Hey, I can answer this now!

Long story short, I moved to a new country for graduate school a few months ago, where I didn't know a single person before coming. I participate fairly actively in my classes and have people I regularly talk to there, but I sort of fall into a weird trough in terms of the demographics of my programme; I'm neither straight out of undergraduate nor married with kids, so I don't really have as much in common with them as they do with each other, if that makes sense. The vast majority of the students are from the local area as well (itself kind of small and close-knit), so I think they mostly have their own friend networks already... actually, I get the impression they don't really hang out with people they newly met from the course either, just socialise a bit in class like I do.

I'm deeply introverted by nature but got over most of my shyness a few years ago, was actually one of those central, social planner/organiser people at my last job, and spent most weekends away from home with friends. While I was quite happy to do that, I'm equally happy to do my own thing, and don't feel like there's a really big chunk of my life missing now.

I'm also on a pretty tight budget here (living off savings for now, really hope to find a job next term), so there's a strong disincentive to invite people out to do stuff, or otherwise get put in a position to spend money on something that's not groceries, rent, or utilities. I've only been out to eat once in the last 2.5 months, and that was just because I was in the middle of a 100km bike ride and needed some carbohydrates badly. I have a little wiggle room in my budget, but I've cut my expenses to the bone so that I can go see my GF during the semester break.

Anyhow:

1) cooking - I use a lot of my newfound free time to try new and more complicated recipes. I'm doing long distance with my GF who is vegetarian, and I've actually sort of become one by default as the last month or two I've been trying new recipes to surprise her with when I'm visiting next month. I make a lot of stuff from scratch I'd normally otherwise buy (doesn't save much money in most cases, curious if it's worth the effort), gonna be trying homemade tortilla chips soon. 2) stuff related to grad school - my classes are mostly "flipped", where we watch the lectures online and only come in for the tutorials. It varies from week to week but 10+ hours outside of class is pretty typical, more when assignments are coming due. Unfortunately due to the structure of the course you can't really work ahead on the assignments too much. 3) read for enjoyment - I've got a subscription to the Economist (bit of an indulgence but it also netted me 12,500 frequent flier miles) so I read that every week, as well as chip away at the backlog of library books on my Kindle, usually before bed. Also plenty of stuff online. 4) related to above: look stuff up online - usually things I need to figure out about my new country (taxes, employment stuff, how car ownership stuff works), career path, or hobbies. I usually research purchases pretty extensively, I spent about half of Thursday figuring out what computer monitor to buy after the post office broke my old one on its way over here (insured, thankfully). 4) watch shows I follow: generally only a couple hours a week (currently GoT, Mad Men, Last Week Tonight). Did binge through Deadwood a few months ago, and will sometimes try and stream sports from back home. 5) stay in touch with friends/family/girlfriend - I usually email the latter at least once or twice a day, just telling her about things that are happening that I want to share, etc. We usually Skype on the weekend, sometimes watch a documentary together online. Friends will pop in and chat on Facebook, and I usually exchange emails with my parents every few days. 6) play video games - I'd actually cut these completely out of my life about ten years ago (mostly due to recognising them as a timesink), although in the last ~8 months or so (before I moved) I did start playing Minecraft. I've tapered it off and now tend to mostly play while listening to university lectures, which helps motivate me to watch/listen to them. 6) Listen to podcasts - not sure if this counts as I do it while I'm doing other things (cooking, laundry, buying groceries, etc). 7) errand-y type stuff online - This depends on what particular thing is going on in my life at the time, but I probably have a higher than average amount of stuff to handle related to moving abroad (ostensibly for the long haul), mostly boring financial things. 8) exercise - not as much as I should, although biking everywhere counts for something. 9) I need to quit writing this because it's time for bed and I have class tomorrow morning.

Not having made any friends here sounds really sad and lonely, but it honestly only bothers me (read: makes me feel uncomfortable) when other people ask me about it, which is thankfully quite rare. While I genuinely enjoy socialising I don't actually feel the need to, and seem to be getting that fulfilment here through the long distance relationships I've maintained. I mostly enjoy my coursework and am doing pretty well at it.

Coming here has actually been a dream of mine for a long time, which I've worked really hard for, so I get an intense sense of happiness and fulfilment just realising how lucky I am to be here and having the opportunity to follow a dream like that. Seriously, sometimes I'll just be gazing out the kitchen window or something and it hits me, and I just start grinning ear to ear like a madman.