My Travel Adventures

Autumn has finally begun and the weather no longer makes Taipei feel like a polluted sauna. It is still somewhat humid, but the temperatures have become more bearable and some of my teachers have even started wearing several layers of clothing.

This week, I finally finished my marathon of Verdi’s 27 operas. Had it not been for a couple of pleasant surprises, I would almost have been inclined to conclude that the only Verdi worth listening to is the Verdi you have already heard. For my own future reference, I am making a little ranking of my favourites below

This week had been another week to bless us with a long weekend. The National Day of the Republic of China (also called Double Ten Day because it falls on the tenth of October) fell on a Thursday this year, meaning that we also took the Friday off. For the whole extended weekend, there were flags everywhere, which really makes me think that in terms of advertisement and subliminal messaging, the KMT has it much easier than any other party on the island. The holiday celebrates the Wuchang Uprising of 1911 which led to the overthrow of the Qing government and the establishment of the Republic of China.

Amid tense expectations on Sunday night, an email was finally sent out that school was cancelled the following day because of a typhoon. The government had ordered all schools across Taipei to close, and I heard many businesses did not open on that day either (interestingly, a rumour soon spread that the government had only made this decision to score points for the upcoming elections). My suitemate very foresightedly bought us some supplies to, well, weather the weather, and we holed ourselves in waiting for the worst.

My first week studying at the ICLP was very relaxed. My classes begin at 8:10 and end at 12:00, after which I have the whole day to do whatever I want. This week I spent all of my afternoons at the library.

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 17 th century Taiwan. The 5 th floor of the main library is a wonderfully quiet study place housing special collections on all sorts of topics.

ICLP scheduled another two days for ‘orientation’ after our exam on Tuesday. I don’t know whether this is part of growing up, becoming more Czech, or simply suffering from jetlag, but I have never felt more robbed of my time by a presentation. In the total of five hours, I think I learned two useful things, and even those two things I have already forgotten.