No affair, no feelings...is there hope?

[Olya]

I know you are so right. It is hard because I am so used to spending a ton of time at home in the office working on my schoolwork. But, I am making a big effort to GAL. I actually just signed up for Meetup today! Great suggestion. I plan to do a lot more venturing out into the local community and if I drive to the nearest city, you are right there will definitely be plenty of English speakers. This seems to be where most of the meetup stuff is located as well. In my little rural town, I will practice my local language skills. I have considered getting a job teaching English since I got here and I think this is very doable. Now that I have more motivation to make the time, I will seriously consider it.

I think you just needed someone to tell you to go and do it. You're an intelligent and motivated person. You have to have a lot of interests. The key is to begin to remember what those interests are. It will take time.

I recently joined a book club. First meeting is in 2 weeks. I'm really excited to get the book and I will be listening to it on long drives back and forth.

And that's another thing you can do - get into audio files, like audio books, podcasts, and web programs. It helps with the silence. You can just put your earbuds in, turn on your program, and do something you like doing: a long drive, cooking a meal for yourself, cleaning your personal space, etc. I find that it can be very hard to read for fun because (1) no time, and (2) I already stare at letters way too much as it is - my eyes are tired. Audio books have really helped me to reconnect with literature. Consider giving them a shot.