You are absolutely right. Having a peer wih whom you can talk about what you are working on getting your code reviewed is very important and helps you improve your knowledge. This was exactly my issue.

Also I do have a hotspot, I travel by train and work during those commute hours. But because I work long hours (4+7) this leads to the second issue that I mentioned - not having enough energy to work on side projects and not being able to learn new things apart from the normal work.