For the first weeks, conversations followed a template. Where are you from? What do you study? Where do you live? Are you going to the event? The questions helped us locate each other, but they did not give me much to hold onto. The useful details appeared accidentally. Someone complained about a book they had been given and offered it to anybody who wanted it. A person argued passionately for a film everyone else considered terrible. Somebody talked about hair for twenty minutes with enough expertise to make it interesting. Music escaped from a room. A game appeared on a table. A housemate cooked something unfamiliar and accepted questions. These moments made people specific. I think ordinary interests are especially important in an international group. Country and language are easy categories, so we lean on them. They can become the whole introduction. A person starts representing a place before anybody knows what makes them laugh. Shared interests create another route. They let two people connect without asking either to explain a culture, a degree, or a future plan. They also create low-pressure social life. I am not always ready for a party. I can watch a film while tired. I can walk to find coffee. I can sit beside someone playing a game without producing constant conversation. An activity gives the interaction somewhere to rest. University culture likes to make interests productive. Sport is wellbeing. A society is networking. Reading improves the degree. Music becomes an event. Sometimes the value is simply that an hour passed pleasantly with another person. I started asking second questions when somebody mentioned a small interest. What kind of music? Which game? What do you cook when you miss home? Did you actually like that series or only finish it? The answers created plans more naturally than trying to announce that I wanted friends. My week now contains people from different courses and countries, but that is not how I think of them first. I think of the person who always has a film recommendation, the one who knows how to fix clothes, the one who turns breakfast into an event, and the one who is terrible at the same game as me. The official introduction questions helped us arrive. The unimportant questions helped us stay.