Rebecca A. Foster

I get along well with youngest children; most of my best friends and men I've been out with are youngest kids. I'm an oldest, so perhaps it's just an easy paradigm to fall into. My second year, most of the new volunteers assigned to Chongqing were guys. (New volunteers arrive every July; because we serve for two years, you serve with a different group your first and second years.) And almost all of them were youngest children. Because I'd already been in Chongqing a year when the new volunteers arrived, I was happy to take on the role of 411 if they needed it. I told them about getting around the city and food and shopping and whatever else they needed to know. But then I started getting calls from restaurants, asking me to talk to their server to order their dinner. One of the girls sometimes called me and she was always "Hey, can you help me out? I've tried and it's not working." But the boys were like, "Hi, order my food, 'k thanks bye....

What do you do for quiet time? I like my quiet time very early in the morning. In China I had the habit of waking up verrry early because the birds that lived in the bamboo growing outside my window also got up early. Older people did daily tai chi in the courtyard outside my apartment at the break of dawn. I loved seeing their quiet, uniform movements. It inspired me to find quiet time of my own. I began the habit of sitting quietly every morning on my mat, thinking about what was important to me that day and what I wanted myself to know. I hesitate to call it 'meditation' because I wasn't trying to clear my mind, have some kind of experience in enlightenment, etc. I just wanted to focus my energies and be aware of what I was bringing into myself in the best way possible. Now that I am home, I've had more time to focus on this process. I downloaded some podcasts about meditation that focus on breathing and relaxation. I've been reading a book my good friend J...

I love dill pickle flavored potato chips. If you haven't tried them, I recommend them highly. My favorite are Canadian brands, but Lays are okay too.  I'm a big fan of the pickle in general, claussen's are good. Every year in my stocking I used to get a jar of baby dills I didn't have to share. My favorite part was drinking the juice and garlic pieces when they were gone. Yeah, I'm kinda gross. _______ But this is good, I promise! Sichuan-style dumpling soup. Here's how I make it: 2 cups chicken broth A few splashes of sesame oil A few more splashes of soy sauce about a teaspoon of hot chili oil (not that sweet stuff, the darker hot stuff) red pepper flakes chopped green onions a few frozen dumplings (I used 6) Fresh greens (spinach or any other fresh weedy green) Combine everything except the greens, boil until the dumplings are cooked, then add the greens for a minute or two, just enough to cook them down. Here's what it looks like when it...

This is me, my Chinese host mom (I lived with a host family my first two months in China) and the 15 year-old daughter of a family friend. It was quite common for us to be introduced to family friends so the kids could practice their English. I just met her that evening, but it's tradition in China for girls to hold hands, so she held my hand. I thought it was very sweet. You'll notice I'm not holding Mama's hand (the Chinese word for mom is 'Mama' so that's what I called her), but instead linking my arm. I always felt there was a social protocol for holding hands vs. linking arms; hands meant you were more friendly, while holding arms was a sign of respect. Friends can also link arms, but I would never have held Mama's hand. I have no idea if this is actually true in Chinese culture, it's just what I picked up and felt comfortable with. This was a very hot and humid August night; looking at that photo, I can feel all over again the sweat dripping...

I've been sorting through old pictures from my travels; lots of pictures of bridges and buildings. You know those job/skill aptitude tests you can take? I always got my highest score in 'spatial relations', which I've thought is a pretty lame thing to have high skill in-- so I can figure out where things should go in space, big deal! Although it does probably explain my love of bridges, because bridges are inherently rather spatial, no? I found shots a friend had sent me of NYC bridges and other scenic shots; I won't post them here because they're not mine to post, but they still bring me so much joy. Maybe I'm austistic, y'all, and bridges are my thing? From looking at old pictures, I've noticed my perspective on what constitutes 'clean and nice and inviting' has drastically changed. For example, I took this photo in Manhattan because at the time I thought, "Wow, look at all that garbage on the street! And now I think, "Wow, ...

