Acne Ah!

After spending hours trying to think of a clever blog title involving "Aachen", I give up and just use an anagram of it. ("Acne Ah!" just barely beat out "Acne Ha!")

Don't go to this blog or this blog, because they suck.

I am going back to my normal format, but I'm going to keep the song thing. This one is because I miss everyone and wish I was home. There. I said it.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDRLW748j68


After Brussels, we took a train to Germany to visit some family. But what would a Mohseni/Majdi trip be like without some sort of transportation complication? So after a half-hour delay we boarded our train, 1st class. Here is Arash taking advantage of the complimentary Wi-Fi.

We were also served orange juice, a tuna sandwich, and a little cake. Living the high life. I can't believe I didn't take pictures.

Also, I forgot to include this in the Brussels post, but here is a picture I took of Arash. I thought it had to go somewhere.

Anyway, after getting to Aachen (where?) an hour later we were greeted by my friend Lilian.

After narrowly escaping from that lion, we dropped out bags off at her apartment and then went to an all-you-can-eat place where I only ate one dish (I don't want to talk about it). Afterwards we went and hung out with some Germans and Arash and I got a pitcher of Sangria, which ended up being 50% off. I love it when things end up being cheaper than you thought. Not to mention, I managed to interject into the conversation with some knowledge I learned in my Democratic Change and Authoritarian Resilience in North Africa class, and I felt pretty accomplished. This is the best picture of me and Arash ever. Notice the perfect tilt (those Germans know their hipster photography), but then our heads are tilted to compensate, so our heads look straight and our bodies are crooked. A lot went into this.

After the place closed up, we went back to Lilly's and she read our blogs and agreed mine was better. Then we talked about interesting things until 4 AM. Arash and I cuddled for the second night in a row (this will be a new trend). I got to know him a lot better over this trip.

So here's the crazy thing about Lilian. She has an aunt who lives in West Hartford, CT (15 minutes from me) that is pregnant. I have an uncle who lives in Aachen (15 minutes from her) who just had a baby a month ago. WHATTTT

Anyway, the next day my uncle came to pick us up, and we got to meet Lilian's family too (they lived at another apartment, it's complicated). Arash was intimidated by her mathematician brother. Then we went to my uncle's.

After being anti-social for a while, we went into the Christmas market for its last day. The first thing I did was buy an Alemmania Aachen scarf.

Erik Meijer, legend.

At the Christmas markets they had mostly food and carousels. We had bratwurst, a pretzel, potato things, and a crèpe that made me miss Paris. After about half an hour we got cold and went to hang out in a bookstore for an hour. Here is me with a horse:

Arash read a really weird comic book, maybe you can ask him about it. Afterwards they had a playground thing outside and I went and climbed it. People frowned upon me which made me feel cool and like a rebel.

The Zissou pose.

We retired for the night.

The next day we did nothing except eat and go on the internet, until about 11 PM when we attended the Christmas eve ceremony at der Dome. I had unrealistic expectations since the only thing I'd seen before was in Home Alone when he goes to church and there is a little girls choir singing. Instead there were a bunch of men singing in German, but it was still good. And don't listen to Arash, the cathedral was actually pretty cool (as long as you don't compare to Notre Dame). Here is a picture I am a little proud of (I had to hold the camera still for like 3 full seconds!):

Woah! Did you notice that^? The end of the parentheses and the colon together make a sad face. How funny (and sad) and unintentional!

Interesting conversations that were had on this trip:

• EU immigration
• Arash and my types of girls (you can ask me but I will ask what you think first)
• cute vs pretty vs hot
• how my blog is better
• personal discussions through which I learned more about Arash
• morality vs utility (in the form of Lilians and a fat man)
• New Years Resolutions (see below)
• other things I don't remember

We talked about New Years Resolutions, and although it's not New Years yet and I didn't want to post these until then, I will comment on it briefly, because Arash wasn't completely right. Though I would also like to get better at writing stories, my #1 goal (the same for all men) is to get big. My goal is to be the first jacked film director:

Wes Anderson

PT Anderson

Coen Brothers

Sepanta

Ok fine, my real New Years Resolution is to learn Photoshop. Just kidding, I'm already awesome at it. I don't have a resolution yet but maybe I will by New Years, so to find out, keep following my blog! Yeah!


Here are some quotes to live by:

Nakkisa: your blog truly is better than arash's.

Ramin: i read your blog

  and only skim arash's blog

Arash: i am weird

Arash: hows blog update?

  about aacehn

  I WANT TO READ

  and lol

  i love you btw

I think that's it for now. I love and miss everyone and wish you all a belated Festivus!