7 months of verb  conjugating, noun declinating, test writing, note taking and preposition valency came to a close today. It was the last day of our Polish Language and Culture Course. Like many other seasons in life, it feels like it flew by as a whole, but there were times when it felt unending. Even after writing our final exam last Tuesday, our teachers kept the new material rolling with the old one-two combo of hit ’em with some transitive verbs and when they least expect it drop some passive voice on them.

Fluent? Not yet. We have to be realistic and remind ourselves that we’ve been learning English all our lives. Polish fluency is going to take time, practice and some awkward moments.

This course has dictated our life rhythm. Up before 6am. 3 hours of commuting daily by foot, train and bus. Homework. Studying. Repeat. For the first time in our lives we learned to treasure Saturday morning. We’ll missing having experts to bring our language questions to. There will be a hole in our daily interactions as we’ve built relationship with our teachers and classmates (sadly we all live in different towns). It’s not the end, but it won’t ever look like this again. Class allowed a good part of our day to be a no brainer: what are our plans for the day? School. The end of this course is a very tangible marker of another step accomplished in our move to Poland and an indicator that it is time to shift focus.

As for today; we celebrate – because moments like these need to be celebrated.