I’m going through pictures and videos I took while in China, and I’ll be posting the ones that I think share a lot about what it was like to live in China and Chongqing and that I hope will be of some interest to you. They’re all short videos, 2 minutes or less. This first one was a common sight on the sidewalk at night; small sidewalk restaurants sold fresh fish pan-broiled in hot spices with veggies. As you can see, there is a basin of oxygenated water keeping the fish alive. You pick out the fish you want and the guy weighs it on the scale; you pay by weight. As you can also see, the fish was flopping around too much. It really shocked me to see this the first few times, and then I got used to it. When he chucks it down the sidewalk, he’s throwing it to the person who will cook it. I know we think it’s gross to kill and eat meat on the spot, but without access to good refrigeration, this was the safest way to eat meat in China for a long time, and now it’s tradition. ...

I didn't know before I lived in China that wooden combs are a traditional gift to give to girls/women, especially as a goodbye gift. At the tourist neighborhood of CiQiKou in my city, there were shops selling decorative wooden combs and hairpins, but I didn't think much of them, I thought it was just a tourist trap item. But in the days before I left Chongqing, I received several nice wooden combs as a going away gift. They’re made of wood and painted with enamel. All the combs I received came in these nice boxes and were made by the same company; I’m not sure if this company is well-known for combs, or if they are the ones who sell in my area of China. One student wrote cute little messages for me all over on the box itself: The combs are often stylized, such as this yellow comb I use on a daily basis and is carved to look like a fish: All of the female volunteers I know were given combs as gifts, so I think it’s a pretty common practice, but one I’d never hea...

You guys, let me be honest for a minute: the past month has been tough. I gave up my apartment in San Antonio to go to China, and just before leaving I moved all my stuff to my mom’s. So that’s where I am while I job search, at my mom’s. This is not a bad thing at all; I’m closer to my brother and sister and extended family, and my mom is easy to live with. BUT, it’s certainly not where I want or expected to be. I’ve had to change my attitude the past week or so; I’m choosing to be grateful for gifts and opportunities I have in my life right now, rather than focus on what (I think) I lack. One of the great things is that my mom lives in a colder climate than San Antonio, so I get to indulge my love of socks. I LOVE socks—cute and versatile and less expensive than buying shoes and purses. In San Antonio I hardly ever got to wear socks because it’s just too warm most of the year; I had an extensive collection of chanclas , but hardly any socks. In Chongqing, I wore tall socks a...

I found some pictures from Shanghai I never posted, thought some of you might enjoy seeing them. They are all cell phone pics, though, so not super high quality. A hot water dispenser, very common in China. The Chinese characters say 'caution scalding', meaning scalding water, but the English 'care bear!'?? I can't even call this Chinglish or a mistranslation, this is just a joke someone played, right? British style telephone booth, a cultural relic of the British occupation of Shanghai I assume. I was amazed how clean and empty the sidewalks of Shanghai were, compared to Chongqing: An apartment courtyard; this picture makes me so homesick: Little places to grab a cup of afternoon tea or coffee. An aquarium in the pedestrian tunnel. I remember thinking how fancy Shanghai is compared to Chongqing, based on the underground tunnels alone. Wouldn't it be cool if your job was to take care of pedestrian tunnel aquariums? In contrast, this is what I sa...

Do you have things in your life that you sometimes feel are both a blessing and a curse? For example, I am very sensitive emotionally. I think the shyness I struggle with is a part of this, like a light shining too brightly in your eyes. But I also think being emotionally sensitive is what makes me a good teacher; I can ‘read’ the emotions of my students very quickly, and adjust my teaching style/lesson/topic for their benefit. On the curse side, sometimes I take things too hard or too personally, and it’s difficult for me to see objectively others’ intentions. On the blessing side, I think it helps me be a good friend, because I am sensitive to my friends’ needs. I have noticed that I gravitate toward people who are far less sensitive than I am. I believe in the principle of yin and yang, that there is a balance to interactions that can benefit both sides. My best friend in high school was a cheerleader, something I would have found intolerable, but she was great at it. My friend ...

