Andrea Hoffmann

My Basic Information

• Name: Andrea Hoffmann
• Birthday: November 21, 1989
• Age: 17
• Zodiac: Scorpio

From left to right: Me at my Quinceañera; My friends and I before Prom 2007; Me in costume for Rock'n'Roll Revival #36

My Name

My full name is Andrea Marie Hoffmann. I know what you’re thinking-- masculine, bitter sea, land-owning, German farmer. Or at least that’s what you would be thinking if you were a dictionary of name meanings and origins. I'm at a loss as to why a name meaning "masculine" would be a girl's name, but I don't consider myself to be particularly masculine so I guess that it doesn't really matter. I pronounce my name like "Anne-dree-uh" and generally prefer it to the "Ahn-dray-ah" pronunciation, with the exception of when my hispanic relatives say it. My middle name, Marie, means "bitter sea" and I'm not quite sure how I should interpret that. It's a family name so my sister and most female cousins on my father's side of the family have the same middle name. My last name "Hoffmann" practically screams German descent. It's defined as "A nickname for a farmer who owned his land rather than rented" by a website about last name origins. For an extra fun-fact my Catholic confirmation name is Rosa, after St. Rosa of Lima.

Background

Home

I'm from a suburb of Washington D.C. in Montgomery County, Maryland. I moved there with my family when I was 2 years old from a house only about 40 minutes away.

Family

I have my mom, dad, a younger brother and an older sister. My extended family on my dad's side almost all live on the west coast. My mom's side of the family live mostly in Peru.

My Mom

My mom and I at a Redskins pre-season game

My mom's name is Martha Ganoza Hoffmann, Ganoza being her maiden name. She works in Washington D.C. at the Inter-American Development Bank which, put simply, is like the World Bank but dealing mostly with South and Central America. She was born in Trujillo, Peru and came to the United States for the first time as an exchange student in Indiana. She then came back to live and work in Washington D.C. She likes doing a lot of domestic things like cooking and makes the best flan ever.

My Dad

My Grandmother

My Dad is Randall Arnold Hoffmann Jr. and is from Ames, Iowa. He was born in April 1928 so, in other words, he is really old. He's had many jobs including being in the military and being an economics professor, but is now retired. He has lived in many different places including Argentina, Mexico and Indonesia. He was married before he met my mom and had two sons, my half-brothers, Shane and Wiley. Both are now in their 40's and have families of their own. In his spare time, my dad likes to do pretty much anything involving technology. His father's name was Randall A. Hoffmann Sr. and his mother's name was Cleone Hoffmann. I was able to find a record of my grandmother under her maiden name, Cleone Albright, during the 1920 U.S. Census with the head of the family being Harry Albright.

My Sister

Professor McGonagall, Michele, Professor Dumbledore and I

My older sister Michele is a little more than 2 years older than me. She is currently in her third year at St. Mary's College of Marylandand is involved in a ridiculous amount of clubs and organizations there. She's fashionable in an eccentric way and loves to shop, maybe a little too much. She is very much the girly-girl and very different from me in many ways. She is loud, very involved in singing for choirs and loves anything and everything having to do with Russian culture. She reads a lot with an emphasis on Russian literature and, of course, the Harry Potter books. So far her plan is to double-major in Biology and English.

My Brother

Randy and his precious guitar

My brother is named after my dad and grandpa, making him Randall Arnold Hoffmann III. He is 15 and a sophmore in high school. We sometimes refer to him as "Charisma Boy" but for the most part we just call him Randy. He's on the JV football team and is huge, especially for his age. He recently gave up his obsession with the computer game World of Warcraft and has now taken up playing bass guitar. He is the comic relief in my family.

Education

I am currently a first-year student at Dickinson College. I didn't go to pre-school at all so my education started at Brooke Grove Elementary School, an amazing elementary school that recieved the state Blue Ribbon Award and was visited by President Bill Clinton. I then went to William H. Farquhar Middle School where our school mascot was the roadrunner, of all things. The summer before the 8th grade, I went to a school where my cousin taught for 2 months in Peru. My high school was Sherwood High School with our mascot being "the warrior" that looked remarkably like Robin Hood. Get it? Sherwood like Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood? It's alright, we thought that it was lame too.

Religion

My dad is Presbytarian but my siblings and I were raised as Catholics by my mother. My mother, her family and pretty much the entirety of Peru are Catholics. There are several superstitions not related to catholocism like something having to do with rubbing an egg all over your face and then breaking it to get rid of bad luck or something that we've also participated in but I wouldn't quite call that religious. I started going to school of religion in about the 1st grade and continued the classes once a week during the school year at St. Peter's Parish until the 8th grade. Over those years, I had my first communion, went to confession regularly and was confirmed. I then continued at the school of religion as a class aid for community service. I think that I officially figured out that I didn't believe in the Catholic Church in the 8th grade when I was preparing for my confirmation. I no longer consider myself as a part of an organized religion but rather as an agnostic.

Other Information

My intended major, for now at least, is International Business and Management. I speak what I call “kitchen Spanish” because I know only the Spanish used in casual and everyday speaking and my grammar is not very good. In addition to Spanish, I have been studying French for about 6 years and have very limited knowledge of Slovak. For example, if you ever find yourself in Slovakia and in need of saying words such as “potatoes”, “milk”, “ice cream” and “dandelion” or you need to count to 19, then I can help you.

Favorites

• Color: Red
• Animal: the flying fox
• T.V. shows: L.A. Ink, LOST and America’s Next
• Top Model (because it’s so ridiculous)
• Fruit: Grapefruit or Honeydew
• Football team: the REDSKINS
• Music: most things except for twangy country music

Hobbies

My most recent painting, finished in the spring

In my spare time there are a lot of different things that I like to do. I like to…

• Draw
• Paint—mostly with acrylic paint
• Read- I read a lot of fictional books for fun. Among my favorites are the Harry Potter Series, the Eragon series, Brave New World, and others. I also like to read X-men comic books, by Marvel comics.
• Talk to my friends
• Browse the internet aimlessly- My favorite haunts include Cyanide and Happiness comics, Threadless Tees, Postsecret, Micro Maniac, Elfwood, Potter Puppet Pals, Facebook and Youtube.