I have always loved having someone else prepare my coffee for me. I think this guilty pleasure started back in my coffee childhood (about age 7), when my neighbor Pam Veshnock's mom would make us a half milk/half coffee/lots of sugar concoction and let us drink it while watching The Sonny and Cher Show. As long as someone else is pouring, I can put up with some really bad coffee. I suffered through a lot of scalding hot swill sloshed into those blue and white Greek take-out cups in my Legal Aid days. Recently, I have become a bit more discerning. My teacher friends know how how many times I treated myself to coffee from The Able Baker. When it becomes an almost-everyday affair, I suppose it's no longer considered a treat.

So when I moved to Amsterdam, it was only natural that coffee would become a regular part of my routine here. The comforting thing about it, apart from the taste, is that I understand the language of coffee. An "espresso" in Dutch is an espresso. Ditto an Americano. So even when I first arrived, coffee was one thing I understood. At least I thought I did, until Ben arrived for a visit and started teaching me things like what a "flat white" is, and why I need an Aero Press. But for the most part, even while my Dutch vocabulary is still in the single digits, I can safely order an espresso, or a cappuccino, or when I am feeling daring, a "koffie" and know exactly what I will be getting.

Part of my routine here is to pick a coffee spot on Google Maps, and then get myself there by either walking, biking, or taking the tram. For the first few weeks here, before we had Internet in our apartment and before I got a Dutch phone, I needed the daily stop in order to have access to some WiFi. Even after I was connected, it became a way to help me get my bearings in the city and to feel a bit like a native. I found out with just a teeny bit of research that my impression that Dutch people like their coffee was really true. It turns out that they drink more coffee per capita here than in any other country. Here's the subheading and lead from a recent article in The Atlantic: "Here Are the Countries That Drink the Most Coffee—the U.S. Isn't in the Top 10. Only one nation averages more than 2 cups of coffee per day. It's the Netherlands." Here's the article that proves it. You can check out the cool pink bar graph if you are one of my students reading my blog. For the rest of you, I really added this link to prove to myself that I could learn how to do it! http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/here-are-the-countries-that-drink-the-most-coffee-the-us-isnt-in-the-top-10/283100/

One of the main differences between coffee in the U.S. and Amsterdam is the size. As we Americans know, we tend to drink everything in "jumbo" amounts. The cups here are really small. A friend of ours was lamenting this when he needed to drive a long distance. In the U.S., faced with the prospect of a long drive, you would buy your giant coffee cup-on-steriods and hit the road. That is just "not possible" (a favorite Dutch phrase) here, unless you go to a Starbucks, which I am trying hard not to do.

Here's the tiny doll-sized cup of "to go" (known here as "take-away") coffee. You can see that this would not fortify our American friend Jeff on a long car ride.

Another main difference between coffee here and in places in the U.S. I frequent is how gorgeous it looks. There is often a doll-sized cookie or piece of chocolate that rests on the saucer.

Just to help you with the dimensions, the brownie is about the size of my thumb-nail.

Here is the coffee set up at Casey's vet's office. He was delighted that the treats (pictured on the far right), are not chocolate or a cookie, but dog treats. He enjoyed them immensely. I passed this time.

One of the great things about my coffee routine is that it forces me to keep up a reading routine. Here is a Dutch magazine that I am really enjoying.

One important thing to know about coffee is the place you go to get it. It's called a cafe. Not to be confused with a coffeeshop, which is where you go to unwind with some treats that in California are considered medicinal. I'm told that some of my students are reading this blog. Your D.A.R.E officer would not be happy with the fact that it is legal to smoke marijuana here in a coffeeshop. The smell that wafts over while I am running in Vondel Park or walking Casey tells me that sometimes, it's not just sampled in coffeeshops.

This is a coffeeshop. I am standing outside for research purposes only.

Contrary to what I imagined before arriving in Amsterdam, I have a lot of company during my afternoon coffee breaks. I do wonder where these people work....Or do they work? I thought that when I hit the cafes, it would just be me, at-home moms, and retired people, but instead there are many people of all ages. Maybe everyone is taking a leave this year and writing a blog?