Rebecca A. Foster

'Choggles' is a combination of two words, 'China' and 'goggles.' Choggles are similar in function to beer goggles, but with a broader spectrum. For example, you buy some cookies. Are they good cookies, your friend asks you? They're choggle good, you say, meaning, not good if you're in America and have access to Mrs. Fields, but good when you're in China and desserts are commonly sweetened with red beans. What you mean is, these have a little sugar in them, not beans, and are somewhat edible. Choggles make it difficult to remember what you like and don't like. You wonder, do I like this because it's good, or because I'm wearing choggles? Is The Hangover actually this funny, or do I just miss Western irony and sarcasm so much, I'm willing to laugh at even the weakest examples of it? Is that guy actually hot, or is he just a lot taller than me and therefore I can't take my eyes off of him? And so on. How long does it take choggle...

This video clip is from a movie called  Sophie's Revenge . (Original Chinese name, Fei Chang Wan Mei « 非常完美».) There's a scene where the lead girl and guy are eating dinner together, and it struck me as an excellent example of eating culture in China, so I want to share it with you. It's a short clip, about 1 minute long. Ignore the dialogue, it's not important. A few things I want to point out: 1. Notice how he puts food into her bowl? It's very polite to do this for someone. I do it now, too. 2. Chopsticks should be held high up on the stick. I often now see American shows where I think people are holding the chopsticks in a really weird way. No wonder the Chinese think we don't know how to use them! 3. Almost all food is eaten out of a small bowl like this. You fill it with rice, then just keep adding food on top and eat down the rice until it's gone. No big plates or bowls (unless it's a big bowl of noodles). 4. The pick up the bowls and hold...

Here in China, all foreigners must register with the local police within 24 or 72 hours of your arrival. Usually tourists are staying in a hotel approved for housing foreigners. (Hotels must be approved for foreign guests by the government and there will be a sign in the lobby displaying their approved status.) The hotel takes care of registering with the local police for you. When you check in, they'll make a copy of your passport/visa and fill out a form that has your passport info, the number of days you are staying, the city you came from and the city you are going to next. Sometimes you sign, sometimes not, but they give it to the local police. If you are staying with friends, you must go to the police station yourself to register. If I have a friend who comes to visit me for more than 24 hours from another city, I'm supposed to let my school know so they can register my guest with the local police. Foreigners are also required to carry their passport with them at all ti...

(I found internet access so I can post by email, but sorry, I can't see anyone else's blogs or make comments. I will have a lot of catching up to do!) My week of training is going very well so far. I spend half the day in Chinese class, and the other half listening to guest speakers and completing activities. So far we have had the NPR Beijing correspondent come speak to us (really interesting!) and now we have reps from the State Department who specialize in education here doing some training with us. It's like being back in grad school, and I am eating it up. And we are all here in a hotel together, so there are lots of fun times eating and playing together after the work is done. Overall, a great way to spend the week! I complained before about Spiderman Syndrome, so I feel I should also share this small anecdote: V. and I were watching C rouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earlier this week in his hotel room. Near the end of the movie, he got up and put a little travel pa...

Yesterday there was another eclipse here; I had no idea it would be happening, so it was quite random to look up in the sky and see the moon partially blocking out the sun. R. and I were on the bus going to meet up with folks for dinner, and I noticed people along the side of the road taking cell phone pics of the sky. I thought maybe a new building had been lit up or something. Then we happened to pass empty air space and see it, briefly, mostly obscured by smog of course. It was pretty neat, and pretty random. But too many buildings and too much smog, so no pics this time. It didn't get fully dark or cold like the full eclipse last summer, though, which is still one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. I thought you might like to see one of the Chinese dishes I make here for myself. This dish is chicken, tiger prawns (which are like a cross between a green pepper and a jalepeno and I love them), green onions, garlic, Sichuan-pepper infused oil, french-fry cut potatoes ...

This is difficult for me to write. (My dad, before he died, was very open to sharing with others the lessons he learned from having cancer. He wanted people to not to feel alone. He was also a very good listener, and encouraged people to share with him things they didn't feel anyone else would understand. I'm trying to follow his example.) Anxiety is a problem for me. From stories my mom told me about my childhood, it's something I've probably always had. I've struggled with it as long as I can remember, but I thought everyone did. Some things that cause anxiety are easily forgotten. Anxiety sometimes resulted in achievement, due to panic, so I haven't always recognized it as a problem. Some things that cause anxiety are long-term, and not easily forgotten. In the past, I've dealt with anxiety through medicine and self-medicating, not by addressing the anxiety itself. I don't think this is uncommon. Just prior to arriving in China, I had an exp...

I'm getting to that point in my service where people are asking me what I'm going to do when I get home. For those that don't know, before coming into Peace Corps, I had a real life adult business job, a real life adult apartment full of real-life furniture, a car, etc. I still have the car, and the furniture (thanks mom for your storage help!), so it's time to decide about the job. (I've done my Masters but at least at this time, I'm not going to do a PhD. Maybe in a few years, we'll see.) My goal is to be an ESL teacher, either corporate or government. I've narrowed down the cities where I'll be job-searching, and I have thrown NYC into the ring. I always thought if I moved to NYC I'd live in Washington Heights, but I really do want to live in a Chinese community. So, in the near future, I'll be making a trip back to NYC for a tour around Flushing, Queens. I've never been there, and I have no idea what it's like. I just know a lot...

