Started exchange program in Australia (from US) about a month and a half ago -- Instantly had so much energy and was so excited, meeting tons of people, both guys and girls... but probably chatted up every cute international chick i saw at my school, felt like I had so much to talk about. Confidence high, basically no AA (that's never really been too much of a problem for me), even met a cute Spanish chick that I had a thing with for about a week or so. Was feeling real independent and strong, but really wanted to step my game up with Australian girls.

Then things started to get dry.

Most of the people i met through my school are younger than me. I love to party and shit but I kind of feel out of place with so many undergrads. Two of my real good friends that i started to hang out out with are too (I'm 23, they're 19 and 20.. real good friends who knew each other from home). We hang out a lot as they 're these two frat kid/athletes who are actually pretty chill, like to smoke, work out and go out and chase girls and stuff. One real alpha, tall good looking and confident dude that girls fall over. We play guitar together, work out, and smoke -- I'm a lil older so I'm always trying to give him some advice and shit here and there (mostlly musical) but I also know I can learn from him elsewhere as that's what friends do, right? We are both real competitive so we tend to get in little disputes over dumb shit but in the end we're still homies.

Realized my finances were probably gonna be insufficient and I was gonna have to ask home for money at the end of the trip (shit here is expensive). School started, did pretty decent there and met a few more friends, got a job to save some money, started having more responsibilities in general. Start feeling kind of insecure around this kid, even though i think he's an awesome guy.

All of a sudden I kinda feel like a tag-along, my confidence starts to dwindle a bit... even though I'm still approaching girls and all that, I feel kind of overshadowed -- even though I'm still not a hopeless miserable case. I find myself kinda cutting him down and competing with him sometimes, probably to make myself feel better. Now i feel like I have way less to talk about, or I blow all my convo topics and feel awkward with people. I try to hang out with my other friends but those two guys are like my mates ya kno. Now I'm in this dry spell, even the girls that I do feel some chemistry with don't interest me, because I feel like the more attractive ones would totally be with this other dude if the opportunity arose and I'd be left picking up scraps -- especially when my mate's female cousin (who studied with me in the US) who I started to gain interest in totally fell for him.

Now I want to make sure I'm not orbiting around them and focus on being independently confident again. It's tough, but some advice would really be appreciated. Trying to pick myself up and talk to more chicks, and not be that creepy dude -- cause I know I'm not. I was a D1 athlete, musician, speak 4 languages and have almost no AA, ever. Game just needs to be stepped up in the next level.