Author’s note: This journal entry was written on December 16th, 2022 however the photos are from the day itself.

Tonight we had dinner with a couple of friends from dance class and their partners. It’s not super often that Alex and I get to have dinner with friends so it was great that we could carve out some time together.

We got there just in time to watch the UK v France world cup match, and I tried to keep my disgust for the atrocities that have been committed in Qatar to a minimum. Seriously though, the number of deaths that have occurred each week since Qatar was awarded the world cup hosting position in 2010 is staggering at 17. It’s hard to watch a football match without being reminded of the forced labour that went into it.

Anyway, it’s hard to transition from that, but once the match concluded we had dinner and a nice long chat before playing some really fun games! Time flew by and before we knew it, it was near midnight. I’m so glad that we got to hang out with my friends from dance class. It makes me feel really proud, too, because these are friends I made all on my own!!