Where in the World is Andrea Going?

I meet with the Stake President at 7 pm this Sunday to submit my mission papers. Add your comment to this message to make your guesses for where I will be called to serve!

Minnesota Nice

Apparently "Minnesota Nice" is real. Today one of my co-workers (from Wisconsin and alum of the University of Minnesota) said she could tell I'm from Minnesota because I'm so nice. Better to be nice than mean, I say.

Not everyone in the United States agrees with me. Not even the cashier at CVS Pharmacy who told me to "read the sign" yesterday when I asked if what I was purchasing rang up as the correct price (and then said, "I was right," when he showed me the sign). Nor the waiter in New York who told me that my method of payment was annoying. Nor the doctor's office receptionist who had a completely flat facial expression and didn't even try to make nice conversation with me...

I admit it, I have unrealistically high expectations. And it probably isn't healthy that internally I feel upset when strangers aren't nice to me (I even talk about it later with an incredulous tone - Can you BELIEVE what he said to me?!?).

However, I am slowly coming to grips with the "real world." Every day I learn how to be kind to those who are unkind and to forgive even strangers who I will never see again. Without the discomfort I have felt here on the east coast, I likely would never have learned these lessons.

But I still like Minnesota nice. :)

Good Advice (I'd imagine)

"Choose the one you love. Love the one you choose."

Ere you left your room this morning, did you think Hep A?

So I had a few hours of kicking myself today when I found out that I had not been vaccinated for Hepatitis A as a child and that the Hepatitis A vaccine is required to serve a mission. There must be at least six months between the first and second dosage. Hep A is an extremely unpleasant sounding disease that attacks the liver and is transmitted by contact with feces. Yikes! (That's when I ask myself, If I knew I was going to contract Hepatitis A before I left on my mission, would I still go?) Fortunately, after calling the Church missionary department, I found that you really only need to have the first shot before you enter the MTC. You can receive the others in the MTC, in the field, or after you return home.

Moral of the story: If you are planning to serve a mission, go to the doctor asap to get your Hep A vaccination.

Mission update

For all those who are wondering, I met with the bishop today regarding my mission papers. My doctor and dentist exams are in the next few weeks and I am sending in my application for a passport this week. I talked with the sister missionaries today and hopefully I will be able to go out on splits with them in the near future. They said they will let me teach. :-) I am looking forward to serving!

I'm an Art-aholic

Since I've been out East, I've had the chance to attend many art museums and I've discovered... that I'm an art-aholic! So far my favorites have been the Metropolitan Museum of Art (top) and the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum (bottom).

Paintings just aren't the same in a textbook as they are in person. Sometimes the most important aspect of a piece of art is its actual physical size. Other times, the vividness of the colors does not hold in the reproduction. Mostly, there is something about looking at the actual canvas that Picaso, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Seurat, Raphael, Cassatt, or Degas painted that is thrilling.

I love impressionism. These paintings are meant to capture the impression of scenes and often portary everyday events or landscapes. The beauty of the brushstrokes and the capturing of the feeling of an event or scene can make me feel serene.

Back at BYU I went to a lecture on annunciation paintings and now I just love them. To illustrate this, at the Met in New York I specifically sought out an exhibit that I thought would have annunciation paintings. I walked through, enjoying the artwork but noticing the lack of annunciations. Then I turned a corner and **BAM** there was a wall-sized annunciation and I gasped! Audibly. The rest of the rooms of the exhibit had several annunciations and I took pictures of them so I could study and ponder them later. If you don't believe, see photo of the annunciation painting below. They are packed full of symbolism, which makes searching for symbols like an eye spy game, and I am impressed with some of the consistencies across the paintings. Ask me later if you want to hear more about my love for them.

But as you can see from the quizzical look below, I still have a hard time understanding modern and contemporary art. We thought this one (at the Musem of American Art) looked like a thought bubble. The plaque described it as an example of delicacy despite it's large size and some other stuff that I didn't buy. If anyone has any insights, feel free to share.

Yay art!

Positive Outcomes

Last month, I helped my supervisor create a PowerPoint presentation to be delivered at a UNICEF conference in Paris. Unfortunately she was hit by a car while she was on her bicycle shortly before the trip and wasn't able to deliver it, but another employee at Child Trends did and I think the topic of the presentation has remarkable application in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For the past several years, my supervisor has been involved in a push for the development of positive indicators in the Child Development research community. Click here to see a copy of the presentation she gave to BYU students when she spoke as a guest lecturer there in 2007.

Part of the argument for positive indicators is that "problem free is not fully prepared." In other words, we can work to get rid of adolescent drug use, but that is not the same as having a community full of healthy teenagers who are living good lives. As a society, after we encourage children to avoid bad things, we must also suggest and encourage good activities to fill that empty time. This is difficult for several reasons that are outlined in her slides, including the lack of consensus on positive indicators, but I believe it is an ideal to be worked toward.

That is part of why I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am reminded of things to avoid in my life because they will bring unhappiness. But there is no void because through the encouragement to seek to fill my life with good and uplifting things, I am able to find fulfillment (Articles of Faith 1:13). To me, this seeking after good is what truly makes a great society.