Two stories: R. went to Beijing last week with some visiting American family and friends. They were on a bus going to the Great Wall, discussing China, Chinese culture etc. They were also jockeying for new seats and started talking about an empty seat next to a Chinese guy sitting in front of them. R. to her sister, in English: "Do you think that seat is available?" Chinese guy, in English: "Yeah, this seat is available." R., in her head: "Oh crap, he just understood everything we've been saying about China!" R., to the Chinese guy, in English: "Your English is really good! Which [Chinese] province are you from?" Chinese guy: "Ontario." Hahahaha, this still makes me laugh! And it reminded me of the time last year when N. and I were checking into our hotel room and having trouble with the card key. These two kids, and their mom, were opening the door to their hotel room across the hall at the same time we were struggling. T...

Today I learned* that the movie He's Just Not That Into You is translated into Chinese as  In Fact, You Don't Know His Heart ( 其实你不懂他的心) . And really, that's just so accurate, isn't it?   *I decided my Chinese textbooks were super boring and unmotivating, so now I study by reading popular culture magazines. It's slow-going, but I'm learning a lot.

Final exams are over!  Hoo-freaking-ray! But I did chuckle a few times at some of the things they came up with on their final English exams. A few examples from my Tourism major students, about Mardi Gras: “Mardi Gras is the Oily Tuesday” (I love how her language processing center made the connection from ‘Fat’ to ‘Oily’) “In Mardi Gras day, children always go to other’s house to get sweets, and say ‘trick or treat.’ It is celebrated on December 31st.” “It is celebrated during the month which is before the Christomary.” “Mardi Gras is have one die but no one sad.” “Mardi Gras is the people who don’t eat meat.” And my personal favorite: “Mardi Gras is paradise in the street.” A few things they said about differences between Western and Chinese eating customs: “In America, you can drink too much wine at diner, but in China, you can drink as much as you want.” (I’m not sure where she got this idea, but probably from a tv show or movie where someone says, “I drank too...

The tour guide who led me around JinSha Relic Site gave me a mic to wear so we could keep in touch while I checked things out close up. Related: I think he had been trained how to conduct tours for Westerners because he stood really far away from me at all times. I couldn't figure out if he were standing unnaturally far away, or if I have just become so accustomed to having no personal space it seemed super far away but was actually normal Western spacing. I think this means I'm totally going to embarrass myself in America by standing 6 inches from someone in line at Target.* But I digress.... So he and I were both wearing mics, and mid-way through the tour I needed to use the bathroom. I went on my way and it wasn't until I was washing my hands that I realized my mic was still on. OOPS. I was mortified! I hope that either A: we were far enough out of range of each other that he couldn't hear me or B: he turned his mic off. Note to self: when peeing, turn off all t...

First of all, I read back over my recent Spiderman post , and I cringed. I am so mouthy sometimes. I've been working on controlling myself when I "get my Latin up" as one of my friends puts it, but sometimes I say things without thinking. I sounded harsh, and I didn't mean to. I made a goal not to talk about my personal life here, and I feel like I kinda violated that on that post. So, apologies, I'll refrain from future discourse like this. Toasts: it's not just what's for breakfast. During formal dinners, either family or business, it's traditional to give toasts to each other throughout the meal. I don't really enjoy this tradition, because I just wanna eat all the delicious food, you know? But it's an important part of the culture here. (During our training period, we even had a banquet to teach us this custom. It's that important.) You must give the toasts in the proper order, or it's a big faux pas; the most honored person in t...

Breaking news: in three weeks, I'm being taken to 'China's Hawaii', an island located off the south coast of China called Hainan. Here's a picture: I know, I was surprised too! It's a gift, and I'm extremely grateful for it. And excited! We stay for a week, and I return a few days before I leave for America. I won't know what to do with all that sunshine, but I'll be nice and rested for my trip back to the U.S. Okay, a few more tidbits about my weekend trip: We visited a place with one of those swing-y bridges: I love bridges , but they also make me dizzy; when I was 15, I was hiking with my dad and fainted off the side of a foot bridge into a river. The little girls wanted to cross the bridge, so I sucked it up, grabbed their hands, and away we went. A large sign at the entrance says not to swing the bridge, but why get on a swingy bridge if you're not going to swing it? So of course, quite a few boys got on and started monkeying away. The littl...

My new favorite hat: You might think this looks silly, but animal hats are all the fashion here. I'm so wearing it when I go to the U.S. in February to see my grandma; she is going to crack up when she sees it, and I can't wait. It's a great hat, btw, it feels like you're wearing a blanket on your head. I've started wearing it to bed to keep warm. New Year's Eve turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated. My friend T. organized a trip up a mountain to ring in the new year, but as I told him, not only do I not climb mountains in the dark in the dead of winter, I don't even pretend I want to. So instead I went to my friend V.'s house. V. is awesome, because A: he is from the South, so we speak the same social language, and B: he loves brie and baguettes, tomato salad and nutella as much as I do. We ate these yummy things for dinner, then went downtown to meet up with a few friends. We watched fireworks and rang in the New Year at midnight in a beer ...