Alveoli mentions being there for a month. That's really too short to enroll in say a BLCU course. I'm thinking of being there for 3-4 weeks this year too... been mulling about maybe hiring a private tutor to have daily chats with. The other time will probably be spent dao4chu4 zou3zou3, hopefully not getting lost. The idea is to force me to use Mandarin in everyday situations. I also might take a train to Shanghai and spend some time there. It's sort of a variation on what Benny the Irishpolyglot is doing in Taipei right now.