Wo Shi FaGuoRen

Everyone in China thinks I'm French. Really. It's odd if I can get through one day without at least one person asking if I'm French. They truely believe it, too.
Example: Tonight I'm at the noodle shop, waitin for them to bring out my takeout. While I'm waiting I strike up a conversation with this guy. We're speaking in Chinese for a bit about what I'm studying etc etc, and then comes the inevitable question: "Can I practice English with you." (Since I am white, I obviously speak English). Sure, so we continue the conversation in broken Chinglish. We've been speaking for about 5 more minutes - mostly about how he has been taking American English classes because he wants to go to California - when he asks where I'm from. When I bust out with the America card, he gets all shocked: "zhendema?! wo juede ni shi faguoren!" Apparently all this time, despite my perfectly fluent American English, he has thought I was French.

~L