Student Exchange Programs

I do not know how to strike up a conversation usually people come up to me and that is how I make friends but I want to be friends with smart people now cause I sit by myself at lunch and yea. There’s a Filippino guy at my class he stares at me sometimes maybe he thinks I am staring at him so he stares cause when the teacher is behind him I stare at the teacher and he stares at me but when I participate in class he does too so I think he is smart. I can tell he is Filippino because of his accent, he’s from Chicago, and he’s quiet. And then um…there was this Japanese guy that I was scared to go up to because I liked him and I would stare at him in summer school but now I found out I missed my chance because he was a Foreign Exchange Student from Japan and he moved back now. BUT..I do have a chance to go there and I COULD POSSIBLY..find out his contact information..would that be too weird? And there’s this cool Chinese homegurl, we talk sometimes but how do I make her a friend?