我非努力学习不可

(wo fei nuli xuexi bu ke--i must study very diligently)

my textbook, practice notebook, and some of the flashcards I am studying and will study this semester

Today I started my second week back to classes. It feels like I have been back in classes for months when its only been one week. I am pretty excited about the semester and have already learned so much within the first week. This semester is definitely going to be much more challenging which I am very excited about.

All of us Americans in my organization usually have all of our classes together. However, this semester one of my other classmates and I are taking classes in a different department, the "Chinese department." We both came in with more Chinese than our other classmates and have been doing writing (characters) so we are taking classes with other foreigners this semester. It is sad to not be in class with our other American friends but also exciting because we can meet other foreigners and it will be more of a challenge.

I have enjoyed our class so far. Our teacher is very ambitious and has very high expectations of us. On the first day she explained what "preview" and "review" meant-in her view. It means no playing at night, no resting in the afternoon, nothing but study!! I am excited though-I work best when challenged. Last semester I only had to learn a few new words a week to be prepared for class each week. It is definitely going to be an adjustment as each lesson we have has 40+ new vocab plus many words in the lesson text and homework I don't yet know. I am also trying to keep up with learning how to write (and remember) all the new words I am learning (this entails me writing them all many times and using flashcards). Thankfully I have a great tutor who has been helping me a lot in understanding meanings and the usage of my new words and grammar patterns.