Dead Week

For reasons not entirely clear to me, classes did not begin the week after we sat our placement exams. Instead, some people went on trips with the programme, but by the time I had found out about them in the summer, they were fully booked. Instead, I spent the week familiarising myself with NTU’s library system and its books on 17th century Taiwan. The 5th floor of the main library is a wonderfully quiet study place housing special collections on all sorts of topics.

On Tuesday, I got my passport back with the right visa glued inside. I could finally exchange money and buy myself a guitar. There was a music store I remembered walking past while scouting for food where I headed as soon as I had money in my wallet. I never haggle, but when I told the owner I was looking for a simple guitar that I would only need for about a year, he helped me find a cheap model and gave me a big discount on it. During the weekend, I also bought myself a new book. I could not decide which of the four great classic books I should read after having read Journey to the West, but I eventually settled on Romance of the Three Kingdoms for no good reason.

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