Happy Lunar New Year's!

This week is the Lunar New Year's and I get Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off this week. Unfortunately, I was not able to make any kind of travel plans during this time because I had to be at work on Monday and Friday, which significantly limits the possibilities of any extended traveling. I have decided to stay put.

Today, I met Stephen in Seoul and we went to two bookstores. I was looking for more graphic novels by Craig Thompson. For my birthday last year, Matt sent me Carnet de Voyage, which is an illustrated account of Thompson's trip to Morocco and various countries in Europe. The drawing style and reflections expressed by Thompson are strikingly similar to Matt's. After finishing the novel, I wanted to read more of Thompson's work. Unfortunately, I could not anything by him, however I did pick up other books.

The first book I picked up is Identity by Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. After reading the back cover, my intuition was telling me that maybe its time to read another Kundera book. The last two books I read were Angels and Demons and Deception Point both written by Dan Brown. I've found that Brown seems to use the same plot devices to create his stories, and that each succeeding novel is a refinement of the previous novel's plot devices. The Da Vinci Code is by far his best achievement in his refinements so far.

The second book I picked up was more for the laughs; it's called Making out in Korean: From Everyday Conversation to the Language of Love. Stephen and I were having too much fun reading through some of the expressions found within its covers. He picked up a copy for himself too. I think we will text message each other some of the choice phrases in the book as a kind of recurring inside joke.

The third book's title is Spanish for Dummies. Recently, a part of me really wants to learn other romance languages while I am here in Korea. I was torn between Spanish and French. Spanish won because its overwhelming practicality was all too evident. I'm not sure how much continued effort I'll put into this endeavor, but I guess time will tell.

Tomorrow Dae Eun and I will spend the day together.