those moments where you share mindless conversations with your fellow combi passengers, and the ebb-and-flow of the conversation comes with great ease, and the structure of the foreign language that you could not even utter one vowel of one year previously is slipping off your tongue with incredible ease. it’s those moments, where not only does the ease of a new, acquainted friendship is formed take you aback, but also where a new benchmark is set with my language level. it’s those moments that i cherish.