Rebecca A. Foster

A couple of random things: Last Saturday night I went for a quick run at my campus track. I was about halfway through when this guy decides to start running with me, like 6 inches from my elbow. Um, hello buddy, you are NOT welcome here! I hate running with a partner, especially an uninvited one who just decides he'll be my new best friend. I tried to speed up and slow down, to no avail. My only choices were to ignore him or stop running. I ignored him. I could see him turning his head to stare at me every few minutes, but he never said a word to me. I finished my last 6 laps and when I stopped, he left the track. Now, in Chinese culture it's okay to get really close to people. But I still think it was weird. If this had happened in America, I’d have been worried he was going to follow me home and eat my liver. As it was, I was just annoyed. I knew he didn't mean anything by it, but it made me uncomfortable. I am NOT A TOY OR AN ANIMAL! I am a person. I think some peopl...

My Chinese friend Cassie is having her wedding ceremony on April 10th, and this week she hand delivered my invitation: Isn’t that marvelous? I love it! It’s quite stylish in my part of China for this kind of wedding invitation to be used in place of a paper invitation. Cassie is a modern and stylish girl. The invitation is engraved with their names (the top two lines), the phrase “100 Years of Harmony/Togetherness” (the larger middle line), the name of the hotel where the ceremony will be held, and on the bottom line, the date of the ceremony. It was given to me in a nice satin lined box, along with a little box of candy. Of course, this wouldn’t work for a couple who needed to list all their parents info, formalities, etc. But, I quite like this style of invitation: interesting to look at, and to the point. I say she is having her wedding ceremony, not her wedding, because she was actually married last October in the license office. Couples who want to get married must be of age (20 f...

Phew! This turned out to be a much busier week than I anticipated. A good week, but busy. I recently was having dinner in a nicer Western-style restaurant in a local mall. I walked into the Western-style toilet stall at the back of the bathroom and saw this: I hesitated for a moment, then convinced myself the windows were treated on the outside with a reflective covering and no one could really see me. But honestly? I would have used it anyway. My privacy paradigm has certainly shifted over the last almost-two years of living in China. So if you want to see my bare bum, all you have to do is move to Chongqing. I do think it’s funny someone saw this space and decided it was a good spot for a toilet. ----------------------------------------------- As promised, a few more videos. This one shows me eating hot pot, the traditional Chongqing meal, at an automated rotating table. Each person at the table has their own little pot of spicy, spicy broth, into which you drop whate...

I’ve found a bunch of videos I forgot I made. I’m going to post a few today and tomorrow. They’re all with my camera, so not high quality. I need a Flip. Here’s a recent video from a restaurant. It shows us ordering a local specialty dish made with scalding river rocks; they are added to a bucket with oil, and when the oil is boiling from the heat of the rocks, beef and veggies are added. I especially like this video because it gives you an idea of the noise level in Chinese restaurants, and it shows how diverse Chinese food is. Here I am on a booze cruise last year on one of the rivers straddling Chongqing (this side is the Jiangliang, not the Yangtze). It gives a pretty good view of the Chongqing skyline. You can hear me in the background saying, “Does it have Anderson Cooper?” Names withheld to protect the innocent, but here I am with a few friends last winter in Xi’An. We were in our hostel room and maybe had a little cabin fever, but it was freezing outside! The dr...

Today in English class I needed to add up a large string of numbers from the chalkboard, the results of a poll we’d done in class. I got out my trusty calculator and was about halfway way through when the students started yelling out the total. I turned around with a surprised look on my face and said without thinking, “You did that in your head?” They just shrugged. D’oh! Dumb American teacher, twelve o’clock! I was tempted to tell them we don’t learn math in school in America, but they wouldn’t have gotten the joke. Er...yeah. Joke. I’ll stick with that story. Gotta love teaching in China.

