Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You

[charisjulia]

Well, here I am, one more newbie, feeling all too bewildered and out—
of—my—depth for the time being, but dead chuffed to be here anyway! 
I'm not really sure I deserve this distinction actually, I've been 
largely absent from the main list for so long. . . But I definitely 
meant to start posting once more once I finished my exams and 
returned home, and here's the extra shove to get me going! Still 
don't know how much time I'll have till then (and really sorry to 
keep on repeating this! :--), but I'm definitely inclined to spend as 
much as as possible leaning all about how FP works! For the time 
being I don't seem to have any questions (Deranimmer and Abigail have 
coved me), so I guess I'll just skip straight to the bio.

Really glad to be here!

Charis Julia

**************************

>Real name:

Christina Joanna Angelopoulos. And, yes, there is a connection with 
Charis, but only to my slightly unusual brain. . .

>Also known as:

Charis Julia, but only on HPFGU. 

>Age/Sex:

21/F

>Birthplace/Livingplace:

Born in Amarousion, Attica to an English mother and a Greek father. 
This, by the way, means that I myself have both nationalities and 
when I say both I mean both! No "which do you prefer" questions 
please! ;--) Seriously, I do get a lot of people misunderstanding 
this and it can get a bit weary on the nerves. As my sister and I 
have it "We're Europeans! Cosmopolitans! Citizens of the World!"

Grew up in Kifissia, which is in the Northern Suburbs of Athens, 
about as far out from the centre as you can get. Currently at the end 
of an Erasmus year in Leuven, Flanders, Belgium. (The 
Erasmus/Socrates programme is a European student exchange programme, 
which is currently all the rage in European Universities. Everyone is 
leaving on Erasmus! Great life, life--defining experience, learn 
loads, meet * really* cool people) I'm moving back to Athens on June 
3rd (but not for long if I can help it!)

>Family Life:

Single and really enjoying living on my own for the first time. But 
all to come to an end in July. . . In Athens I live with my parents 
and sister.

>Personality:

Yes, but don't tell anyone. . .

>Words friends have used to describe you:

Oh, well, a favourite at the moment seems to be "surprising". 
Apparently I look timid and unassuming and then turn around and do 
something really unexpected out of blue like move country or dance 
tsiftendelli on the table. Or I appear to be organised and self-
disciplined, but always end up handing papers in on the last day and 
can never wait for the little green man before I cross a street. 

>Words you have used to describe you:

Oh, I * do* hate this kind of thing. . . Right, err, reticent, 
bookish, moody, difficult but terribly devoted to anything I really 
care for, enthusiastic, excitable, painfully sensitive and an 
unashamed  procrastinator. (That was a warning by the way.)
 

>Things you do when not staring at the computer:

Read, walk (anywhere as long as I'm moving my legs), study German, 
study law, day-dream far too much and I've been travelling quite a 
lot this year too.

>Comfort foods:

Well, tea is my panacea to almost anything really. And I like baked 
stuff. 

>Education/Work:

I'm studying law at the moment at the University of Athens. Not 
entirely sure why, but I'm hoping to find out somewhere along the 
line. I'm especially interested in EU law, if I can claim to be 
interested in any kind of law. And then there's the Erasmus of 
course. 
 
>Language skills

English. Greek. Working desperately on my German, fervently wish I 
could call myself fluent, but not even close yet. Forgotten all my 
French, must pick it up again this autumn. Can introduce myself and 
order coffee in Dutch. Errr, does Ancient Greek count? Followed six 
bloomin' years of the stuff at school after all, used to be able to 
whiz through the grammar and syntax, spilling out streams of 
anomalous verbs and declining person pronouns in my sleep. But I'm 
cheating, Melody: I could understand the Bible in the original Greek 
no problem waaaay before I started high school. (not that I ever 
really exercise this skill, to be perfectly honest) It's when you 
enter the 5th century BC that things really start getting tough for a 
native speaker. 

