Part of what bugs me about this story is that it has the feel of badly written Star Trek episodes, and innumerable role-playing game side quests: spend a few days doing a few discrete tasks, and you’re an honorary member of a culture, and get a nifty souvenir.
It takes more work than that to win acceptance in a new subculture in a city in which you’ve lived your entire life. It’s profoundly insulting to assume that other cultures are somehow that simple to understand.
