hours to see Louis Vuitton bags!
They even dressed up some crazy lady to stand around and waggle her arms around, which was somehow supposed to promote LV. I don't get it.

Main point: It's a huge waste of time to line up and enter the pavilions.

The Malaysian Pavilion actually had a queue! Whoaaaa.

See the little 1Malaysia up there -_-

No idea what this is supposed to be.

Sweet, another China sign!

Are those.. crocs?!?

Did I mention how freaking hot it was at the Expo?

Thiiiiiis hot.

And another China stereotype: People sleep in random places everywhere.

So France was a fail. We decided to try one more pavilion; the only other pavilion where you could cut the queue by ordering food. Belgium!
Here we are drinking some nice Belgian beer and cider. Had some wonderful Belgian fries too. Fun fact: fries were invented in Belgium; they make the best fries in the world, they're double-fried and served with mayo.

At least we didn't have to buy overpriced meals to get in, just overpriced beers and fries. Here's the entrance from the restaurant:

So the Belgium pavilion was about the few things Belgium's famous for:

1. Diamonds and Jewellery

Gold tennis racquet anyone?

Sad jeweler working in a fishbowl. Poor guy would work on a diamond for a few minutes, hold it up for everyone to see, then work on it some more. All. Day. Long.

2. Chocolates

3. Smurfs (?!?!??)

Creepy damn things

4. Tintin! :D I have fond memories of reading lots of these as a kid.

Not like this

Yeah the Belgian pavilion was much better than the French one, though still not worth a 3-hour line.

Here's the outside of the Spanish one, made entirely out of wood or rattan or some other flammable thing.
4-hour queue, didn't bother.

Here's an awesome bridge connecting the two halves of Shanghai, Pudong and Puxi.
The colours were constantly changing and moving along the length of the bridge; it went full rainbow every now and then, pretty cool!

Another pavilion, Latvia.
Their performance included dudes getting floated around the top of the building by some massive fans somewhere inside.
Quite freaky to watch. Those things are just tubes that flap around in the wind, like the ones you see next to auto-showrooms.

Final expo picture of the night:
Fail, I say.

Okay, done for today! Check back soon for another update! (Riiight.)

Fun pics of the day:

Way too true

Dawwwwwww

You're a horrible, horrible person.

D-Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow:

Physics Prelim.

Spanish essay.

Spanish presentation.

Spanish literature analysis.

After tomorrow:

(Almost) Nothing. Not even frisbee because season's over and it's cold.

SURVIVE A DAY then blog.