Hey!
I'm in a similiar situation at the moment. Started off in Unova and so far have two badges. Right now I'm just grinding and trying to find a good Scraggy with Moxie to help me out on htis playthrough. Once everything is leveled up, I'll start my 3rd badge challenge. Things will hopefully go a little quicker once I have my fourth badge and I can start to look around in GTL.
Anyways, here's a welcome from a fellow 'old' guy.