Rebecca A. Foster

Text I got recently from a night person friend: My not-a-night-person reputation precedes me. ------------------- I don't do sleepovers that often now, but in China I did them all the time because of the time and trouble it took to get places. When I stayed at T.'s or V.'s, I had to plan for things to do in the morning because I'd routinely wake up several hours before either of them did. Especially T. We're talking sometimes 5+ hours.  One thing I did at T.'s was go for a run because he lived in the countryside. Once, I forgot my key. And he lived on the top floor of the girl's dorm. And I had to stand there knocking, trying to wake him up, while girls stared up at the top floor from the courtyard, wondering who I was, trying to get into the hot American teacher's apartment at 8:00 AM dressed in skimpy running clothes. It's fun doing a walk of shame that isn't even a walk of shame! After that, pretty sure I was just called ...

I forgot to bring my phone to work today. When I realized I didn't have it, I wasn't so concerned about me needing to use it as I was about people contacting me and getting silence in return.* That's stupid, though.   I try really hard not to ignore text messages, iMessages, phone calls or emails, even when I don't like getting them. I don't carry my phone everywhere and I set silence timers at night and in the morning so I'm not disturbed, but definitely I feel pressure to respond in a timely manner. I don't know where that comes from. Did we have a meeting and say "Here's the guidelines: respond to texts within a few hours, phone calls within 24 hours, emails within 1-5 days, respond to letters whenever you feel like it because you'll get one a year, maybe." I think texts are even a generational thing. Kids today probably have a 1 minute response time expectation. Truthfully, I usually try to respond within 10 minutes when I get a...

How could I have forgotten Xanadu for 'X'? Here's a brief clip of the final medley , during which she wears her little tiger skirt outfit. One of these years, I simply MUST replicate this outfit for Halloween; anyone who recognizes who I am is instantly on my love list. When we were out in the countryside training rural English teachers, we got REALLY bored. It was hot, and there was nothing to do there. So we downloaded this movie and spent an afternoon watching it together. Now I always think of Yunyang, China when I hear songs from Xanadu. (Which is more frequently than you'd imagine.) For those who haven't seen it, please know this movie is all kinds of ridiculous and the ending makes no sense. But, it's an 80's kitsch classic. Another time, I overheard a guy in Target gushing about Xanadu. I immediately sent out a text that I was in love. My brother texted me back: "You do realize the chances he is straight are very slim, right?" Or someth...

I used to try to override my intuition with non-logic, mostly because I didn't want to believe the things my intuition was telling me were true. In China, I learned to embrace intuition. It's a very large part of Chinese culture, to accept things that cannot be explained and reasoned and logically construed. Often this was frustrating for me; "This makes no sense!" came out of my mouth on maybe an hourly basis my first year there. Once I let go of everything having to make sense or be logical, I was much happier living there. Then it became another of our catchphrases, "TIC." This is China. That explains it. And that's enough. -That person approaching you across the parking lot in an unsafe manner? Yeah, it's good to be suspicious of that person and tell them to back off. You're not rude. Nice people don't approach girls alone in a parking lot. -That guy who tells you he is single, but so many clues point to him not being completely hones...

I was asked to do a lecture this week on the English language for the Foreign Language students at my university. Part of my lecture focused on the ways in which new words are added to English. Two ways are*: 1. New meanings for existing words 2. Making up new words For #1, I used the example of the word ‘text,’ which used to mean only written works and/or speeches, but now also means SMS messages. And from this new usage of the noun, we also made the verb ‘to text’ and added the words texting, texted, etc. For #2, I gave the example of the words ‘sexting’ and ‘sext,’ which from what I read online are pretty popular words these days in American culture. I didn’t say much about the meaning of the words themselves, only that they were made up, derived from ‘texting,’ and meant that the text had a sexual topic. I explained that we went from ‘text’ to ‘texting’ to ‘sexting’ back to ‘sext’ in new word formation; that’s awesome from a linguistic etymological process point of view, and...

I have another friendship theory : the better the friend, the more words I use in texts that are not in my phone's dictionary. I hate adding words manually, but some people seem to bring out the non-dictionary words in me and it must be done. (This is the worst part of getting a new phone, adding back in all the words I need.) The boring people, or the ones I don't like as much? All the words are there. Hmmm. I think this is kind of an awesome theory, I wonder if I could get a linguistics grant to study it further?

I like text messaging a lot more than sending emails because texts have no subject line. Subject lines are awkward. Do we walk up to someone and announce what we are going to talk about? No. Email fail. "If you think he's a good guy, you might be wrong, but if you think he's a bad guy, you're definitely right." A quotation by Diane Farr. I now totally believe this. Instincts ftw! I'm craving corn dogs with mustard. One thing I've learned about myself from living in China: I have very low food standards. Forget laughter, a good kiss is the best medicine.

