When life gives you lemons

I've been living in Lausanne for 2 weeks now, and so far, I haven't had the adventure I had planned to have.  The two big reasons for this are that I'm newly committed to living on a shoestring budget, and that getting out of the apartment and doing things is a lot more fun with a buddy.  By now, given that I have absolutely nothing to do every day until September 21, I should have visited a few nearby towns and attractions, but without someone to share the experiences, I don't feel like it's worth the $40-$70 dollars.  Depressing, but true.  Despite this, I'm headed to Brussels next week, where I'll suck it up and enjoy some Belgian brew alone when I'm not hanging with my CouchSurfing host.

There have been a few other bright spots, too, in my short time here.  For one, I've bonded with one of my roommates, Vincent.  It's really nice having a friend already.  I had forgotten that the thing I enjoyed most about my first several weeks in Budapest was having an immediate friend in a roommate, Yuan.  Vince and I have eaten several meals together, watched lots of dubbed-over CSI together, and tried to help each other with English/French.  We haven't taken any epic trips or anything, but we've each enjoyed these last few weeks a lot.  (However, he *may* have failed out of his first year and may be leaving UNIL for good.  Which would send me back to square one.)

I've also started running again.  Almost every day, in fact.  I'm slow and fat now, but I'm committed to keeping up the good effort.  The thought of running a 10K or half-marathon somewhere in Europe has even crossed my mind.  Who knows?  It'd be kind of cool to take a trip to, say, Paris to run an event.

And with that, I've been trying to eat less.  Which hasn't been quite as easy - the bread here is so good!  But I'm trying.

My point in all this is, even when you abandon your girlfriend and head to a foreign place where you have absolutely nothing to do all day, every day, you can make the best of it.  Sure, I still have a ton of downtime, and I wish I had the extra cash to spend on an afternoon at a café or a train ride to Geneva, but at least I'm not losing my mind.  When I'm not running or hanging with Vince, I sometimes do math, read a book, study for the GRE.  It's not all bad.  And knowing that time's winding down to both the start of school and Rachael's visit, my (mostly) lonely days become progressively easier.