*I like to travel. It's good to see other parts of the world and meet new people. I hope to go back to Spain and Portugal sometime within the next few years, and I'd love to travel to Chile again. I've already been there with my family, but it's been a while. I would like to see Brazil and England and Ireland, too.
*I love languages. This helps when I travel, because I don't want to fit the stereotype of travelling Americans who expect the world to speak English for their benefit (Note, I said stereotype; that means I don't believe it's universally true, just that it's something that other people believe about people from the USA). I've got a list of languages I want to learn, and so far I've got Spanish and Portuguese, but I'd like to add Italian, French, and German someday, if I have time.
*I love reading. My favorite genres are fantasy, frontier literature (Louis L'Amour--no, he doesn't write only westerns; he writes about frontiers, which is a broader genre), some dystopia (utopias that aren't... like The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, etc.), mysteries (mostly Agatha Christie), and other classic literature. Favorite authors are Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Louis, Isabel Allende. Some of my favorite books are To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, The Alliance by Gerald Lund, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Louis, The Icarus Hunt and Deadman's Switch by Timothy Zahn, and many others.
*I like watching movies for fun and as part of class. When I saw Avatar a few weeks ago, I didn't like the plot but I did like being able to see the themes of romanticism and discovery and so many of the same themes that show up in American literature. (By "American" I mean everything from the top of Canada to the the southern tip of South America.) I enjoy watching films in BYU's International Cinema because there's so much to think about.
*I love to quote my favorite movies, especially Emperor's New Groove, Star Wars (mostly the original series--I don't like the newer ones), and the Princess Bride.
*I like older movies, including The Thin Man series (one of the few instances where the movies are better than the book that inspired them--mostly because they're a lot cleaner), "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon" and some of Alfred Hitchcock's, mainly "The Lady Vanishes", "Rear Window," and "The Trouble with Harry." The dialog tends to be better, and they're less likely to fall into the typical genres of "chick flick" or "adventure".
*I like listening to a lot of different music. I like classical, country, Beatles, Monkees, Carpenters, Billy Joel, some pop. As a general rule, I don't like rap.
*I like to cook. It's really fun to cook with people and be able to talk, and then get to share delicious food. It's much more fun to cook when you either have someone to cook with or when you're cooking for others. If I do cook alone, I either pull up a TV show from Hulu or I listen to music. (It's more productive if I just listen to music).
Well, that's about it for now. Not that there's not more I like to do, I just have to get on with my day. So long.
