Alexey T. (SLI) about Sensitivity to Sounds and Smells

At the German university, we lived in a dormitory. Germans are very loud people. I didn’t want to hear that noise—I needed to sleep. That’s where I learned to be “deaf.”

Sounds, smells, touches—all of these are perceived very sensitively. Most of what surrounds me smells unpleasant—something always stinks. But when there’s a pleasant smell—it brings back memories, almost a kind of euphoria. I have a neighbor who lives downstairs, and we run into each other in the elevator maybe twice a year. She wears absolutely stunning perfume... And sometimes you see a young, elegant, beautiful woman, but the smell—just awful. And you think: “How do you even live with that smell?” It doesn’t match, there’s no harmony between the image and the scent.