Outside academia, I enjoy activities that challenge me physically and intellectually, and that allow me to explore new environments and ideas:
stepping out of my comfort zone — traveling to new places, meeting new people, and exploring unfamiliar cultures and cuisines (occasionally with tears caused by overly ambitious spicy food choices)
experimenting with healthy cooking and eating — including a temporary commitment to veganism during Easter and a resistance to chocolates, cakes, and other ''non-natural'' sweets time by time throughout the year
pushing my limits at the gym — bravely testing heavy equipment and machines that may or may not be designed for my strength level
Beyond economics, I have an interest in classic literature:
C. Dickens -- Great expectations, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist
J. Austen -- Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility
F. S. Fitzgerald -- Great Gatsby
N. Machiavelli -- The Prince
H. Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
G. Orwell -- 1984, Animal Farm
K. Kesey -- One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
K. Hosseini -- A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner
A. Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl
L. M. Alcott -- Little Women, Good Wives
A. Camus -- The Fall , The Stranger
R. Bach -- Jonathan Livingston Seagull
V. Wolf -- Mrs. Dalloway
F. Dostoevsky -- Crime and Punishment, White Nights, A Faint Heart, A Christmas Tree and a Wedding
A. de Saint-Exupéry -- The Little Prince
M. Shelley -- Frankenstein
L. Carrol -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
D. Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon
C. Bronte -- Jane Eyre
O. Wilde -- The Picture of Dorian Gray
A. Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo
E. Hemingway -- The Old Man and The Sea
If you think I should read something that impressed you, feel free to let me know.