Seeing:

* my supervisor defend her habilitation, which is something that doesn’t exist in academia in the U.S.  But basically,  once you have a doctoral degree, “the habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent scholarly accomplishments, reviewed by and defended before an academic committee in a process similar to that for the doctoral dissertation. However, the level of scholarship has to be considerably higher compared to a PhD thesis.”  In Germany, you have to go through this whole process if you want to become a professor.

Hearing:

* Tim Fischer sing Georg Kreisler’s “Gnadenlose Abrechnung” at St. Pauli Theater. Not normally my thing, but a nice change of pace!
* what a fantastic orator we have for a president.

Tasting:

* fried rice with lamb from a quick Indian restaurant. Not “fast food” like McDonalds, just fast food, like it arrives quickly on your table.

Feeling:

* a massage (yes, another one) to work out the kinks in my neck and shoulders.  Boy am I glad I found such a great massage therapist in Hamburg!
* my eyes start to cross after spending pretty much the whole week translating my interviews into English.

Smelling:

* a lot of B.O. this week from other people (I swear it’s not me!).