Fascism is alive

Hey everyone,

today I'd like to take a break from the cupcakes and clothes and talk about a topic very important to me.

As some of you may know, I'm of Albanian heritage. We're a nation descending from the Illyrians, with our own history, language and culture - which is being eradicated in the cradle of democracy itself.

What's happening in Greece right now is nothing short of a systematic genocide of the Albanian minority.

According to the 2001 census, there are more than 270,000 ethnic Albanians living in Greece, and they make up 64% of the total migrant population. However, they are marginalized more than any other group.

Albanians in Greece are repeatedly victims of racist violence and hate crimes, some going as far as murder. As an Albanian living in Greece you're forced to change your name, give up your whole identity and adopt an artificial one, just to be able to survive without being attacked. Seems familiar?

It's shocking that a country that prides itself on being the origin of democracy allows this to happen. It is even more shocking that we, in Germany, we who are supposed to be so undeceived after what happened 80 years ago, just turn a blind eye to blatant fascism.

The worst part is that the media ignores it. I didn't even know about what was going on until I was told about the protest - so I won't blame anyone - but that's why we went out on the streets to raise awareness and show people just what exactly is going on right in front of their porch, in a country we support year by year without knowing what that money is actually being used for.

On April 23rd we, a group of young Albanian students in Germany, gathered in front of the Cologne Cathedral to open people's eyes to those atrocities.

This was very special to me personally, because it was the first protest I've ever joined and I felt like I was finally part of something and could make a difference.

But it doesn't stop there. As long as there's still injustice in the world, we can't stop. We are young, we are educated and we have the voices to speak for all those oppressed and tortured and we are going to do that until they're free to live in this world. Because the freedom to live is everybody's right.

Kind thanks to my brother Naim Demiri for the wonderful pictures.

Handmade Circus

Hello lil birdies! 

The last few days have been really nice. I was home over the weekend because both my siblings & my sister's husband were visiting, and even though I should've been studying, it felt good to wind down a little.  I'm really excited because I'm going to be an aunt soon!!! :D (Even though I don't like the ring of that word. Aunts are middle-aged, chubby and red-faced little ladies who pinch your cheeks and hand out candies. And that's not really me. I don't share my candy.) The lil' chub is due in spring. Aww, spring baby. ♥

On Sunday they left so I returned to Aachen as well - and went to the Handmade Circus with a friend. It was great, I didn't have a lot of money to spend and neither did she so we mostly just strolled through the aisles and looked at all the pretty stuff~

There were some artists that stood out to me, and if you're looking for something cute to buy for someone else or yourself, you should really check out their stuff!

Sick of Winter was by far my favourite that day. Their mission - to spread sunshine and love in a grey, cold, and rainy world. After all, we're sick of winter. I had a chat with their founder (a really rad guy who also studied here in Aachen - which, by the way, is infamous for its London-esque weather conditions), and the whole concept just spoke to me on a deep spiritual level. I swear. I mean, they drove there in an old VW Bus. How cool is that?! The first thing I'm going to spend money on when I'm not broke anymore is going to be one of their shirts, for sure.

Closely followed by Süße Dinge! Their name already says everything because it's seriously the sweetest stationery I've ever seen. And I'm a sucker for stationery and office supplies and writing tools, so I really had to hold myself back there.

Another favourite was birdtoldme. I loooove this idea of offering pre-designed origami sheets, they're just too cute! Definitely check them out!

Here are some more impressions and shops you should have a look at: nicenicenice, Ménage à deux, Knallbraun, Zenzi Design, Karamelo, madeinosnabrueck and nadjA.

In the end, I left with two super cute buttons and my friend with the sweetest strawberry necklace ever - cut out from what was an actual crate of strawberries. Afterwards we had lunch at the cutest café ever, all in all it was a lovely day. Definitely something I'll do more often if I get the chance. :)

Which one of these do you like best? Please do leave a comment, I'd love to hear about what you guys think. ♥

Lots of love,
Besa

I'm such a girl.

Hello and a happy new year!

I know, I know. I said I would actually write on here regularly this time and again I didn't... Okay, I won't say I didn't have the time because that would be a cheap excuse because well, I do have a lot of free time right now (that is, until studying for finals starts. Which is tomorrow. And should've been about two weeks ago. But I digress), I just... kind of... forgot. Oh well.

So I'm officially a college student now! Last time I wrote about baking muffins for the people I would meet up with on my first day of Freshman Orientation Week, and indeed they were a big hit because I've become best of friends with two amazing persons from that group, and yes, I attribute all of that to the muffins. ;) But that leads me right to the first thing I want to write about today! After not seeing each other for two weeks after the holidays, we decided we needed some comfy bonding time and what better way to do that than with sweets and music and a proper girls' night in? ♥ So we gathered together at another friend's place - five girls from a college city that has a female quota of only about 30 percent and much less in computer sciences, hard to believe, but I guess us girls tend to flock together when we're in the minority. Which is pretty cool, though. I'm not complaining.

The plan was to make hot chocolate and muffins. The chocolate turned out amazing.

I strongly recommend everyone to try and make their hot chocolate like this sometime. We used dark and milk chocolate, melted it in a pan and gradually added milk. It turned out really strong though (I think we used around 400g of chocolate and one litre milk), so you should take that into consideration. But look! It's SO pretty!

We topped it with whipped cream and chocolate because we're fancy. And it tasted like heaven.

The muffins, however... Well... See for yourselves.

It started off so good, but we filled the paper cups up way too much (and probably also used too much baking soda), so they blew up like crazy in the oven and we ended up with one huge square-ish muffin that we had to break apart first.

Oh well. (The second batch turned out much better, though!)

The rest of the evening was really nice! We did proper girl stuff - facial masks and waxing our legs and the whole deal, only thing missing was a mani-pedi! But also lots of singing and guitar playing and talking and laughing and taking pictures and having fun. Great times.

I love these girls a whole load and I'm happy I've found them, really. They make my days at college so much better, and if it weren't for them I probably would've given up many times already. So here's to us, girls!

That was sentimental.

So, it's the weekend and I'm finally home. I don't know why but this week I've really been missing home and my parents, and I'm happy I'm here! Though I do have to get studying soon. (I've already planned tomorrow for that.) I'm going to bed soon, but before that I'm having a little snack (I love mangoes sooo much! I just wish they weren't that expensive so I could eat them more often. But I really need to cut back a little. Living on your own sure is expensive!) and listening to some great music. Give this album a listen, it's great.



And with that I'm saying good night! Until next time!!

Besa