Koffie met Nederlandse studenten

I had a breakthrough day today. Besides sleeping through my alarm and almost missing my first class, I was asked by several Dutch students after my second class to have coffee with them! During orientation, the program directors told all of us Americans that it was quite difficult to meet Dutch people because they were... unfriendly (which doesn't seem possible). The Dutch may be unfriendly toward American tourists, but, so far, they have been nothing but kind. I usually stay after my framing the Latin American city class a) to chat up my beautiful young Spanish professor who always seems to come to class wearing low cut v-neck sweaters and b) to photocopy all of the reading (since the prof. hasn't quite figured out scanning and refuses to use blackboard). After photocopying the readings with the usual stay-after-class-to-copy-all-of-the-readings club, they invited me to have coffee with them. I forgot my wallet, but agreed to go anyways, so as not to miss the oppurtunity, and they all offered to pay for my coffee. I learned that most of them, 3/5, study in Utrecht and commute to Amsterdam for our Friday class. We talked about Los Angeles, which I am convinced is also a Latin American city, biking, learning Dutch (which they were impressed with), and the best clubs and parties to go to in Amsterdam. I am proud that I mustered up the courage to go out with complete strangers- I hope that they ask me again.