Stale Pringles

Somewhat lacking in entertainment, but informative (hopefully) nonetheless.

From: laurenemilys@gmail.com
To: european.governance@gmail.com, lynn_elliot@byu.edu
Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Subject: Lauren Smith Weekly Email #1

Jason and Dr. Elliott,

I made it to Brussels. I arrived on Monday morning, and BYU Intern Lani Livingston and Sister Romney picked me up from the airport. So far this week, I've been able to attend FHE, French lessons, Institute, and will be playing the piano for a baptism tonight. The ward is very welcoming and I'm really grateful to have people that I can easily fit in with already. I am sharing Lani and Lauren Soelberg's flat - it is small but comfortable. We live in a very nice area which is very close to the EU building, the metro, and the Romneys' house.

I met with my boss, Michiel Matthes, on Tuesday afternoon for an hour and a half at the Romneys' house. He is Dutch and spent a while explaining how he got involved in Alliance for Childhood. The Romneys then explained what they have been doing to help Michiel in his work. He then went over what I should be doing at first. I need to be reading up on all the material he has sent me from past conferences, etc., and then start on merging the powerpoint slides into a report of a conference that the Romneys previously summarized. Then I will make my own report of another conference given in March. I also agreed to attend the conference they are hosting in Rome on 10 June. I booked my tickets and am currently working on getting a place to stay for the night of 9 June. Another BYU intern, Steph, is thinking of coming to Rome with me.

I am working in the basement of the Romneys house, they have an office set up there. It is really a great set up because it is only about 5 blocks from my house. The Romneys have been really helpful in getting me established in Brussels as well. I have already started on my cultural activities, going with Lauren and Lani to see Grand Place and Mannequin Pis, as well as eating some Belgian waffles. I am still getting over jet lag, but am starting to work on the projects Michiel has given me.

I also am going to talk to him soon about using some time here in Brussels to work for the Woman Stats project. I have been doing research for Valerie Hudson in Provo, and she would like me to continue inputting data from the documents I am reading here, since WomanStats has a few variables about children and their human rights.

Sincerely,

Lauren Smith


From: laurenemilys@gmail.com
To: european.governance@gmail.com, lynn_elliot@byu.edu
Date: Fri, July 3, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Subject: Lauren Smith Weekly Email #2

Dear Dr. Elliot and Jason,

This week has gone by quickly. I started out on Monday by reading most of the materials that Michiel had sent me - reports of previous Alliance for Childhood conferences, a summary of child abuse in Irish schools that had recently been in the news, information sheets on Alliance for Childhood, etc. Once I had finished that and felt I had a little bit stronger understanding of what Alliance for Childhood does, I returned to the Michel Vandenbroeck report that I had started last week. I took the images of Dr. Vandenbroeck's slides from a pdf and inserted them into the text. I also did quite a bit of editing on the report for readability, punctuation, etc.

I finished the report on Wednesday, and prepared to start on the 3 March conference, which I was supposed to make a summarized report of out of 2 tapes of audio from the report. However, when I put the tapes into the tape recorder, the static and outside noise on the tapes was so bad that I could only make out every 5 or 6 word. It got worse as the conference continued. I had a meeting set up with Michiel on Thursday, so Elder Romney and I determined to wait until then to discuss what we should do. Entrance to the Brussels Museum of Fine Art is free every first Wednesday of the month, so Sister Romney and I took some time off and went with Lani to the museum.

On Thursday, I met with Michiel and he said that the tapes were not a huge deal, since he was the one who gave the presentation, and we already had the powerpoint slides he had used. However, he was interested in recording the comments after his presentation, so he wants me to go back and see if any of those are more intelligable. We also discussed the entire agenda for the Rome conference and he told me the background of everyone coming. Michiel is going on holiday immediately after the Rome conference, so we discussed projects that I can work on until he returns in August. The list includes: executive summaries for the Michel Vandenbroeck and Peter Moss reports (both of these reports were written by the Romneys), adding book descriptions and books to the system on Alliance for Childhood's website, transcribing the meeting in Rome, and researching Gaiasoft and LinkedIn as tools for raising awareness for Alliance for Childhood.

This week I was also busy making my travel arrangements for the conference in Rome. I am flying on RyanAir to Rome on Thursday morning and attending the opening presentation and dinner for the conference on Thursday night. Then I staying in a bed and breakfast very close to where Michiel and other members of the conference are staying, attending the conference on Friday, and flying to Paris to meet up with Lani and Steph and some other people on Friday night. Then, we are taking the train back to Brussels on Tuesday. I feel like I was able to get pretty good deals on all of these plans.

I am meeting with Michiel next Tuesday at his home to discuss the book projects, and will probably spend some time working from his home during the rest of July, when he is on holiday.

Ciao,

Lauren Smith