The Hate: Last week I had to go back to Chengdu to get my permanent crown put in. I got up at 5:30 AM, caught the 6:40 AM bus for my 9:00 AM train, and all was well, until I realized my bus wasn’t going to the train station . The driver changed the route, for reasons that are still a mystery to me. In that moment, when I realized I had no idea if I were going to get to my train on time, I was filled with contempt for this place that can so haphazardly change things at the last minute with no notice and no concern for those affected. I really wanted to punch Chongqing in the face, and I felt like a Peace Corps failure for not being able to keep my cool in the face of this cultural crisis. The bus driver didn’t know which nearby bus went to the train station, but I did manage to find an empty taxi during morning rush hour (thank you, taxi guardian angel) and get the train station in time to catch my train. But it took me a while longer to get over that rush of anger and anxiety I felt....

Those of you who read here before I left for China know it used to be called “Stuff I Love.” In memory of times gone by, here are a few things I love right now: 1. Fit To Strip , the workout DVD by Carmen Electra. I know, I know, it sounds lame, but disc 2 is a calisthenics routine that has nothing to do with stripping and everything to do with building strength in your core, legs and upper body. I used this DVD before I ran a half marathon a few years ago and was the most toned I’ve ever been. I let myself get chubby after my dad died, so I’m back on a strength training/toning regime, and this DVD is part of my new routine (along with running, weights and yoga). It kicks your butt in a really good way. Amazon.com, $12.99 2. Community , the tv show on NBC. One of my friends in the U.S. prodded me to watch this show, and it takes the place in my heart that used to be occupied by The Office until The Office turned kinda lame. (Sorry, but you know it’s true.) Abed and Troy crack...

I know from this blog it seems like all I do is fight with taxi drivers and hang out with my friends, but I do Peace Corps stuff too. For those of you wondering what Peace Corps does in China, this is your lucky day! -Peace Corps has different job categories in different countries, such as teaching, business development, agriculture, social services, and healthcare. In China, all we do is teaching. The Chinese government forbids us being involved with any other type of work while we are here. -This program started in the early 90’s on a trial basis. A few years later, a contract was signed. As part of the contract, the Chinese Ministry of Education decides where to place volunteers. This is unique; in most countries, the Peace Corps decides where to place volunteers. -Our first priority is to teach English courses at universities in three provinces (Gansu, Sichuan and Guizhou) and one municipality (Chongqing, where I am). These are traditionally some of the poorest parts of China...

Andrew took this picture of me on the back of the airport bus. I cropped out the people around me and now it’s kinda too small. But anyway, a recent-ish picture. And my student sent this to me a few days ago. It’s from the holiday pageant I hosted. This is not Andrew, it’s a student who joined me on stage to introduce something. The lights really washed me out, but I’m wearing a trapezoid-cut neckline silver matte shirt and a fake-diamond necklace. And black shoes with my floor length skirt. And a diamond sparkle headband. (And a smirky look on my face, apparently.) Next time, I need to remember my camera. I kept the background in because I thought you might like to see it. A flaming guitar, so Christmasy! And now Andrew is smirking... My good friends, whose wedding I went to in NYC a few months before I came to China, are having a baby in July. I’m really excited for them, and I bought them this cute coat for their baby. My favorite part are the ears on the ho...

There is a phenomenon of giving directions in China that I still don’t understand: people will only give you directions to the next block. For example, “Go straight ‘til the next intersection, then turn left.” Now, you as a Westerner might think that means that after you turn left, you’ll be there. Oh no, my friend. This is just the beginning. If you don’t see what you’re looking for after you turn left, you ask someone else, and get the next set of directions. You will keep doing this, block after block, until you arrive at your destination. This happened to V. and I when we were in Chengdu for training. I needed to get to Tiffany & Co.* to get some jewelry cleaned, and he came with me. I didn’t know where Tiffany was exactly, but I figured it was downtown near the other big shops. Turns out it was in a new shopping plaza built a little zig-zaggy ways away from where we were. It took four sets of directions to get us there. Yup, that’s about right. Also, be aware: you will alw...

