A Weekend in Munich

I just returned from a weekend trip to Munich!

I visited my friends Kathrin who I haven't seen in ages, and Karo who I met for the first time there (even though we have known each other for a couple of years now!)

It was my first time travelling by coach in a long time, and the 9 hour ride was tedious, even though it was in the night I could barely sleep. My brother came with me to visit his girlfriend, we met up with her and Kathrin when we finally arrived and had breakfast together.

After relaxing at her home (and meeting her two super cute dogs!) we went to a very cute café owned by a friend of hers to see the art exhibition they were having over the weekend, and later I met her other friends, some really cool people, before we went partying together. I had tons of fun dancing in this little dub/dubstep club (even though I usually don't dance at all and probably looked ridiculous, but who cares), especially because it felt like people were there for the music, not for other people, or getting smashed, or anything. Was a breath of fresh air from all the super drunk and super loud parties I've been to until now. But the other place we went to was too large and too crowded and the music too hectic, so I went home. However it did have a really pretty set-up with lights and projections on the walls, it was just very late and I was very tired :D

The second day I met up with Karo in the city and we had Starbucks~ Their winter menu is soo good and I feel like I'm going to spend way too much money there. We walked through town and went quasi-shopping (because neither of us had a lot of money to spend) thought I did get myself a really cool mug! Afterwards we went to the Westpark (which my brother recommended) but because it was already dark and very cold, we went to her house instead. I met her little kitty, we watched some TV series, I had dinner with her family and before leaving for the train station we found a big, round hedgehog in their garden.

So this morning I got up early to go to the bus station, and now I'm home.

Tomorrow I'll have to get up early again, to go to Bonn for some embassy work (because I have to give up my Macedonian citizenship to keep my German one) and after that it's off to Aachen again, and catching up on everything I missed in uni. Definitely not looking forward to that five page paper that needs to be done by Tuesday. (I haven't started yet.)

Oh well! Back to normality it is.

Love,

Besa

Climbing up a hill!

Today was a nice day so my friend Fabian and I went outside to take photos.

He took me to the 'Lousberg' which is a very pretty place in Aachen, I didn't know this town had such pretty nature. And it's really close to my house, too!

Ok the photoshoot was actually about him because he's going to cut off his dreadlocks soon and wanted some good pictures first, but he grabbed the camera and took some pictures of me too :)

It was a fun day even though it's already very cold, but it's really getting me into the winter and Christmas spirit.

I'd like to take pictures here when it snows!

We'll see.

Love,

Besa

[Review] Post from Japan! ~ Perfect Book "Airi-aL"

Hello everyone!

Today I went to the post office to pick up a packet that had arrived just a couple days prior but it wouldn't fit in my letter box (which happens with about anything I order online.) So I had to go out in the cold. And the queue at the post office went out to the door. And when it was finally my turn, the lady at the counter took forever to find my package.

But when I saw what it was, all the anger, disappointment and frustration went away. Poof. Gone forever.

My book order from Japan had arrived!

This semester, I'm taking a beginner's Japanese course, and to celebrate learning my kana and kanji and vocabulary, I wanted to order a Japanese book. But it's surely going to be just a couple more years until I can read a Murakami in original text, so instead I went for something simpler.

Perfect Book "Airi-aL" is a book about Suzuki Airi, a Japanese pop idol. I have been a fan of her ever since I discovered jpop in 2009, she's so pretty and funny and has a beautiful voice, I'm so in love~ And now finally, I have my very own Airiin merchandise!

The book looks like a magazine inside, it's full of photos of Airi and cute graphics and drawings. There are sections with trivia and interviews about her, and some tutorials and collages on how to get her style.
The complete content: Airi's Profile, School Days, Airi's Favourite Stationery, Study Tips, 43 Questions, Daily Routine, Music, Make-up, Hair, Food, Body Care, Favourite Items, Fashion, Airi's Life and Discography, as well as lots and lots of photos in between.

My personal favourite was this~ a day in the life of Airi!

And in the end there's this super cute calendar! I won't write in the book, it's too pretty for that, but I might copy and use it someday :D

The physical book is very high-quality. It's paperback, however both the cover and inside pages are thicker than usual paperbacks, and has an additional protective envelope. The 120 (!) full-colour pages are printed on semi-glossy paper, and all the pictures are high resolution, brilliant colour and top quality (you can even see details in very small pictures, like the album covers in the last section. It's pretty impressive, especially for the low price.

I ordered at CDJapan. The book cost 1500 Yen (~10€) plus 1000 Yen for shipping (~7€) which I think is perfectly reasonable for an international order. And shipping was super fast, it arrived at my house exactly two weeks after I placed the order, and there wasn't any trouble whatsoever with customs. Another nice thing is that the book (and probably their other products as well) is at retail price and there isn't any mark-up. I'll definitely order there again in the future, if I want any more merchandise.

To wrap this up, here are some of my favourite songs featuring Airi~

Hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Love,
Besa

(This was unsponsored by the way!)

Rocky Horror Show

On the 1st November, I went to see the Rocky Horror Show in Cologne with some friends.

We had loads of fun getting ready, and of course seeing the show was amazing. (Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring my camera into the theatre, of course)

Rob Fowler as Frank N. Furter was amazing, but the other actors were too! And the size of the Lanxess Arena blew me away.

But what I liked most was the audience participation. If you ever get the chance to see it live, do it. My favourite was the scene in the rain, when everyone covered their head with a newspaper and the whole theatre had a huge water pistol fight :D

This was my first time seeing the Rocky Horror Show after being a fan of the movie for many years, and I definitely think I'm going to go see it many other times :)

In other news, I've caught a pretty bad cold and I'm stuck at home for now.

Funny, I was just talking with a friend about how a couple of years ago we would always enjoy being sick because it meant we didn't have to go to school.

And now we're all like "oh no! I'm gonna miss classes"

All I could manage the last two days was to go to Japanese class (which has compulsory attendance) and a computability and complexity tutorial class.

Oh well! Time to drink lots of tea and sit this one out. At least I'm gonna be sorta immune the next couple of weeks for the Holiday season :) Really looking forward to Christmas fair and drinking wassail, and wearing scarves and hats and snowboots, and scented candles, cinnamon and cloves, Christmas lights...

Lots of love,

Besa