On Tuesday evening, our FLHSMUN group experienced a Shanghainese acrobat show, after another day of shadowing CISS students, and exploring the local shopping options!
This post is written by Junior, Bianca Chamberlin!
Hey everyone! Bianca here.
Today (Tuesday, 1.15), we got to explore a Chinese grocery store (aka heaven). This story had SO many options and interesting items as well. It was called Carrefour and was about a mile walk away from CISS. We've been to this grocery store a few times. The lower level has some smaller shops and a large good court, where we've eaten shaolongbao (soup dumplings, traditional to Shanghai), and bought boba milk teas. 
The upper level is the supermarket. It was full of Chinese New Year decorations, in preparation for the upcoming New Year in early February.
I remember being overwhelmed with the size of the grocery store. They had so many different sweets and snacks which is what caught my eyes, especially the matcha chocolate bars. Many of the sweets and snacks were brands that we have in the US (Dove, Doritos, Lays, etc.), but the flavor profiles are completely different! We tried and saw things like Cucumber flavored Doritos, or passion fruit flavored chocolate, etc. We bought souvenirs, snacks, and lots of other things before heading back to school.
On Tuesday evening, we met our tour guide, Jack, who drove with us to downtown Shanghai, to the Shanghai Circus. We went and saw an acrobat show which was such a cool and unique experience. 
The show took place in a theater setting, and it played super cool and mysterious music to anticipate each upcoming acrobatic performance. 
The show was filled with a variety of performers who did many different things such as: juggling, hula hooping, vase throwing and balancing, dancing, bowl spinning, magic acts, gymnastics, and much more. 
While some of these acts sound like regular things we've maybe seen before, they were given a whole new meaning to us as we watched them play out on the stage, and left the audience on the edge of their seats.
What an incredible experience!
Today we are thankful for:
-new cultural experiences such as exploring a local supermarket
-Chinese chocolate!
-the CISS students that have allowed us to shadow the past 2 days
-our host families who are willing to pick us up late at night after our events are over, and drop us off early in the morning to make sure we can stick to our busy schedule
-the chance to experience new goods such as shaolongbao (soup dumplings) while at the same time encountering American brands to remind us of home!