I don’t even know where to begin. My internet connection is pretty unstable which has caused me to write minimally about my intense experience thus far at the World Expo. Training has been draining, but I have managed to find time to go out every single night. Today is my first night staying in this week – due to the thunderbolts and lightning (very, very frightening to me!) even though the Philippines and Angola are holding parties in their pavilions. Today marks the HALFWAY point of the expo.
July 22 - On the first day, I was so happy to be reunited with Charlotte – my friend from Fudan study abroad. I had dinner at a Xin Jiang restaurant with a few people I had just met, including one of my suitemates. I was eager to go out, but many people were jetlagged, understandably.
July 23 - The next morning, I grabbed some breakfast with a new friend before we met up with others to visit the Expo grounds. At the expo, we visited Kazakhstan – which included a really cool 4D movie with moving chairs like at theme parks, an ice room – to imitate winters in their country, and some random games… it was all pretty entertaining in my opinion. We then visited the USA Pavilion to check out the offices, nothing as in depth as the training I will describe later. We then visited Egypt, which was a bit underwhelming… other than a few Egyptian statues and art, there wasn’t much to see or interact with.
Self-explanatory.
Inside Egypt.
Thereafter, Charlotte and I rushed to People’s Square to have my reunion with AMBER and LUCY, after ONE YEAR! We met at Raffles City for a sad one-hour before we had to head back for the Student Ambassador Pizza Party! It was funny to see how many people recognized me from Facebook. “Hey CASSIE CHAOS!” Oh Facebook. A few guys at my table were really eager to go out and explore Shanghai, so this we did! M2 first, followed by GPlus, 2 clubs where I got my dance on! I enjoy Shanghai nightlife, as it consists more of dancing around opposed to New York’s lounging and drinking.
Reunion!
Night out!
July 24 – The USA Pavilion had shorts, skirts, and pants tailored for us at the Fabric Market. Sadly, I have never gotten anything made in Shanghai’s fabric market, and the only thing I would probably get made is suits, like I did in Beijing. Anyway, it was all free of charge and I have to go pick them up this Sunday. Char and I walked around People’s Park in awe of how Shanghai has evolved over this past year, especially the number of blue sky days! For those in Shanghai, find the time to visit People’s Park. It’s absolutely gorgeous!
People's Park
We met up with Amber for our last night together and had some yummy Pho – as you know it’s my favorite. We walked past what was remaining of “小吃街”or “little food street” but all of it was boarded up or demolished, sigh- thanks a lot expo. After dinner, we went to Zapatas (one of many times to come) to hang out with some ambassadors. Overall, it was a very fun night before the draining of training.
July 25- Wake up at 6:30 AM to head to the USA Pavilion at 7AM…2 hours before the pavilion even opens! We took a tour for 3 hours…before we finally walked back to Expo Village, where many of us had some cheap family-style lunch. After lunch, we sat in a classroom for 5 hours for an orientation lecture. Draining much? I can’t even remember what I did this night.
July 26 – 8AM to 8PM: lecture training… important and EXTREMEMLY tiring, but still managed to go out to Zapatas for Alice’s 22nd birthday. Had an AMAZING night and really got to loosen people’s stiff sides. As I said, Zapatas – always fun. Met some USA Pavilion dancers who rocked the bar dancing!
July 27 – DAY OFF! Woke up at 1PM and introduced Alice to 麻辣汤 and she loved it! Can’t remember what else we did, but at night we visited Malta pavilion, but it wasn’t anything special – just a bar with outdoor seating. Nice for a “chill” night.
July 28 – My first day of on-site training! I was partnered with Josiah and a session 1 ambassador, both really outgoing individuals and I had an awesome time in operations. I even said a brief about myself in front of the Act I crowd in Chinese! However, my first on-site training day was pretty intense, as I had to send two people to First Aid, and help one woman find her child. Lost children seem to be a reoccurring theme at the pavilion and the expo grounds…which is kind of funny considering each family usually only has ONE child. In the afternoon, we had a very short training about VIP – nothing we hadn’t heard before.
Afterward we all boarded a bus to the US Consulate (which by the way is directly across from Bulldog…where I celebrated St. Patrick’s day and Cinco de Mayo last year…ruh roh!). After a discussion panel and an oath, the SAs made an a-line to the grill and quickly devoured the spread like locusts. I was estatic that dessert included green tea ice cream
At night, we went to our first pavilion PARTY at the Austrian pavilion. It was a first night out for many of the ambassadors, but I was entertained with the euro music playing in the background. Apparently I danced so crazily I made it onto the front page of the Expo Nights website – www.exponights.com woohoo! One of the session 1 ambassadors took us out to a club called Number 88, which is reputed as a “Chinese” club, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself! They played the best music I have heard in Shanghai thus far.
July 29 – DAY OFF! I woke up around noon and met up with some friends for 麻辣汤 again. We then proceeded to the fake market where I bought two MORE Longchamp bags and a couple DVDs. It began to rain while we traveled back to the village, keeping me indoors for the night. I think I’m going to put “Kick- Ass” on until I fall asleep.
Til next time! Love from Shanghai.
PS. Forgive me for my poor grammar structure and horrible English...it's been a long week and Chinese is taking over my brain.
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