Life is a bliss when it comes to convenience here in Taiwan, especially when almost all is still open and people can roam almost wherever you want as long as you have a mask on your face.
Alas, it isn't really the kind of holiday where you can simply go all out and set off on an adventure of free spirit and boundless roaming, for there are still projects for the school to be done, and adequate resting along with family quality time are important, as well.
The Perfume
Once in a blue moon, I watched the movie adaption of a book before I had my hands on the original version.I was looking for some past-time last week when I was meat-slabbing at home (I hope the new verb meat-slabbing concisely conveyed the fact I was being absolutely inactive). I recalled how Johannes recommended the movie The Perfume to me, and how I once gave Aubrey the very book (in German) on her birthday (Finally found a bookstore willing to order it for me online on the third try).
With the setting in France several centuries back, our protagonist was born in the slum, life miserable from minute one. He was born with an inhumane keen sense of smell, which made his pursuit for olfactory elements his own mystery of the universe to unravel.
Either it is the universal truth or the morbid thoughts of our protagonist, our protagonist found that the best smell in the world is that of young women. With the art of perfumery that he had mastered along the way, he started murdering women and made little bottles of perfume out of his poor victims as people became terrified of the disappearing young maidens in the household who were later discovered as pale corpses, easily disposed.
I just went online, trying to see if there was supposed to a source that the author, Patrick Süskind, referred to when writing this book. All I found out was that this had been a well-acclaimed novel in the 20th century. I thought about how it would be better to have a better idea of the Patrick-Süskind-conjured world through reading his book; after all, the book is always better than the movie.
Going Out
There were days when it rained; I had had the impulse to rush out and just enjoy the rain, the downpour soaking into your skin as you run around with your cares cast behind. On second thought, though, I decided that it wouldn't really be a sensible thing to do such a rash action, to get yourself ill in times of the virus.On the days when the sun shone, I tried to remove myself from the bed, stepping out into the open, and enjoying the Taiwanese quality time I was given, all thanks to the Coronavirus. My being here in Taiwan at this moment, however, disrupted my plans to come back only during the summer vacation. I currently plan to go back to Germany after at least the middle of May, and it makes absolute no sense to come back once again in July.
On Wednesday, I arranged a meetup with Cathy, whose courses had also been adapted to the online format and was taking her courses in a cafe in the peripheral of her university. Been out of contact expect my family members, I really wanted to be able to see my friends once again. Cathy was being her normal self, steadily tackling her towering project while holding all the snarky comments against me. We had a pancake together even though the alarm bells in my head had rung against the action. I guess I was still a bit frightened that I would pass on the virus I didn't have to Cathy. We decided to play some video games at my place on the coming Friday.
 |
| Nice snack |
 |
| On Friday, however, Cathy couldn't come, for her mom thought it might nit be safe enough for her to come to someone who just came back from Germany. I had already started cooking lunch when I knew... |
On Sunday, the Random Thought of the Day column in my brain focused on the second hand bookstore that moved to another site around the time I left Taiwan last year, and I asked myself whether there would be a better day than this to visit the bookstore that supposedly had a whole shelf of books in foreign languages.
I personally approve of the new site the Whose Bookstore moved to. I wholeheartedly do. The two-story site of the previous location was transferred to a brighter, three-story building with more seats for visitors wanting to sip on a cup of coffee while surrounded by books.
As expected, the foreign books section was moved over as well, and I spent an hour and a half facing the same bookshelf, knowing that I would feel sorry for myself if I had left empty-handed.
Time went by, and I left the bookstore with a content smile with the weight of six books in my arms. Two of them are more worthy of note: one is a German book about different plants and their cultural significance in the fairytales and literatures and fables. The other is a book (also in German) about the culinary tradition of Chinese culture and how the Chinese beliefs system led to the factors contributing to the style of cuisine. There are also some recipes you can actually follow to prepare some Chinese dishes. I plan to give this one to Johannes, though, given that this sounds like something he might be interested in.
 |
| Got myself some feel-good factor though book shopping |
End
This week stood in the gray area between active and inactive, but it was indeed a week I like quite much.
In the following letter, I will be talking about walking.
Sincerely,
Hugo
No comments:
Post a Comment