Sunday Oct 26 in downtown Tongling

I've been sick for a few days, with a cold and slight fever. Given the persistent air pollution here, I feel pretty lucky, as I've been here for nearly 2 months without succumbing. Still, after resting at home for another day, totally bored after correcting my students' last grammar quiz, I decided to go out. With the temperature reading 86 today, I just had to get some exercise. Instead of doing a bike ride, I walked downtown, past the Botanic Garden, doing a slow stroll to Tesco's, where I planned to buy some fake Gouda cheese. Cheese isn't a big seller in Tongling so I buy what's available, something that seems to be orange dyed Velveeta. Feeling the need to pamper myself, I also bought a Starbucks Frappaccino to drink on the way home. At 21 yuan, about $3.75, it's about the price you'd pay for a four pack back in Seattle, but its familiar excess sweetness is a taste of home. So, I decided to wallow in homesickness, and drank it while sitting on the bench outside the always busy Tongling McDonalds. I joined a lifesize model of Ronald on the bench, enjoying the weirdness of drinking one American icon while rubbing shoulders with another. Of course, the sight of a real live foreigner anywhere near an actual American fast food giant caused several of the customers to do double takes. While there I got to watch a gong and drum band march past, advertising something, no idea what. But something nice happened to pull me out of my wistfulness. I was greeted by a guy who comes to English Salon, my regular Friday night volunteer gig for locals who want to practice their English. "Kevin" was killing time before attending an early evening wedding, so we went into Macca's, where Kevin treated me to a small ice cream sundae decorated with gooey strawberry syrup. We had a fun conversation, supplemented by Kevin's Chinese-to-English phone app. We also provided an irresistible attraction for all the Chinese families around us, all scarfing down French Fries and trying to eavesdrop on a native speaker's conversation without being too obvious.