<p>I think it is important to realize that what you want to establish now is a social network - and true friends take time and will come later. It is ok to eat alone sometimes but you should continue to work at establishing connections - they don’t have to be deep and meaningful. You will not have to look for subtle clues to find out if people don’t want to be with you - 99% of the time people make it very clear that they don’t want to be with you. If you are guessing how they feel it is more likely that their behavior has more to do with how they feel and nothing to do with you.</p>
<p>I imagine that you probably have a high emotional quotient and are picking up subtle clues - don’t! Consider making connections your job, approach it as a daily task like eating, keep it all simple and believe in yourself! What you really need to do is to ‘map’ your new environment - you need to have familiar landmarks to navigate your way around campus and you need to have familiar faces around you to emotionally navigate as well. As collegeboss pointed out it is very important to realize that what you are feeling is extreme discomfort because everything is new but that it is not threatening. In this type of setting physical exercise, yoga, stretching, walking can help relieve the sensation that you are in danger when you aren’t.</p>