Classes started today. I'm not sure what I want to do with my sleeping schedule. Because I went with my uncle to dinner last night, I went to sleep late and woke up seven hours later, around five. I finished off reciting this cycle of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and went for a run.

I'm declaring this problem I'm having with my left calve an injury, as it's not going away. It's like a stealth injury, because it seems to go away, and I go on a run and everything seems to be going fine, and then bam!

I was running steadily at less than 7:30 miles, and I felt it when I was within 200 meters of finishing twice around Daan Park (I was going for three times around). I knew I should have stopped immediately, but I limped in to complete the twice around, knowing I could still beat the general target of 10 minute circuits around the park. Even limping in, I finished in 19:41.

Of course, since classes were starting today, my allergies were acting up something fierce. It's so in my head, but knowing it's in my head doesn't seem to help to overcome it. I took an expired Claritin, and surprisingly the allergy went away and stayed away for class (most of the pack hadn't been doing anything).

There were only three students in the class today. I think the teacher was expecting more, but the class sizes at Taida are supposed to be small. Much better than at Shida. I'm not sure how I'm going to avoid the same mistakes I made at Shida. I guess there's no way to avoid them, except stop living.

I like the hermit-like existence of the past week and a half, the waking up at midnight and minimal contact with people, but I think I'll exchange numbers with my classmates tomorrow. One of them, a Japanese woman, speaks English pretty well, having studied in the U.S. for college. I didn't gauge her English, though, as I tried to speak as much Chinese with her as possible – that's the low level of discussion we managed in the 10 minutes after class before I headed off to practice drums.

I had no problem getting a drum room this much later in the day, so I don't need to be concerned about the inconvenient time slot of the class. Afterwards I had dinner in the Shida night market area. I'm no longer a student there, but that area still feels like mine. But mostly because that's where the practice studio is.

5:54 p.m. - Heping E. and Xinsheng S. Rds. intersection