Finishing off the orientation week with an amazing trip to Pulau Ubin, where we cycled across the island and probably disturbed some monkeys, the less nice part of my time here started: school. The first day of school was full of assemblies and we got to know our mentor classes. We start every school day with 20 to 40 minutes with mentor class, a class with the same people and the same mentor for the next two years. Our mentor helps us especially in the first weeks and is there to support us, so are our classmates. We do organisation stuff there and we have a buddy class in grade 4 that we meet twice a month. Tuesday to Thursday we had our normal classes, that meant that we got to know all our teachers and classmates, a majority of them are really supportive and very interested in our life in the boarding house. The life in the boarding house became more and more routine: wake up at 06:50, breakfast at 07:15, school from 08:00-03:00 pm, dinner at 06:00, study time from 07:00 to 08:30 and curfew at 10. I got used to the routine quite easily, although waking up early is always rather hard. We had some activities on the weekend, such as our trip to Chinatown which was very beautiful. We visited an old quarter of the town and went into a huge temple. School here is very different than at home. The most obvious difference is the school uniform that we wear every day, a white polo shirt and black pants. We only have around 4 classes a day that las 75 minutes. The relationship between teachers and students is completely different than in Germany since it is a lot closer. Usually, students at this school are allowed to call the teachers by their first names, sometimes the teachers introduce themselves with their first name. After every lesson when we exit the classroom the teacher and the students say thank you to each other, its little things like this that make it a different experience as a whole. We had some activities on the weekend, such as our trip to Chinatown which was very beautiful. We visited an old quarter of the town and went into a huge temple. I started to select my CAS activities, CAS is the program that we do besides school which is obligatory and part of the IB Diploma as a whole. CAS stands for creativity, activity and service, we have to be active in all of these three categories. I signed up for sports try puts which got me into the B squad of the girls' football teams. We already had one match, all in all, we will have around 9 matches in our first season. I signed up for clubs like Model United Nations, where we get put into different experience and knowledge levels and get trained to be better delegated. I’m now in the group of intermediate 2, the second “highest” before advanced. This allowed me to sign up for the MUN in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to which I will go in November. Initiative for Peace is a program that I joined as well, together we learn how to build peace, where conflicts come from and how to prevent them. IFP also has student-organized conferences, right now I’m planning an IFP conference in Cambodia with some other people that will happen around Chinese New Year at the end of February. I can also practise my passion for music here, I joined a community vocal group called Sonos and I started singing lessons with my new teacher. The most important part of the CAS program is the service part, we have to be part of a service for at least one year, we have the possibilities of college service, local service or global service, this is mostly linked to fundraising for organisations abroad. I am part of the “Empowering through music with the down syndrome association” service which focuses on making music and just having a good time with young people that are affected with the down syndrome. Until now we have only met with the organising teachers and other student but I’m looking forward to meeting the people at the down syndrome association. To somehow conclude the first weeks, live here is great! I am incredibly happy and found my place. My friendships in the boarding house are strengthening every day and I’m finding more and more friends in the day students. Slowly the academics are getting harder, but with the engagement of the teachers and other students, I am in a unique learning bubble that makes everything a little easier - especially Math High-level :)