2024: diary of a girl in her 20s

01.13 Winter break & Budapest trip

I'm currently in Sun Valley, since it is exam season. I came back on the 5th from Budapest. It's the 2nd time I've been there since September, visiting Igor, a good friend of mine.

I'm still a little hungover from the trip, since we all bonded incredibly well, and I miss being there with everybody. The day I came back, Will, who I met on the trip, sent me a picture of him and my good friend Saint, together at the door of a club where they usually throw parties. I stopped by to say hi to Saint, but he had already gone inside, since he was working as a photographer at the party. Will said "let's go find him inside", and got me inside the club for free (he was the DJ). I was in my pyjamas, so the second Saint saw me, he laughed at me and we went back outside to talk and smoke a cigarette.

Red neon lights, I leaned against a tree on the street and he stood in front of me. I looked at him in the eye and said, "there is something you have to tell me" and he had no idea what I was talking about, which made me a little mad inside. It took him a whole minute to realize I was talking about the fact Aline and him were over and now he was seeing Julie. We talked about his feelings and I saw him truly distressed about the break-up and the general situation with Julie as well. Then he asked me about my trip and said "Will was telling me all about the gossip but I want to hear it myself". We laughed and I told him about January 1st having sex on speed with Owen, a friend of them who is a tattoo artist from town.

I went home soon after that. Saint called again at 3am asking if he could sleep at mine because he had forgotten the keys from Will's flat. He came home, took a shower and we slept together in my bed. He left for work in the morning and I studied in the living room. I cooked potatoes and meat for lunch and he came home, we ate together, then he had a nap, we studied together and he left at night.

The following day I went to the library in the afternoon. I texted Sonny asking him if he could buy me lunch and he waited for me at the library stairs, where he was talking to a random girl. He gave me lunch, I thanked him for it and then we went to a hidden spot that we like, between the library, the Philosophy faculty and the cafeteria, in some stairs that lead underground. I had lunch, he smoked and he told me about his Christmas holiday.

"It was good" he said, and took a drag "Mark and Hellen are over". I looked at him out of place and said "you just said it was a good holiday". Sonny said "well, I mean like, despite that". I laughed and said "but that's like a pretty huge thing, nah?". We laughed and he told me what happened and I felt quite bad about everything. Mark and Tony suddenly interrupted us, they were looking for us, and we all reunited and talked about their holidays (they spent it at Lin's countryside chalet). Tony left and Mark told me about the break-up, then we all went inside to keep on studying.

Our final Theory of Literature exam was on the 10th. I was late but the teacher left me in any way. It went quite well. That day my French professor also emailed me with my final course mark (9/10), so I'm doing good academically.

After the exam, I hanged out with my friends from university, then I went into the town centre to buy some new headphones. I texted Julie if she wanted to hang and she said we could have coffee at her place. I changed metro lines and there was a power failure so I had to walk from Boulevard Bridge to the Benetton District. I stopped by a supermarket and bought milk and biscuits.

Julie and I talked about politics and orientalism in her flat, then Saint came over after class and we all had coffee. He left after an hour or two and Julie and I took a walk around the neighbourhood. She told me all about the situation between them, then we went to the Casino Club and had a glass of wine and talked about girlhood and sex. We went home after a while.

The following day I studied at home and had lunch on the balcony. Mark texted if I was going to the library and I told him to stop over on his way. I made him a cup of coffee and he told me about his feelings regarding Hellen for a long time. I like listening to him but I also struggle knowing the Hellen situation is the only thing on his mind right now, and that he is clearly suffering for it. We went to the library, I studied for a while and then I took the underground to the Korea Station, where I met up with Rachel after a long time. We walked to Union, a cool library/coffee shop in the La Rue District. She seemed very distressed and she said something had happened in her family, but she didn't say what, and I didn't want to insist. We had coffee and left after a while of good talk.

Yesterday, Sonny and I met up at 10 at a pub/wine cellar in Cedric's Square. We started revising together for our next exam: Contemporary English Theatre. Around lunchtime, he left for the library and I ate at home. Afterwards, I joined them at the library. I walked for 15 minutes and I ran into Mark on the street, who told me everyone was at the pub in front of the library, taking a break from studying. Sonny and I left for a study café and had another theatre study session together. Mark joined after a while and then I took the underground home with him and Hellen, awkward.

Life feels like that lately. Coffee, library, friends. This year's exam season is going pretty well too, since I have every exam already under control and I'm only revising for them at this point. January is going well.