It's been a while since I've written. And since that time, absinthe has become legal again in the US. Who'd have thunk? I've been up to the usual: trying to save the world. Wrote a teaching manual with Shreya in October, gave a few presentations on Peace Education, and applied to grad school again, this time in Canada.
I spent Christmas in Seoul for 5 days, shopping around the Itaewon district and sending Xmas presents home to family. New Year's was celebrated back in Daegu, where I had a bit much too drink but one hell of a night. By the end, I was wandering the labrinth-inspired streets in Blair-witch-style circles. I'm back up in Seoul now for a few more days, visiting the Indian embassy, and meeting a few UPeace friends. Will be good to reminisce on another year and alma mater past.
Books I've been reading of late: "Love in the Time of Cholera" (Marquez), "The Kite Runner" (Khaled Hosseini), "Slaughterhouse 5" (Vonnegut--who passed away this past year 2007), "By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept" (Coelho), and "True Love" (Thich Nhan Haht). Beginning with the Winter Vacation I went on a roll, finally finishing "Love in the Time of Cholera" and laying down a few more.
I far prefer Marquez' "100 Years of Solitude", which I read in September, but "Love" is certainly a fun ride of a story with a few unforeseen and sickening moments (meant to be read for their literary structure I suppose rather than at face value).
"Slaugtherhouse 5" was a bizarre one, but full of laughs. The most moving moment for me was when Vonnegut opened up in the final chapter with commentary on life in the time that he was writing, on the death of Robert Kennedy, MLK Jr, and his disdain for armaments. One interesting aspect of this book though, and something mostly of the past at this point, is that it's pretty clear the book was written on a typewriter rather than a computer. This gives it a bit of a raw grasp, fresh and dynamic, rather than computer doctored. I like it.
Coelho's "By the River Piedra" could be skipped over, really not much of a point, not quite a story, more meditations on life and love, but hardly insightful. And the "Kite Runner" is by far the better work of the group, a gut-wrenching story that makes you lock your jaw, turn your head from the images, and squeeze the cushions on your seat, disgustingly real I fear.
Now I am beginning "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (Kundera). Here's hoping for a great and profound 2008!
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