T. and I were talking several months ago, and he said something offhand I really liked: “One of the great things about being an adult is you get to choose who is in your life.” Such a simple phrase, but something I wasn’t always very good about implementing. My friend FloJo also gave me a talking to; she told me, "Not every person you meet gets to be in your life at all times." She said this in reaction to the 'prairie dogs', those guys that pop up out of nowhere to contact you every few months to make sure you're still on the line. You know the type. Not bad guys by any means, but, maybe I don't need to be in everyone's line? I think this is what T and FloJo were trying to teach me. But I don't always mind, this is the problem! T. also told me that for many men, if you tell him you are unhappy with something and he keeps doing it and you still accept him in your life with no boundaries, then there’s no reason for him to stop and he probably won’t. I...

So the other night I’m taking a taxi home from dinner with friends in another part of the city, and we pass a cluster of policemen off to the side of the road, and my taxi driver says, “I need to stop because you are a foreigner.” At least, I think that’s what he said, his dialect accent was pretty strong. I said, “What? Why?” He said, “You are a foreigner, I have to stop.” WHAT? So he stops and pulls up to the police and the police look at him like “What the hell are you doing?” and motion for him to keep moving. They actually yell at him, “Don’t stop here, drive on!” Um, taxi driver? I have no idea if that was some sort of joke on your part and you thought it was funny?  Or you just don’t know that foreigners don’t have to stop and talk to all policemen they pass? Whatever it was, that was weird. Please don’t do that again. We had dinner at a Korean barbecue place, all you can eat. The funny thing to me about Korean barbecue is, you pay to cook your own food. Part of the reason...

March 2nd is my dad’s birthday. (I use the word ‘is’ not ‘was’ because I decided dying doesn’t cancel your birth.) When I was in the U.S., I stayed the night with my step-mom in their house. It was hard to be so reminded of him. The things I inherited from him are currently in storage. It reminded me it’s going to still be hard to go through all those things, even three years later. My step-sister made this photo collage of my dad with pictures of him and his grandchildren. I thought it was really beautiful and want to share it with those of you who knew my dad. Those of you who didn’t know him, maybe now you will “know” him a little. (Click to enlarge) March 11th is the anniversary of his death. It is hard not to think about all the days leading up to the day: the last meal, the last time he was coherent, the last words we said to each other. They've been on my mind a lot lately, as well as all of the repercussions of that day. I’m still trying to make sense of them. In som...

Well, according to your comments, of those who stated a preference, half prefer window and half prefer aisle. You window people, I admire your bladder control! In my last post I mentioned that Shanghai is more developed than NYC. I’ve never lived in NYC, only visited two or three times a year for work or pleasure. I’ve been once to Shanghai. So, that’s my background in both cities. Here are a few reasons I think Shanghai is more developed: 1. The maglev train . As of this writing, the maglev in Shanghai is the fastest train in the world. It runs 268 - 310 miles per hour. There’s a station at the airport, and it takes seven minutes to get from the airport to the city. Now, can you imagine arriving at JFK and getting to Penn Station in seven minutes, for $6.00? How nice would that be? 2. Transport cards. In Shanghai, you can buy one refillable card and use it to pay for the subway, buses, or taxis. So convenient! I especially love that you can pay for a taxi with them, I hate carrying a...

1. Just like I’ve heard happens with the pain of childbirth, I’d blocked out just how bad the air is here. When I landed in Chongqing, I couldn’t see the ground until we were right on it. It looked like Oklahoma during the Dustbowl. The locals call it ‘fog.’ I can’t figure out if that’s a mistranslation or wishful thinking. 2. But anyway, I’m home! It just feels good to be back in my own apartment, walking these familiar streets, back into my routine of veggie market, fruit market, bus rides to visit friends, crowded sidewalks to navigate, and of course, the really delicious, spicy street food. Yum. I start classes next week. 3. From Beijing to LAX I had the best spot on the airplane that is not first class: last row in the front section of the plane before the exit, aisle seat, right next to the bathroom. Lots of space, no one kicking my seat, and easy access to the bathroom, perfect! (I always request an aisle seat.) On the way from LAX to Beijing, I got stuck clear in the back, ...