Yesturday was the last day of our jam packed 20 hour days. We woke up at 6:30 to be sure we were at the world expo with a good spot in line. They open the doors to the expo at 9 and by the time we got there, there were probably a few thousand people already waiting in line at the 1 of 8 gates we went to. Needless to say our good spot in line was really a mediocre spot, but there were still many thousand more people coming in behind us. On average the world expo has 300,000 people a day in attendance and has been open from April to December, which is kind of ridiculous for an event that I hadn’t even heard about until Max told me we were going.
So in order to beat the crowds we mapped out a plan. The typical wait for some of the main pavilions like Saudi Arabia and China are around 10 hours. So we decided to sprint from the main gate to the Saudi pavilion without concern for trampling old ladies or babies. Then because Max’s friend was meeting us with VIP passes to the China pavilion we were going to do that one at 1pm without having to wait in line at all. Then the rest of the day we could just chill and go to the smaller pavilions that didn’t have lines at all like Jordon, New Zealand, Algeria, places like that. Flawless right? We had the best plan to get the most out of our day. Well that was all well and dandy until even with trampling old ladies and babies we still had a 6 hour wait to see Saudi. So we missed our appointment with China and had to just spend the rest of the day avoiding lines.
The truth of the day though was not that Saudi was the coolest pavilion we saw. It may have had the longest wait by 5 hours and 50 minutes, but Gordon’s favorite was by far the New Zealand pavilion. Now the Saudi one had a really cool I-max show while we stand on a moving sidewalk, but the 6 hour wait was not quite worth the 10 minute walk up a spiral staircase.
With a little disappointment for having wasted the first half of our day, the rest of the day completely made up. After Saudi, Max went to meet his friends and Gordon, George, and I went off to do some little ones. Max and his friends wanted to see China, and we were going to do anything but wait in another line. So we split up to meet back at the entrance later that night before we were going to leave and see one of Gordon’s Dad’s students perform at a Jazz club near by. When we went off we actually walked all the way around the whole expo seeing just about every country represented. This was pretty awesome because in my opinion you get to see the best part of every pavilion without waiting in line, the architecture. Some of the pavilions had cool stuff inside, but the best part was the crazy designs of the buildings. The expo itself was massive, and the buildings were not giant sky scrapers, but they were really cool examples of some of the best modern architecture in the world. What happens is each country has about 2 years to build a cool building to show off their country however they can. The event used to be the worlds fair meant for trading goods, but now it’s just a way to publicize your culture and show off your countries swagger.
We walked around the rest of the day making sure we saw all the major world powers pavilions at least from the outside and made a stop at the USA pavilion. As we were walking by there was a black guy with a cello warming up on stage. My first thoughts were “oh shit this is going to be embarrassing, we are trying to show off as a world power to the Chinese by playing cello in front of them, who have Yo Yo Ma. What the hell are we thinking,” But as they guy went on and began to play some classical songs he went on to play some poppy American songs and then the real unique thing was when he started beat boxing. Yes, he was a beat boxing cellist who was trained classically. Then this guy with a bandanna and dred locks jumps on stage and starts reciting poetry. Being the only three Americans in the crowd we spoke up and showed our obnoxious American roots, asking where the guys were from. The cellist was from Kentucky, a student at Yale, and has been living in China for the past year studying abroad. The other guy who turned out to be a rapper was from New Jersey and has been living in Beijing since he graduated college and couldn’t find a job. We sat around for the show and it was actually really cool.
When the show was over though it was time to meet back up with Max and head out to Gordon’s Dad’s student’s concert. We showered quickly at the hotel and caught the subway to get to the show. We hadn’t taken the subway yet in Shanghai, but it cant be much different than any other subway. Well this particular experience was worth mentioning because our hotel is right next to the expo, so kind of on the edge of Shanghai. So when we went to get on the subway, there was no one already on the subway. We were the first people in line and our eyes light up as if we were going to get a seat on the subway. The doors open and we quickly walk on, only to be almost knocked off our feet by these little Pokémon looking kids that bumble rushed the subway like it was the end of the world and this was the last train to the moon. Seats were filled before we could blink and I’m sad to say that we although already halfway sitting, we lost the game of musical chairs. So when we got off at our stop there were many more people on the subway at that point and the line for the escalator was to the point that it would be faster to take the stairs. Now Max, Gordon, George, and Max’s friends that were with us, decided to just wait and take the escalator, but I saw those little punk kids getting ready to race up the stairs. I thought to myself, “These little Chinese boogers can’t really be as swift and fast as they proved at the opening of the doors.” So I tightened the dock siders and tapped into my Usane Bolt mentality for the race of the century. Now I’m gonna let you know right now the little shits got a head start so it wasn’t a very fair race and I feel a little betrayed by the system itself, but they did get the best of me that time. I cant say it was my best performance, but I was floating up the stairs as light on my feet as Muhammad Ali and with the escalator crowd cheering me on I felt a lot like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky when I reached the top. I think a rematch is in order, so dad lets go ahead and order the plane ticket back, just give me like a month or two of training and I’m going to stomp those little kids into those stairs right there.
When we made it to the club Gordon’s Dad’s student, Alec Haavak, had reserved us a VIP table upstairs. We all were starving so we ordered some food and nice wine. The club itself was really nice. It was dark with a crisp jazz ambiance filling the room. Downstairs was a bar and some tables with chairs and the upstairs had a small railing with a balcony looking over the stage. All around the balcony were these U-shaped red suade couches which normally require a 500RMB balance minimum. The show itself was awesome and the scene was really cool. Alec came out and played a first set from about 10:30 to 11:30 before he came up and sat with us to talk. He was really nice and it was cool to here him talk to Gordon about Mr. Bowen and big time jazz business.
We were really tired from walking around all day so when we finished the bottle of wine around 12, we decided to head out back to the hotel to call it a night. Completely pooped I pretty much crashed instantly when my head hit the pillow.
Marty
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