[Revisited] Shanghai World Expo 2010

During the summer of 2010, I was in Shanghai, China. I was there for a study abroad session. Before we went there, I and some of the other people in my trip were excited to visit the World Expo. I didn't really know what to expect, but I had learn about previous World Expos in a few of my classes. I'm blogging about the Shanghai World Expo 2010 because I didn't during 2010 about the World Expo and I would like to keep it as a memory that I can reflect back on. In addition, the Yeosu Expo of 2012 will be approaching soon and I can't wait to see how the pavilions would look like.

I guess another reason I chose to blog about the Shanghai Expo 2010 now is that I have the pictures in my computer, but I haven't really done anything with it. I would rather blog about it, than for it to not be shown. Otherwise, it would only be looked at when I decide to look back at the China albums for 2010.

Here is a view of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo while I was on a bus. I really did not expect the expo to be that huge.

This is only a picture of some of the tour buses that took people to the expo. There were more buses than this though. And, definitely more people, which was apparent due to the large number of buses.

Another view of the expo from inside a bus.

The thing about blogging about something that happened years ago is that I forget some of the things I saw or where it happened. In this case, I do not remember which pavilion I was in for this picture. However, I don't think I would have remembered months after the expo.

Another view of a pavilion I went in. Each pavilion has the opportunity to showcase something that they feel represents the country. There might be people from the country there representing by selling products or by wearing outfits.

I'm not sure which Pavilion this is since I cant read the characters.

The USA Pavilion was one of those pavilions that I just skipped by, but wanted to go inside!

I didn't get to go to a lot of the pavilions at the expo. Actually, it is physically impossible to go to all of them in one day. There are lines for the popular pavilions. There are a lot of people in China, as well as tourists. The expo is huge and you cannot walk the whole entire pavilion during the day. I would recommend sticking with at least 5-10 pavilions that you want to go. You might not even get through all of them, but at least you prepared yourself in getting to pavilions that you really wanted to see.

This was the China Pavilion. I didn't go in though. I heard the line was long for China's pavilion. I think it looks amazing.

Another pavilion, but I don't know the name of it.

I remember seeing this pavilion and though it looked great! Again, don't remember the name of the pavilion. It must be been really nice to been inside.

I would like to say that this is the pavilion for India. I think it looks great, but it seems incomplete. I think it could have been designed further.

Since the expo was so huge, the pavilions were divided up. The Latin American pavilions were next to each other. The North American pavilions were next to each other and so on. I ended up going to the side that had the Asian pavilions.

I really like the design the Kazakhstan. I didn't do in however, as you can see there was a line for the pavilion.

I thought this was a very beautiful sight. This was in one of the pavilions that I went to and don't remember which one it was.

I apologize for how blurry this picture was. I must have been walking or in a rush and took this picture real quick.

The Ukraine pavilion! It looks great.

Liechtenstein was one of the pavilions I ended up going inside. I don't think I have heard of this country before going.

I didn't go inside Egypt's pavilions. But, it seems very cool! And, there's a line, so it must have been nice inside!

While walking around the expo, we ended up in the African part of the expo. There was a performance going on at the African Square.

 What I noticed when looking at the different pavilions was how some were very well developed and designed, while others weren't. Many countries invested a lot in their pavilions, but I guess those countries had a lot of funding to do that. And, that they wanted a well designed pavilion.

I really like how Croatia's pavilion looks like. I thought it looked very nice. Too bad I couldn't go in more pavilions that day. I think I ended up going to 6-8 and most of them were just random ones that I wanted to check out.

Tunsia's pavilion. It has a very interesting look to it. It sort of reminds me of business, like a hotel.

Lithuania's pavilion looks very simple, but I like it. I like the colors.

This is the Russian Pavilion! I don't know why I kind of remembered that this was the Russian pavilion, despite it not seeing the name anywhere on the picture.

Oh, and there were ice creams trucks at the pavilion. I think that was great since it was very hot and humid, and the ice cream bars were good too!

Turkey's pavilion! This was another pavilion that I had to skip due to the shortage of time.

This is South Korea's pavilion. And, yes, North Korea and South Korea had their own separate pavilions that were not right next to each other. It was hard to forget this pavilion. It was very unique and I like the design of it.

Although I didn't get to go to most of the pavilions, I still enjoyed looking at the designs of the pavilions that I did get to see. I was impressed with a lot of the pavilions and did not expect to see such impressive infrastructures. The feeling of going through some of the pavilions almost felt like I was making a trip to that country itself. It felt that way because many others also wanted to go there and looked at what that country would look like and what they would have.

