June 3, 2010

Yesterday, I went to the上海2010年世博会. My parents and I left my aunt’s house at 7 in the morning to take the subway over, but when we got there, there were already hordes of people running through the lines, trying to gain a spot above even one more person.  I was going to sit on the ground if I got tired, but almost every Chinese person around me had brought a little fold-up stool and a bag of cucumbers, tomatoes, jiaozis, and other snacks. 

Once the doors opened at 9am, people pushed forward in a wave to hurry through security and get to the first pavilions.  Even though we were that early, the reserved tickets for the China pavilion were already taken by the people who ran in front of us.  Instead, we took the ferry over to the Pudong side of the Expo to the country pavilions.  There, we went into Spain and saw flamenco and the giant baby, Luxembourg and saw their outdoor gardens, Lithuania and met a delegation of college students, Africa and went into many pavilions, Venezuela and sat on hammocks, Cuba and drank mojitos, Canada and saw magical water and a picture movie, and the Central and South America Pavilion.  The foreigners working the Expo were so friendly – I talked with the Lithuanian students, a Canadian pavilion architect/designer, and the Cuban bartender.  Getting around the Expo was pretty confusing at times, but there were helpful 小白菜 volunteers, who wore signature green and white clothes for the nickname, college students there to answer any questions with a smile on their face. 

At night, we went back to Puxi to see the Sao Paulo City Ballet perform in the综和艺术大厅.  Watching a ballet in China was very different.  There was a low murmur of voices throughout the show, even during dances in silence.  The two hour line to get in was worth it; the ballet was absolutely incredible. 

I always thought that I look pretty Chinese, being 100% Chinese, but according to many people I met, I am either half-American or African (I’m pretty tan).  Must be something in the American water.  I love confusing people though – they rarely meet someone like me who looks Chinese and foreign and who speaks fluent Shanghainese but broken Mandarin.