Culture gap?

[MalachiX]

Got an issue where I can't tell if I'm barking up the wrong tree with a girl or if a cultural gap is making things difficult.

 

I've just started grad school in Los Angeles and there's a girl in one of my classes from China. Her roomate is actually in a bunch of my classes so I had lunch with her and her roomate the first day and couldn't help taking a little shine to her. I'm a shy guy and for a long time didn't want to deal with the cultural/language barrier of dating someone from outside the US (I have enough trouble dating as it is) but she seems really smart (a major turn-on) and I'm trying to grow as a person.

 

Anyway, we have an evening lab 2gether. After the first one, one grad student suggest we all go out for a drink to a pub right off campus. I asked her if she wanted to go and she asked, "with other people or just us?" I explained and we all had a fun time at the pub. When I decided to head out, she and her roomate decided to join and I gave them a ride back home.

 

The next night, I ran into her and her roomate at an optional symposium. I stayed a little with them and then when I indicated I was planning to head out she followed and talked her roomate into coming. We ended up grabbing coffee with a few other grads and once again I gave the two a ride home.

 

Two days later we ran into each other at the gym and chatted for a while. I think it was around this point that I resolved to ask her out. I forwarded her an e-mail about a work-shop for our grad school and she e-mailed me back saying saying I was super nice and she was sorry we hadn't gotten to say goodbye at the gym (in an attempt to be macho I ran my ass off on the treadmill and didn't see her leave).

 

The weekend comes and I'd been planning all weekend to head to the Getty Center Art Museum and, since she had told me about feeling furstrated she felt living near campus without a car, I called and asked if she wanted to come. Unfortunatly, she was working on another grad student's film when I called and couldn't make it (though she said it was "sweet") that I asked.

 

On the following Monday we passed each other briefly in one of our big classes but didn't talk. I don't know if I was awkward or she was.

 

The next night, when we had our lab, we started chatting again and I walked her home. On the way back she told me she wanted to give me something and pulled out this ornamental fish thing which she said was a Chinese good luck charm.

 

Feeling encourage, I texted her the next day and asked if she wanted to grab a bite to eat the next night. She asked if I'd heard about a mixer going on that night on campus and suggested we meet up there.

 

I went to the mixer the following night. I go there about ten minutes late (overslept) and then couldn't find the place so I texted her to ask where it was. Eventually I found the place but it looked like the "mixer" had been cancelled because of a football game and none of our classmates where there. Just then I got a text from her saying that she'd fallen asleep and just woke up. We texted back and forth a few times but didn't see each other.

 

At this point, I'm trying to figure out where I'm at. I feel chemistry with her when we hang out but it also seems like I've got to initiate every contact and one on one stuff doesn't work out. One friend suggested it might be the culture gap since she's lived her whole life in China and it's way more conservative. Honestly, I'm just a bit flummixed. I've never been the type who tries to pursue someone who's not intersted (usually the girl has to give me SUPER clear signals and be proactive at the start) so I'm really out of my comfort zone here.

[Green]

welcome to life as a man... You have to intiate and do most of the work in the begining.