Picnic Day 2012

Yesterday was the 98th annual Picnic Day at UC Davis, #PicnicDay2012!!! Picnic Day is a pretty big event in Davis and many people come. Alumni, students, family, and many out of towners come to Davis during this day. People come for the drinking and partying. Others come to the Downtown Davis area for the food, alcohol, or shops, where businesses have the opportunity to reach maximum occupancy. There are people who come for the shows, exhibits, and other exciting events on campus.

I woke up pretty early in the morning to have a breakfast with my friend. For breakfast, we ended up eating at Crepeville. Today was very hot. I believed it was over 90 degrees for most of today.

While I was walking around Downtown Davis, I noticed #Kony2012 posters. I also noticed that the crowd was getting bigger.

People waiting for the parade in the stands and listened on for the commencement of Picnic Day's parade.

Some plants were given out and there was a line at the Plant Sciences Building.

The Band-Uh! was playing before the parade started and I think they were the openers for the parade.

I also recorded the Picnic Day parade. I didn't record the entire thing. I cut off some parts. It's about 24 minutes, which is pretty long. The parade is not all in order. I apologize about that. I choose an ending that I thought best represented the Davis campus.

Directories of the shows, exhibits, and food in some corners on campus for Picnic Day 2012. The theme for this year was "Then, Now, and Always." But, the directory was also available online in the Picnic Days website. Some of the events that happened today were optical lazer tag, milking of cows, derby race show, and many more. Like every other year, there were long lines for the magic show and some other popular shows.

After a few hours of Picnic Day in the morning, I decided to come back for the last few hours of the Battle of the Bands. Battle of the Bands is one the more popular events of Picnic Day and its one of the longest events. The Battle of the Bands was held in Lake Spafford in the Arboretum. 

For the Battle of the Bands, I believe there were 5 bands from across the state battling. It was very exciting because I got to see how other bands performed, as well as Band Uh!

UC Irvine's band were one of the bands that came and performed. I think Humboldt, and UC San Diego was also there. One other band also came, but I didn't find out where they were from. And, of course, Band uh! was there battling it out with other schools.

I think all the bands gave great performances and I definitely enjoyed them. Also, it was nice to just sit down and listen when the weather was cooler.

Next year, it will be the 99th Picnic Day! Then, the 100th! I will definitely try to make it to the 100th Picnic Day!

My Thoughts on Reading

So, when I was growing up I wasn't really encouraged to read. My household probably had less than 5 books. Among those books would be a dictionary, one school book, and some other kinds of books. However, I somehow grew to love reading without the encouragement and reading influence of my family.

I remember reading the Goosebumps when I was young and I really liked the series and it was popular during the 90s. I remember reading this book about how fairies were real and I really believed fairies were real. I remember reading Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. I remember ordering books from the scholastic catalog because the books were $0.99 or something like that. I like the The Rainbow Fish Book and thought it was beautiful and really wanted the book. Actually, I still want the book. Gosh, I guess I do remember a few reads from before high school and I think I can recite most of what happened in the books.

However, It wasn't until high school that I really gained a passion for reading. During my freshman year of high school, there was a reading contest. Each class year with the highest number of pages read would receive a pizza party. Since I love eating pizza and would enjoy the opportunity of having it for my class, I decided to read more and I did. I was not a part of the freshman honors English class. But, our freshman class did win the pizza party that year :). I didn't remember any reading contests after freshman year. However, my love of reading increased and I read more books in high school. The books I read were sometimes romance and other interesting reads. I think I have the list of just about every book I read during high school, which is in the process of being updated with my college book list. Oh, and one more thing. One time during my freshman English class, the teacher recognized me and another student as individuals were able to finish a book in a day or something like that. I got kind of happy when she said that.

So, here I am now in college. I'm required to do readings for just about every course. I have read books that professors have written. I've met a famous author, Sherman Alexie. I've also read many books or articles that were hard to comprehend, but it's part of the discussion process that helps us learn. I guess since I been to busy reading assigned texts that I haven't had the opportunity to read books that are of interest to me. I been skipping a lot of pictures in order to finish the reading faster, so I guess my interest in reading has changed. Lately, my goals have been to finish it or grasp a general understanding. While in high school, I really felt that I had to read every single word and page in order to understand everything.

Before Borders shut down permanently, I used up my Borders gift card and got some books. I got books that are pretty popular, Tales of Two Cities, Frankenstein, and others. I also won a book and was given one on my way to class, yet I haven't gotten to them. I hope I can find leisure time to enjoy reading of my own picks soon. Oh, and I have shelves of books at home now instead of the limited quantity I had when I was younger. And, I read most of the books I have now.