 
>Technical know-how:

Zilch. But I do have one unfailing method of dealing with anything I 
can't handle with computers: "Daaaaaaaaaaaddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!" 
My father's an electrical engineer. 

>Favourite HP book:

Used to be PoA, but HPFGU has opened my eyes to the intrigue and 
complexity of GoF. Now I can't really choose. 

>Favourite HP character(s):

Ron and indeed all the Wealseys. Then come Lupin and Sirius.
 
>Favourite HP line

If I had to pick one it would probably be from the end of PoA when 
Lupin enters the Shrieking Shack: "Next moment he had walked to 
Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet so that 
Crookshanks fell to the floor, and embraced Black like a brother."
It just s sends shivers down my spine.


>Watching/Avoiding the HP movies?:

Well, if I had a television I guess I'd be watching – and cringing 
while I did so. I definitely preferred the first film to the second. 
I think the films evoke the general atmosphere of the books all 
right, but massacre the story and the characters. Oh, and I'm 
probably the only member on the list who does not think Rickman makes 
the perfect Snape.

>Into HP fanfiction?

No, not at all. Think I've read a total of about 2 fanfics.
 
>Books you'd recommend to just about anyone:

"The Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien. "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "Captain Corelli's 
Mandolin" (minus the ending which has to be the biggest let--down in 
the history of literature) by Louis De Bernieres, the 
entire "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series by Douglas 
Adams, "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria 
Remarque, "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, I'm really beginning 
to get into Terry Prachett, "The Neverending Story" by Michael 
Ende, "The Green Years" by AJ Cronin, all the "Anne" books by LM 
Montgomery, "Little Women" by LM Alcott, I'm reading "Women In Love" 
by DH Lawrence at the moment and am positively captivated, there's 
those Potter books of course and you know what, I could go on like 
this all day. . . 
 
>Favorite TV shows?

The only television I've watched since I returned from my Christmas 
holidays has been football matches down at the Irish Pub. But back 
when I lived a normal modern bourgeois life, I (and my entire family) 
were really into "Friends". Do mini--series count?
If yes, then I'll add Pride and Prejudice", "The Jewel in the 
Crown", "Brideshead Revisited" (or anything British that comes my way 
really) and "Anne of Green Gables". 

>Favorite movies:

"The Sound of Music", "The English Patient", "The Fiddler on the 
Roof", "The Dead Poets Society" (minus the ending), "You've Got 
Mail", "A Room with a View". Of latest releases I really, really 
liked "Chicago", was enthralled by "Frieda" and greatly enjoyed "X2".


>One thing about your life you'd change if you could – you may not 
>say "lose weight."

My hair then? :-)
Hmm, I'll spare you the childhood trauma and just go with being more 
involved with ELSA (the European Law Students Association), but that 
would mean admitting that I am really a committed law student. . . 
Have decided to volunteer to work for the board in ELSA-Athens come 
autumn anyway.


>One thing about your life you wouldn't change even for an advance 
>copy of Book 7:

My friends, hands down.

>Philosophy for an easy life:

Oh, just keep going, I guess. Things usually turn out all right in 
the end.

>How you found HPfGU:

Same way everyone else seems to have done: browsing the web out of 
boredom and desperation to find somebody else so much into HP. I 
stumbled across the site sometime in mid autumn 2001 and then sat on 
my discovery for about two months, opening the home page every time I 
went online but never actually deciding to join. (I'd never ever even 
chatted before, felt rather shy and besides: what bunch of losers sit 
around talking about * Harry Potter* all day anyway? :-D)

>Active at other HP sites:

No, I've hardly been active in this one for so long after all.

>Your most rock solid OoP prediction:

Two month ago I would have said "Ron will be Keeper", but now we know 
this for sure anyway. So I'll change to Dead,dead,dead!Hagrid

>Members of the fandom you have personally met:

Errrrrr, nobody, actually. But I'd love to!


Charis Julia