Rachael had earlier expressed frustration that she was not learning Chinese fast enough because she was with her American students too much, and her Chinese counterparts not enough. Here’s Caren’s advice:

Hi Rachy,

I thought about your situation and here’s an idea. You could take  
Chinese 2 and have a private tutor 2.5 hours a day for a couple of
months instead of the media class so that you catch up with the  
Chinese 2 class.  You could keep the private tutor through December  
to help you make  as much progress as possible, work on your  
conversation and ensure you get a good grade. You might also want to  
consider doing the immersion program  in January and doing a homestay  
with a family.  You could try to meet them first.  Then you would  
integrate into the community.  The other idea is to stay in an all  
Chinese dorm after Dec when hopefully your Chinese will be good  
enough to talk and make Chinese friends. that would be cool meeting the  
Chinese College kids.

Dana was home sick today. He worked on a history paper and I finished  
our taxes.  How sweet.  He has a cold and Water Polo practice  
tomorrow, and a  big game Friday….poor baby.  He really wants to  
ichat you.  Thursday night after Formal dinner he will be home if you  
could try then.  It would be after 11:00Am your time Friday AM

You have to check out

 Go to Rachael  and  
click on the pictures and the little movie at the bottom, it is so  
cute.  Also check out Dana’s.  it will make you smile.  Missing you  
and loving you.

MOMMA

XXOOO