With 22 days of Expo remaining, we went to check out as many pavilions as possible.
It's an enormous site! I finished my Cambodian chicken skewers way before I reached the end of one building!
The China Pavilion is a masterpiece of architectural design. All of China's provinces are represented inside, plus a whole lot more that we did not see (but will after October).
One such province is Shaanxi, home of the terracotta warriors in Xian. Check out THIS warrior, 2 1/2 times its actual size! Haibao, the blue Expo mascot, reminds some people of Gumby, but with much better dance moves.
Having lived in Morocco, we had to visit the pavilion. Inside, it resembled a beautiful riad with displays of traditional clothing, silver, zellij tile, carved plaster ornamentation, and a recreated medina on the second floor with several souks, or specialty crafts, on display. We bypassed the long line by greeting one of the guards with our Moroccan Arabic greeting. We felt right at home inside and yearned to return for another walk through the Place Djemaa el Fna.
We also bypassed the long line at the Israel Pavilion because I met the architect, Haim Dotan, at a gallery opening a few weeks ago and he gave me his card. I invited him to speak at our school and he enthusiastically agreed.
This tough looking panda is outside a joint called, "Kung Fu Bing." I'm holding a free umbrella I got for buying an ice cream cone.
We couldn't leave without visiting our own country's pavilion. The characters below "USA" are "Mei Guo" (meaning beautiful country). We bypassed the long line by showing our passports.
At the Netherlands Pavilion, they were giving away fiberglass sheep! Not really. The sheep are scattered around and people sit on them and take pictures.
We also visited the Pavilion of Urban Planet, and the Papa John's Pizza Pavilion, which was actually just a restaurant with a delicious Hawaiian pizza.
By the way, the Expo's theme is, "Better City, Better Life." It is interesting to note that since its founding (c.1997), Papa John's slogan has been, "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza."
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