September 6, Shenyang

What a great week! We had just enough time to settle in before starting our first week at HuZ. Mom said that the best way to orient ourselves is by living, and we already feel at home.

The good news is that the first week is Project Week. This was great as it helped me make friends with people who had been there for a while l guess it also helps other students get used to being back in the classroom after a long summer vacation.

For Project Week, we first met our homeroom teacher and classmates in our classroom. After got to know each other, we chose the project with support of our teacher. In the afternoon, we were put into groups of 5-6 students from different grades and classes and started our projects. Each group had a teacher to mentor and instruct. A group of teachers also walked around to provide extra support to the team mentor and students.

After the first day of Project Week, Maxi and I described it to Mom and Dad at dinner. Mom's first reaction was, "Oh, it sounds like how we work at the office." Dad congratulated us and said the school was pioneering in applying project-based learning. They encouraged us to take the initiative to ask questions – even though it's a new environment for us. They also told us to inspire and support team members, explore possible options, and use the knowledge we learned to find solutions. This is exactly what our mentors said!

Within a few days, I got to know my team members. Emma is from Munich as well. She is in Grade 11, and it is her third year in HuZ. She loves fencing and is on the fencing team. Laurence is from Regensburg. He will take Abitur here as he is in Grade 12. Ming is from Shenyang. She is a viola player from the international part of HuZ and is in Grade 10, the same as me. Her dream is to go to Europe to study and play in a European orchestra. Otto is half Chinese, half German. He is in Grade 11 and fluent in both languages. He loves film-making and is also good at math.

In our project team, Otto and I like to take a logical approach, while Ming has a lot of great ideas. It's a great team. Every single day when we got home, Mom asked, "Are you happy today?" We said, "Of course"!

On the closing day of Project Week, we had a team presentation. Each team has 15 minutes to present their outcomes from the week. Our team worked hard on Thursday to prepare all the materials, a video clip, and rehearse for the final presentation as we are one of the few "senior teams". When Dad and Mom showed up at the campus for the presentation, I was a bit nervous - after all, this was my debut at HuZ! Luckily, it went really well for every team.

A team from elementary school demonstrated their water-saving eco-system with solar energy, which impressed me. Our team showcased an energy reuse equipment idea in extreme cold climates, which used our accurately calculated efficiency formula. The whole session was full of ideas. l am now less concerned that being out of Germany could put me behind my classmates in Munich.

September 6, Shenyang

I have never been at the same school as Lara before, and it was good to go with her every day. Even though she is in secondary school and I am in elementary.

Thanks to Project Week, I have made new friends already. Nicolas and Oliver were two people in my project team. Nicolas is in Grade 3, and he also loves singing. He told me a lot about the choir. They actually went to the TV station and recorded several songs last Xmas. I hope I can sing on TV this Xmas! Oliver is in Grade 1 and has a younger sister in Mary's Oasis kindergarten. Oliver lives in our neighborhood, so we can play football together on weekends.

The teachers here are very nice. They give extra support to new students. Nicolas said it's a tradition for the school to take care of us as we need time to get used to our new environment, especially in elementary. He also told me that the school had a new program called "Encounter Germany" this year. This means additional events for cross-culture activities. That sounds fun. I am glad that I got to know the teachers before regular classroom lessons begin. I feel comfortable asking questions now.

I was hoping that I would have a chance to use my craft skills here in China, and this week was a great opportunity. Because of my love of Lego, I took on the mechanical tasks in my team and completed them really quickly. The whole week was a great way to make new friends and get used to HuZ. Lara and I couldn't agree more on this.

The opening ceremony of the school year was a new experience for me. It began with students singing and performing the school songs stating our passion for learning and growing. The music activity, designed for elementary students, gave us a chance to showcase our creativity and inspiration. The stone painting part added even more flavor. I couldn't stop saying "aha" and "wow" over all the details the teachers prepared. At the end of the ritual, we each got a special opening gift – a mascot lion book clip. It's so cute!