Rebecca A. Foster

First of all, thank you for your thoughtful answers to my questions on my previous post. I take them to heart. Now, some more pictures. Karaoke in China is called KTV and it's done in private rooms, not a bar; you rent a room by the hour. (Don't rent a room without a door window!) Each room has a big screen tv and song machine, and bigger rooms also have a private wet bar and bathroom. If you ever do business in China, your hosts will most likely take you to KTV. I haven't met a Chinese person yet who doesn't love KTV. If you can sing KTV well, this gives you a lot of 'face.' There are also 'KTV girls' who entertain lonely gentleman by singing karaoke with them. This is just about as on-the-up-and-up as it sounds. (I censored the photo myself. It was full nipplage in there.) A street dentist. Look, no wait! An extremely common scene: adults on the street crowded around a short makeshift table, playing card games. They are usually playing for mone...

How many times should a man's behavior cause tears before you remove yourself from the situation? 1? 2? 5? 25? I'm curious about what you think. I think I let the number go way too high. I want to believe the best about people, so I really believed his apologies were sincere. But nothing changed. How long do you let jerky behavior go on before you know things aren't going to change? I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me. But, it will never happen that way again.

Click all pics to enlarge. Hair salons with pink lights indicate you can arrange for a prostitute inside. You can's sleep with her there, that's just where you can procure services. The 'Organism' label on street garbage cans always makes me chuckle a bit. When there isn't a trash can available, though, you can just dump it anywhere. Hot Pot cuisine began in my municipality and every single Chinese person you meet here asks if you like it. It's hot spicy broth with a layer of even hotter spicy oil on top, and you pull food from the plates to cook in the pot, like fondue. But when you pull it out of the oil, you stick in a little bowl of mild oil, cilantro, garlic, salt, and MSG, THEN eat it. This place had individual hot pots, which is more expensive (and less common) than one communal pot in the center of the table. The day after you eat hotpot, you go to the bathroom every three hours or so. We call it Body Drano. It's possible to lose a few poun...

I'm back home for a week. I'll be leaving this Sunday for a trip to another province with friends for a week or so. A few things I want to share: 1. I went to get my new cell phone the day I returned. The sales lady was very nice and we had the usual spiel you have here: I'm American, I'm a teacher, I've been here a year, I go home next year, etc. etc. But then she asked me if I had any kids. I told her no, and she asked if I would have kids when I returned to America. It struck me I don't really know how to talk about my reproductive decisions in Chinese. I didn't expect to be asked. But then I thought about it, and it makes sense it's totally acceptable to ask a stranger when they're having kids. The fact someone might not want kids isn't part of the local culture, so there's no reason not to ask. Anyway, it was one of those moments that really illuminates the differences between Chinese and Western culture and concepts of privacy. 2. ...

Our students call the Foreign Teacher's Dormitory "The Panda House" because foreigners in Western China are often treated like pandas: everyone watches your every move and everything you do is interesting. People shout at you to try and get your attention. They take your picture. They watch what you eat and what you buy. And trying to speak Chinese with the locals is often a lost cause because even though you can speak Chinese, you're a panda speaking Chinese. It's like a dog speaking English; maybe you can understand the English, but you can't get past the idea a dog is speaking English. Being treated like a panda can get very tiring and, at times, grating. Some days I just have to go home and close the door. Panda time over! But here in the countryside, we're not pandas. We're aliens. I've had to ask people to please stop taking pictures after 20 flashes in a row. Lots of shouting, helicoptering attention, intent staring for minutes on end. It...

Chongqing lies directly in the path of the total solar eclipse, so I got to see a pretty incredible, once in a lifetime event today. I'm so glad we were in the countryside; the smog is so thick in Chongqing city, most days you can't see the sun at all. But out here (about 4 hours from the city), we had clear, sunny skies. (Thanks, weather, for cooperating.) Around 9:00 AM this morning, we went outside with pinhole tubes to reflect the shadow of the sun onto the ground and track the movement of the moon. As the moon began to pass over the sun, the temperature dropped dramatically and the sky became dimmer and dimmer, as if someone were using a light switch to turn out the sky. And then! Total solar eclipse! The moon completely blocked the sun for 5 - 6 minutes. It was really amazing to see first-hand. I took pictures using different aperture settings, and I got some pretty good shots for a handheld digital camera. I can't wait to share them with you. p.s. I'll be bac...

It's tradition in China for students to exchange picture name cards with each other and give them to their teachers. (I have around 200 from students so far; yes, I'm bringing them all home with me.) There are little picture kiosks at shopping centers and near the school gates where you can choose from thousands of backdrops and have a sheet of pictures made for about $2.00. It's so much a part of the culture here, we just had to try it out. I chose this background because it cracked me up-- Hands Off The Panties! It is also the tradition for Chinese girls to pose with their hands around their faces in dramatic gestures. I have no idea how this started, but it's everywhere. (See http://asianposes.com/category/pose/ for more examples.) I think I pulled it off pretty well. You guys, I'm integrated! Okay, want to hear a funny story? Apparently because my hair is so dark, when I'm wearing sunglasses I look Chinese. I was wearing sunglasses and a woman came up...