"She's one of us!"

Last week I attended a seminar with both German and New Zealand participants. When everyone had taken a seat around the table, and we were about to start, somebody pointed out that we had in fact created a division of nationalities: Germans on one side of the table, New Zealanders on the other. Not unbeknownst to that person, I was German, but had clearly chosen to sit on the “New Zealand side” His error was duly pointed out to him by the Germans, in the form of mild protest, evoking in me a feeling of warm content. He, however, exclaimed in response: “she’s not German, she’s one of us!”, leaving me with a feeling of soppy lightheartedness and an irrational sense of pride. And I didn’t even like him.