Since the lines were extremely long at Expo, we wound up going to a lot of small country's pavilions, which were rewarding in different ways. (For example, I now find myself saying the phase "Brunei Darussalam" repeatedly to myself. Not only does it sound oddly reassuring, but I also now know where the country is...)
Of course, my visits to pavilions of rinky-dink countries wouldn't be complete without a stop by Samoa - the island nation in the middle of the Pacific where my brother was stationed in the Peace Corps for a couple of years, met my now sister-in-law, and bought lots of hardwood handicrafts. All of the Pacific Island nations were housed in a large machine-shed type building kinda near New Zealand.
The highlight? Getting your passport stamped, of course. That's what the people in the picture above are lined up to do. One side pastime of Expo attendees was collecting stamps in mock passports, and the lightly attended booths of the smaller countries of the world were often swamped with kids (and adults!) trying to get as many stamps as quickly as possible. Ah, culture...
Another advantage of the smaller countries' pavilions was that the staff were often quite approachable. For example, here's Alexandre at the Malta pavilion, giving his best "foreign performing monkey" face for the camera.
And did you know that the island of Malta is the home of Playmobil toys? Didn't think so.
Island countries rock!
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