Cell phone service in China is a dream come true. So easy!  So cheap!  I have a hard time believing cell phone service in America/Canada needs to be as expensive and complicated as it is. Here you simply buy a cell phone (in Mandarin: 'hand machine'), any brand, any model. Then, visit a mobile company kiosk to buy a SIM card. (I use China Mobile.) The SIM card costs about $7.00 and includes your phone number and about 2 months worth of service. You pop it into your phone, and you're done. If you want a new phone, you just put your SIM card into your new phone. No hassle, no contracts, no going to the cell phone store to have it changed for you. I dread going back to America and dealing with locked phones. My monthly cell phone charge is about $3.00. This week I added internet access to my cell phone; it costs 70 cents a month. 70 cents! Suck it, Verizon. P.S., I did the shopping activity again today with a different class. One of the groups raised their hand and said ...

I got a U.S. based telephone number through Skype and now anyone can call or text* me here in China by calling/texting a U.S. phone number. Magic!  And I can make unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada.  The only downside is that I have to be at my computer to talk and text, but still: calling and texting again!  For only $5.00 a month! (I'm not going to post my number here for obvious reasons, but it's a regular telephone/cell number, you'd never know it goes to a computer.) Skype even let's you choose the area code you want your number to be in. I feel a bit like Kip in Napolean Dynamite: "I love technology...not as much as you, you see...but I still love technology..." Yeah, I do.   *Addendum: people can't text me, I can only text them. BOOO, improve this, skype! www.skype.com

1. Cleaning Supplies 2. OPI nail polish colors 3. Stationery 4. Paper of all kinds 5. New socks 6. Diet Coke 7. Texts (picture and word) 8. Hot baths 9. Cardigans 10. Holding hands

For those who know me: It is 3:06 AM and I am still awake. I'd text you all right now with the good news, but you're probably asleep. Losers.

For the first time since I've gotten my cell phone, I've met the monthly allotment of text messages on my plan. It appears I've gotten the hang of text messaging. And only used 120 of my talking minutes. My lowest usage ever was 74 minutes in a month. I'm not a chick who likes talking on the phone. (Such as: a guy told a mutual friend, "I don't think Rebecca likes me very much; she's always trying to get off the phone when I call her." My first thought: "What is he, a 15 year old girl??" My second thought: "Ohhhhh...he wants to talk when he calls me? I thought he was calling to coordinate plans and just making small talk to be nice." So I made an effort to stay on the phone and talk. It felt weird, though. We lived in the same city. Why not just talk when we saw each other?) So now I'm paying by the text for the next few days. I'm sure it was all those Christmas and New Year wishes that did me in. This year, I don'...

So I have a new dentist. I wasn't prepared for how good looking he is. I mean, I prepared by brushing my teeth and wearing clean clothes, but I was NOT prepared for a young, hot dentist who stroked his index finger back and forth over my lower lip to indicate where the numbing should take effect. Nor a young, hot dentist who accidentally dripped water down my neck , then gently wiped it up with a soft cloth while saying, "You didn't know I was going to give you a bath today, did you?" Or told me I have beautiful teeth. And a quick intellect and wit. AND gave me a blanket to keep warm when he saw me shiver slightly. So new young, hot dentist, I forgive you for putting me through two hours and fifteen minutes of dental torture, for using not only a regular drill but an air hammer drill on my back molars, for opening my mouth wide enough that I resembled a snake trying to eat a sheep and then sending me home without any prescription-grade pain killers. But just barely....

The joke about this ring is not that I got it at Swatch (which I did), but that it's a cherry . I wear it on my ring finger. I have a silly sense of humor. Little jokes like this make me laugh. Swatch actually has some pretty cool rings. They are stainless steel, not sterling silver, but don't contain any nickel (which I am highly allergic to. A sign of my aristocratic genes, I'm sure.) They also had an apple ring, and some avant-garde designs. But the cherry was not to be passed up. swatch.com, about $50. P.S. I took this with my camera phone. How have I not had a camera phone before now? I wish I had a cell phone that only texts and and picture messages and browses the internet. I'm not a phone talker. Plus I like texting during church. Keeps me awake.

One good thing about getting older: if you keep in touch with your peeps, gradually you all thin out across the country/globe, which means you have friends (sometimes with spare beds/couches) all over the place. Awesome! It also means you get e-mails and text messages that contain such random comments as to make you stop and marvel that THIS SENTENCE is how your lives are still converging. A sampling from the past week (from memory, I am too lazy to go look them up): 1. Florida friend: "Just got back from Hemingway's house. I heart Jim!" This friend and I often send each other random "I heart Jim"* texts because it sets off a volly of "I know! He is so cute! Funny! Charming! Awww" blah blah blah. Then we go back to our regularly scheduled lives. But throwing Hemingway into the mix? She wins. 2. Traveling friend: " Your sweet nature, darling, was too hard to swallow, my heart goes bang bang bang bang. FYI I'm in NYC, heading out in a few...