Can't believe I found this forum!

Hey yall, you can't believe how thrilled I am to have found this forum, this is awesome, didn't know one like this existed!

But my story in a nutshell, I was born and raised in Germany as an american citizen by american parents (my dad worked as a civilian for the Army Corps of Engineers for 27 years), lived there till I was about 18, when we came over a few days before christmas of '04 for my little sister and I to get our first semesters of pure, unadulterated culture shock in our first American state-side high school ever.  I was only there for my last semester of high school, but I was in a school with stateside Americans, whom are vastly different from what I was used to: children of military parents that had lived in god knows how many places and withstood unimaginable family strains from moves, deployments, etc.  It was just a huge social shift for me and my sister (as well as with alot of friends of mine from germany when they eventually came back over here), and when you're in a high school for only a few months, nobody cares to get to interested in ya, even if you did just get off a plane from Germany.

After a lifetime of living overseas, I've had a few years so far to get comfortable in my new realm of living at the University of Illinois.  However, I frequently come to where I just really want to talk to somebody about living over here, about being different from everyone in ways my friends and peers over here really can't understand or help me with (or sometimes they just blatently don't care).  I feel like I can fit in around here without any problem, but I just never feel like I belong here, and sometimes I get that vibe from my friends here when I stick out like a sore thumb as the guy who didn't know some social taboo or something, and rather than being understanding, they'll give me gasps and looks of shock and awe! 

It really feels like a weight's been taken off my shoulders now that I found this site.  Hello everyone, hello world, it feels good to be here.  If anyone's in a situation kinda like mine and is anything like me, you probably want to talk about it, and feel free to chat me up, I welcome the connection