Cici, I teased her, you are talking with your friends and not doing your homework.  No Papa, she said.  She is studying for an English test and didn't know the word so she sent me an instant message.  I told her the English word.  Is this one of your former classmates in China? I asked.  Yes.  So you are an English tutor now?  I don't think that thought had occurred to her, but that is exactly what she is doing for her friends.  And sometimes for her Mama, although Ping is also studying hard for her ESL classes each week now.

I thought it was odd that we hadn't heard from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts so I called them today.  I already sent you a notice about Angela's audition, the admissions director told me.  It turned out that she misspelled my last name in her email so I didn't receive it.  Well, Angela's audition is on Saturday afternoon, she told me.  Do you think she needs more time to get ready?  She asked me.  I didn't wait to ask Cici; I made the call for her.  The audition was moved to February 6.

Now I have misgivings about whether we are doing the right thing, though it may never be an issue.  They may have too many flute players already.  Cici may not be good enough to get in even if they have room for one more junior.  So if she isn't invited to attend, we won't have to make that difficult decision about whether she should move or not.  She is doing so well at her current school, and she is held in such high regard by her teachers and the administrators that the idea of her having to start over bothers me.

I think the band director at her school has learned that Cici will audition at the other school because he did something he has never done before.  He sent three emails to her today, copying Ping and me, praising Cici for her performance on three pieces of music.  The lady at the other school asked me today how good Cici is with the flute.  Has she had lessons other than playing in the band?  I told her yes, but I didn't tell her that in China they advance through levels from 1-10.  Cici was at level 8 when she left China.  But will that play in Peoria?  I wonder.

Well I was wrong about Cici's grade point average for the semester.  We got her report card yesterday and it wasn't a 4.0 after all; it was 4.31.  The final exam grades were amazing.  In her three honors classes, she scored 105 in algebra II, 100 in geometry, and 93 in chemistry.  Now I am thinking that English and History honors might have been a good idea, but I hate to push it.