Rebecca Plevin is the community health reporter for Vida en el Valle, a bilingual newspaper based in Fresno. Before participating in a panel on the future of rural health care, she talked in the green room about teaching English and yoga, her favorite moment on the drive into the San Joaquin Valley through the Grapevine, and her love for crazy-flavored gourmet ice creams.
Q. How did you get into trouble as a child?
A. I didn’t get into a lot of trouble. If I ever got sent to my room, I’d just go and read, so it didn’t really matter.
Q. What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
A. Right after college I moved to Spain and worked as an English teacher there. I was basically paid to speak English to people-they didn’t want to learn, they just wanted to speak to an American.
Q. What’s your hidden talent?
A. I’m a yoga teacher.
Q. How do you procrastinate?
A. By checking Facebook and Twitter too often.
Q. What do you like best about the San Joaquin Valley?
A. There’s this moment when you’re just cresting over the Grapevine, and you can see the whole Central Valley ahead of you. I get a real sense of pride when I see this expanse of the Valley.
Q. When’s the last time you got a traffic ticket?
A. I got a speeding ticket a year or two ago. I was driving out to Avenal in Kings County, going way too fast. I was on one of these Valley roads where there’s nobody there …
Q. What’s your biggest indulgence?
A. Those crazy-flavored gourmet ice creams. I now have an ice cream maker, so I can try making some of them at home.
Q. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A. This weekend I got a piece of advice that I loved: Someone told me that life begins when you step outside your comfort zone, and I very much identified with that.
Q. What do you snack on at the movies?
A. Junior Mints.
Q. What newspapers or magazines do you read regularly?
A. The Fresno Bee and Vida en el Valle. I get my 20 articles a month on The New York Times website. And I subscribe to The New Yorker, so I try to get through that every week.
*Photo by Esteban Cortez.