Interactions with David:

This is the e-mail I sent David Monday:

David,
My name is Ben Wertz. I am a student of Cara Cassel, and am studying
Russian independently to earn a final foreign language credit. So far
my studies have been limited to a number of free teaching sites and
audio lessons.
Since I only have a semester to pursue the Russian language I've
limited myself to verbal Russian and more narrowly to the language
necessary to greet a server and then order food in a restaurant.
Since I cannot pay you I assure you that your part in my studies will
be as unobtrusive to you as possible. I do feel that I would benefit
greatly from having a native speaker critique my pronunciations from
time to time and make sure that I have not learned a manner of
speaking that is either too formal or too informal.
Please reply when you get this so we can set up a time later in the
week to have a fifteen or twenty minute conversation, nothing major.
Just a short conversation to see how my basic greetings are.

I look forward to your reply,

--Ben

And heres the reply I got back on today (Tuesday):

Hi Ben, Cara told me about you and your problem , I am willing to help as much as I can . Feel free to call me at Cell ***-***-**** or Home ***-***-****
Thanks David

I am going to send him another e-mail telling him I plan on calling on Thursday around 1:30. I'm probably building this up more than I should but I would really like to be prepared for my first tutoring session, such as it is. This is as far as I'd like to put it off so I can have time to study what he told me on Friday and over the break. I have no doubts that my studies will decrease over the break but I will still do my best to squeeze some sessions in.