The Doktorhut Tradition

Nothing against the US, but Germany does PhD defenses way cooler. Believe it or not it all boils down to a hat: the Doktorhut. For weeks before the PhD defense, co-workers and fellow students feverishly craft a giant morter board hat to surprise you with after your defense, covered in pictures and symbols of your time in grad school. For instance, if I had had one, it might've had: pictures of friends, something to do with the beerathon, a bar of chocolate, an homage to Panera, and a mini thesis titled "wedding planning."

Since our friend Guillaume just graduated this summer, I can show you what his hat looked like. It had a suitcase because he had a saga with lost luggage last year, the Eiffel tower because he's French, a wine bottle with a label from his family's vineyard, pics of friends, images from his research, etc., etc. It was a masterpiece:

Granted, Guillaume's had to be the most complicated Doktorhut ever to grace this green earth. It had two layers, played music, had LED lights, a steel reinforced cylinder....in other words, this thing weighed a ton! Thus the reason that Guillaume needed help to keep the thing on his head during the obligatory picture:

I think the reason that I like the defenses so much more here, is that they make such a big deal out of it. The whole department gets excited. Families come in town to celebrate. Everyone goes to see them give their talk. When the successful candidate passes and comes back upstairs to greet everyone, they are presented with their hat (with the obligation to determine what everything means), followed by a champagne toast and a big party. Of course, you have to pay for the party yourself, but it's a small price to pay for the fun and excitement of the day.

Sweetness

Man, it seems like we've been so busy this summer....and I guess we really have. It all started with our trip to Greece in the spring, then led to trips to the US, Paris, Munich, France, London, and (coming up this weekend) Amsterdam. Busy, busy bees.

Speaking of which, I thought I would show off the super cool ice cream treat I got a few weekends ago at the mall here in Stuttgart. *Technically* it's an item from the kids' menu, but the waiter let me order it anyway. It's three scoops of ice cream, made to look like a bumble bee. Pretty sweet, huh?

Andy also got ice cream, in the form of an enormous berry-tastic Sundae. It was super good. Those of you planning to come visit can have these delectable treats to look forward to. The whole Gelato thing is really big here.

In other random news, I remembered another funny word in German. Hummer = lobster. Kind of makes me giggle now when I see one of those giant tanks driving around. Not that I see them that often here in Europe. I don't even know how you'd park one of those things on these narrow little streets! There's a reason those tiny smart cars are so popular here.

Until we meet again, I'll leave you with one final sweet picture: the lemon cake that I brought to a friend's baby shower last weekend. Lemon sponge cake, with lemon curd filling, and lemon cream cheese frosting. I wish I could take credit for the whole thing, but the lemon-slice border was Andy's idea. :)

Fun in the Sun in Lon Don

Can you believe we returned from London with tans?

So THAT's what you get when you travel somewhere in the high season.. good weather.. whodathunkit. No fear - each day found me with a better tan but much, much poorer. That's a damn expensive place to go, but what you can experience in London beyond makes up for that silly ideology we refer to as fiscal responsibility. I often come back from a trip wishing I had taken more time to learn about the area of visit, but this time I came back interested in learning more about London's history *after* the visiting. This was yet another location where you can't see everything in four long days (which we had at our disposal), and I urge anyone going to London to focus on one or two things a day with time to let it all sink in. If I'm lucky enough to have children some day, they will certainly NOT enjoy going with me on family vacations if it's to historically interesting places. I consider myself more of a Clark Griswold sort of fellow, but I'm destined to be closer to Professor Henry Jones, spending long days observing and learning like your life will someday depend upon it. A fast paced life is for the birds. Or for your reckless, treasure hunting son who calls himself Indiana.

Besides catching up with old and new friends C, J, and S, we sampled a bit of the Bitter Beer which Londoners love more than the Germans love soccer (uh, Fussball for you Deutschers), stared at obscenely decorated wonders such as the Crown Jewels and the Windsor Castle dollhouse, and tooled around the Tower of London (no, it's not really a tower), the Tate Modern art museum, and unsuccessfully tried to spook ourselves by partaking in the Jack the Ripper Night Tour.

Of course, we'd not have this opportunity without S's generosity, providing us company and a comfy bed not even a block away from the London Eye (and thus, across the bridge from Big Ben which was coooooooooooooooooooooool at night). And for those of you who don't know, the London Eye is a massive ferris wheel where each car holds some 16 people and takes 30 minutes from beginning to end! For now I'll leave you with this large London sight, and B's entrance as a great photographer.