Something short to offset the long post beneath this one. A favorite quotation from the book Heroes, Rogues and Lovers * : “She says it is unfortunate that women find rash men so appealing, but they do, and it is because women know in their secret hearts that men who won’t kill for them are useless.” It's not a favorite quotation because I necessarily think it's true, but because it sort of explains the whole Indiana Jones thing, doesn't it? It’s true that I usually choose the men I date because they are thoughtful, kind and fun but also tough, intelligent men of action. And they are each of these things in a way I’m comfortable with. But kill for me? That sounds extreme. Consciously, no, I don't expect that. Millions of years of biological influence into choosing a reproduction mate? Hmmm... the question of nature vs. nurture is fascinating to me. Especially when it relates to attraction and who we choose to invest in. But on the other hand, there's this: ...

Note: this is a bit longer than most of my entries; it's something I wrote for an essay compilation a few years back. I hope it makes you laugh a bit. Hope you all have had a great weekend!  A couple of years ago I was in Washington , D.C. visiting m y cousin at Georgetown University and staying in the  fabulous old-school townhouse he shared with five other guys.  I had a friend with me and it was her first time in D.C., so on a Saturday the lot of us loaded up and went to Mt . Vernon , George Washington’s home, now a museum with various living displays of How Things Used To Be.  Along for the ride were three of their female friends, Tiwi, Kiwi and Regan. (I can't remember Tiwi and Kiwi's real names, but my cousin called them Tiwi and Kiwi, so I do, too.)  We had been at Mt. Vernon only a short while when a big storm blew in off the Atlantic , complete with tornado/severe thunderstorm/hail warnings etc. We were informed by bullhorn they were shutting ...

I had a great bed before I went to China-- a deep pillow top, to which I later added a tempurpedic foam topper. Ahh... like sleeping on a cloud. Chinese beds are usually one piece, not two, and therefore quite a bit more firm and less cozy. It's not exactly like sleeping on a box spring, because there is a thin layer of padding, but it's close. At first these beds felt really uncomfortable, but give yourself two years, you get accustomed to things you never imagined you could. Here's my apartment bed; it's a little hard to tell, but I had a box platform, then the boxspring style mattress on top of that. I liked these box bed platforms, I imagined they were a design relic of the traditional ' kang ' bed, where hot coals were placed in the box's empty space to heat the bed overnight. Believe me, with no indoor heat, I would've loved a kang bed! Here's a bed at our favorite hostel in Chengdu. You can see the wood plank and thin ...

I saw this picture on the internet and laughed out loud, because over the past year or so in Chongqing the trend has become for girls to wear control top pantyhose under their teeny-tiny shorts, so that the line of the control top shows below the line of the shorts. To them, this is very sexy and provocative. To us, it was a fashion faux pas! But if the picture is any indication, maybe it'll catch on here too? I've mentioned this before, but having bare legs is a little bit of a taboo in the city where I lived-- you can wear shorts and skirts with a 1/2 inch inseam, no problem, just don't have bare legs. And always wear high heels. In Chongqing, women literally wear high heeled shoes even when climbing mountains. It never stopped amazing me. It was always interesting to me the cultural differences in what is provocative in China vs. America. Probably the biggest other difference I noticed was cleavage: sexy and shown off in America, not so much in my city. My student...

Why are all FedEx delivery drivers so hot? For reals, I don't think I've ever seen one that's not. I can't decide if it's their actual looks or just that I really, really like getting packages. I take that back, it must be their looks. In my office job I had before I went to China, we had deliveries from both FedEx and UPS at least once a day, and they had to walk past our department on the way to the mailroom. So of course we took the opportunity to rate them against each other. FedEx always won! This is sad for us, but it was a little highlight of our day to see a FedEx guy in the building. So cute. (Although, I didn't always like the work he brought me.) Then again, I might just have a thing for delivery guys. My freshman year of college I worked on campus and our campus mail delivery guy was really cute. His name was Chad, from Kentucky. The non-student, male staff in the department heard me and my fellow student worker Holly talking about him all the ti...