I think one of the best outcomes of studying is the opportunity to meet and connect with people with similar interests. If you study abroad, then this possibility becomes even greater just because of the fact that you are alone in a new place and your free time becomes available for new people and activities. My view is that it is important to explore, to give ourselves the chance to be surprised. I think Uppsala is a great place to start, but you can also explore wherever you are right now.
A first step can be to look for volunteering opportunities, student associations and social meetings. It is also good to note that associations do not start out of the blue, they start with people. So even if those opportunities are not around, these can be created. I’ve participated in some, and met a few of those who started student associations. I asked them about their beginning: The starters of Rethinking Economics Uppsala said something on the lines of “We three went to the association meeting in Stockholm, and on the way back we talked about that we could do it in Uppsala too, so we said… let’s do it”. Others, that I met in Spain such as “Erasmus Association Pamplona”, started working on the same goal as the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), which was integrating erasmus students in the town. They went to a meeting organized by the university and talked about how much they missed the “erasmus life”, so they started by setting a Facebook page and organizing social meetings following the idea behind ESN.
With this, I am just trying to say that there is much more to do out there than we may think, and you just need to look for it.