My friends are coming! / Step 1 of 10,000

In anticipation of Fresca and Jeff’s visit, my students gave me KFC and McDonald’s coupons. (They didn’t want me to pay a ludicrous $2 for a “western” meal!) I thanked them, but I giggled because I can’t think of 2 people in my life less likely to eat in a KFC. Protest outside with pictures of mutated birds, ok, I can see that, but not actually eat fast food. “Foreigners don’t lke Chinese food, so you can take your friends to KFC everyday!” my student told me, proud of his multi-cultural knowledge.
I wondered, angrily, why I was offered (in China, this is all but force-feeding) second helpings of blood tofu and sea cucumber. I asked why I was not classed with the foreigners who might be so uncultured as to prefer french fries to chicken hearts. My students exchanged a look of surprise that made a verbal answer totally unneccessary.
Step 1 of my Chinese assimilation is complete!
9,999 left.