How to use an independent structure to modify a sentence within a sentence?

Question

>After one year, I quit my job, said goodbye to my friends, went to Beijing to study philosophy, participating in a lot of classes given by professors, but never having been registered as a formal student. [self-made] Will it be ambiguous to use "participating", since it is not clear in this sentence that the phrase following participate modifies "to study philosophy". So maybe it is necessary to divide it into two sentences?

Answer 1

The reason that participating seems off is that it is a gerund. You could continue your parralellism by replacing participating with participated, but I would suggest taking it even further and using "audited classes" in place of participating in a lot of classes given by professors, followed with "but never formally registered." Here is it all together:

After one year, I quit my job, said goodbye to my friends, went to Beijing to study philosophy, and audited classes, but never formally registered.