(no subject)
I like planning. I met with my new advisor today. He is the epitome of dorky, awkward, middle-aged intellectual. I kind of like it. I walked in his office and the first thing he did was look at my outfit and say, "I guess gray is the new black" and laugh hysterically. He worked at the World Bank and is skeptical about Jeff Sachs and gave me a book to read. I am excited about economic development. I am also excited for The Dynamic Earth and Faulkner & Hemingway and Latin American Politics and sophomore year and international relations in general and having more time to work and making money and gradually achieving more control over my own life. I'm working on getting airfare for my Guatemala trip, and am planning on staying a few days later to do things on my own. I found a hostel for $12 a night with promising reviews, and then I can maybe go to Tikal for the best Mayan ruins in Latin America, and Lake Atitlan, which Aldous Huxley calls the most beautiful lake in the world. These are very exciting prospects. I don't know the next time I will be in Guatemala, so I might as well make the most of it. I also want to keep up my Spanish. It's kind of a shame that it's slipped so much, because I used to be really good at it and it's so practical and Chinese is so hard that if you aren't constantly immersed in it you might as well not try. But I love it anyway. I'm in a good mood right now for some reason. I didn't burn as much money as I thought I would over break. And I met a really cool dog. And Malik Mufti is my favorite person in the world.