I’m Gone Dutch…

Today I got up and was checking my email before school. For some reason I decided to check this yahoo group I’d belonged to for ages but rarely read. It’s called Gone Dutch and it’s basically just a group of foreigners who are living in the Netherlands. I saw that they had planned a gathering in Rotterdam for today so I said the heck with it and decided to blow off school and go meet up with them. I was ahead in school anyway and knew I wouldn’t miss anything.

We met up at Rotterdam Centraal and went to the American Dream Cafe for lunch, where we spent ages chatting and getting to know each other. From there we went for a walk around the city center doing a little shopping and chatting, hitting “The Little Blue Store” (that’s what I call it because I don’t know the actual name) along the way for some American/British goodies.

I found Chocomallow Pop Tarts and oh my god are they ever good! Xander and I each tried one when I got home and they got a two.. err, four thumbs up! They sort of remind me of smores. Any of you who have ever been camping must know what smores are, graham wavers with chocolate and roasted marshmallow smushed between. MmmMmm I want another one!

Anyway, usually I find these gatherings sort of lame. The groups make these little cliques and when you are a newcomer you feel sort of left out. It wasn’t like that at all this time, I actually had a really good time and met some people I’d like to get to know better. There were people from the US, Canada (Yes, another Canadian girl was there!), England, Portugal, France and I forget where else. It’s so great to just get together with a group of English speaking people and talk your head off without having to worry about if you’re speaking clearly enough, not using too much slang and all the other things I have to watch out on my day to day travels.

OH my god! Speaking day to day travels! On my way to meet them today I was waiting for the tram here near my house. These two guys came up and started talking to me. They were both black, my guess is african but living in the Netherlands. They both spoke fluent Dutch so been here a while or were born here. They were so forward! Just came up and started talking to me, asking me questions and getting all nosy and flirty. They sat next to me on the tram and seemed friendly enough. I was so totally stoked with myself that I was holding my own in a conversaion with these guys that was 100% in Dutch! If they spoke English they didn’t let on, and they didn’t try to speak English with me once they realized my Dutch wasn’t the best. That was so awesome.

One of them kept asking for my phone number, even though I made it clear that I was married. So cheeky!