Two Worlds Apart

Sometimes I think that an arranged marriage is the way to go. I've always thought it to be clinical and impersonal, but sometimes it's just so much easier on the heart. You find the guy you think suits you best, you talk it over and you both make a decision. There's no second guessing each other, no wondering how he feels, no wondering if you had him figured out all wrong.. and no getting hurt.
Everything about the dating game is just so complicated, and despite knowing the rules, I seem determined to sabotage myself by refusing to play. I know everyone says that for a relationship to work out you have to hold off having sex, because then it will make the guy want you more, it will make him like you more..but that makes no sense to me. If I like some one, then sex for me, is just a natural way of expressing that feeling. But maybe, just maybe it's true. Because once you take that final step, and just do it (forgive the phrasing), you can actually see the interest drop in you soon after.
In my last post, I introduced to you all the latest man in my life, whom I was later told that I sounded 'smitten' by :)... Well, that probably was the case. But what I neglected to mention at that time, was this man is not Indian.. mostly because I decided that that should have no relevance. However, I'm starting to believe that it is in fact extremely relevant.
I've discovered that there is a lot to be said for the comfort level you share with the people of your own nationality. This comfort goes beyond just knowing the same customs, and possibly speaking the same language.. it includes the very fundamentals of social behavior.. what will be taken as a joke, what will be offensive, what is too presumptuous....
I find myself constantly tip toeing around this guy purely because I have no real idea of what makes him tick.. and if I had a penny for the number of times I've said 'You know, I just can't peg him'..!!
Then comes the eternal struggle of 'Does he like me, or is he just having a good time?' now compounded by the question of 'Is he naturally this remote, or is he just not interested?' .. further compounded by the question of ' Is this not going anywhere, or are foreigners just really much slower than Indians when it comes to deciding this kind of stuff?'..
Now, doesn't the arranged marriage thing sound so much more appealing?? :)..Unfortunately though for me, no matter how annoying and depressing and sometimes downright nasty the whole dating game can be, I doubt I'll ever be a player in the marriage market.
But anyway, coming back to my dilemma, the question that I seem doomed to struggle with for the near future is just how much of my problem is the cultural divide and how much of it is the man....?