Hi!

[maria_kirilenko]

*waves*

Hi, my name is Maria and I want to write FAQs. 

Thank you very much for the all the welcomes. Sorry for taking so 
long to say hello – I've been trying to orient myself here a little. 
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now, but Amanda said that a bio 
is in order. So, here goes.

> Real name:
Maria Kirilenko. Googling for my name will never give a useful result.

> Also known as:
Masha, Manya and variations of these. My mother calls me "dear" when 
she's annoyed with me. I sign onlist posts with "Maria Alena." 

> Age/Sex:
18/female 

> Birthplace/Livingplace:
Born and grew up in Moscow, Russia. Right now I live in Indiana.

> Family Life:
I still live with my family – mother, father, and younger sister. 
They drive me crazy on occasion, but usually we get along very well. 
All of my wonderful extended family lives in Russia.

> Personality:
Er
 I took an online Myers-Briggs test once, and forgot the (highly 
inaccurate) results a half an hour later. The analysis of my first 
name at http://www.kabalarians.com scares me, though. It's much too 
accurate.

> Words friends have used to describe you:
Nice, lazy, inert, much too mathematically inclined, overly self-
analytical, cynical, bleeding heart.

> Words you have used to describe you:
Good-natured, careful, tolerant, nice, extremely lazy, inert, 
sentimental, nave, awkward.

> Comfort foods:
Tea, sandwiches, and salads. 

> Anything else you'd like to reveal?:
Well, I don't believe in fortune-telling, but I swore to never, 
*ever* have a gypsy do it for me.

> Education/Work:
Right now I'm a sophomore in university. I'm studying actuarial 
science and statistics, learning to live with a constant feeling that 
I should have gone into literature or theatre instead. I don't work 
for *money* at the moment, but do a lot of volunteering.

> Language skills:
Aspiring polyglot, but the key word there is "aspiring." I'm fluent 
in Russian and, erm, almost fluent in English. I hope. The language 
I'm learning right now is French, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't die 
in a francophone country if I were to be stranded there.

The next languages on the list are German and Italian, but that's 
assuming I don't hear a very pretty song in another language before 
that. (Mental note: must not listen to Barry sisters.)
 
> Technical know-how:
Not much really useful stuff. I know just about enough HTML to have 
fun on livejournal (username alpheratz), and I have no knowledge of 
Yahoomort whatsoever. I am capable of following instructions and 
learning, though. 

Okay, now here's the fun stuff:

> Favourite HP book:
Goblet of Fire, although I readily admit that Prisoner of Azkaban is 
the best book. I also loved Order of the Phoenix. 

> Favourite HP character(s):
Remus Lupin. I've loved him since his "Is there a problem?" line. He 
is so-- ahem. Right. After OOP I started to *really* like McGonagall. 
Just for the record, I think that JKR threw all those Stunning Spells 
at her to make the readers realize how much they love her. Also, I 
absolutely adore Luna.

> Favourite HP lines:

Most of Ron's funny lines, including "There's going to be loads of 
fog tonight." 

"Or maybe he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the 
school train."

"Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher. There was just that minor 
drawback of him having Voldemort sticking out of the back of his 
head." 

"It unscrews the other way."

And I love the Umbridge detention scenes, because they made me shake 
with helpless anger. I don't remember the last time when I had such a 
strong reaction to fiction. 

> Watching/Avoiding the HP movie?:
Enthusiastically watching and enthusiastically complaining about it 
to anyone who will listen. But now that Emma Thompson's signed on, 
the complaining factor will probably go down lots. 

> Into HP fanfiction?
I was very into it before this summer. Now I'm almost exclusively 
following the fics and authors I started reading then. 

> How about HP merchandise?
Not at all. Although I'm thinking about knitting a Ravenclaw scarf.

> Current reading:
"The Brothers Karamazov" and "The System and Methods of Creative Art" 
by Stanislavsky. I've been torturing those for over a month, and at 
the moment I just hope to finish them by the end of the year. I'm 
also reading "A Portrait of a Killer," which seems to be coming along 
a little better, perhaps because I skip the gory details. 

> Favourite books:
That's a hard one. I can't really answer it, but some of the books 
I'm attached to are: The Red and the Black, Notre Dame de Paris, 
Bunin's short stories, The Three Musketeers, Anna Karenina, The 
Cherry Orchard, and, of course, Harry Potter. 

> Favourite music:
Just about anything "beautiful," which is a broad category I can't 
really define, but which includes opera, some classical music, Edith 
Piaf, the Russian romance, and lots of other different stuff. My 
current favourite is "The Prettiest Star" by David Bowie.

> Favourite cinema:
Sense and Sensibility, How to Steal a Million, most Hitchcock films, 
lots of Russian classics. And I'm very much in love with Pirates of 
the Caribbean at the moment.

> One thing about your life you'd change if you could, and you may 
not say "lose weight":
Have more motivation and more ambition (both of those are 
frighteningly close to zero). 

> One thing about your life you wouldn't change even for an advance 
copy of Book 7:
I wouldn't take an advance copy of Book 7, because there'd be no one 
to discuss it with. 

> How you found HPfGU:
Why, the Harry Potter Lexicon, of course!

> Your most rock solid Book 7 prediction:
My most rock solid prediction, Trelawney-style, is that we'll all be 
*really* surprised.

> Ask yourself a question and answer it:

Q: Which of the sections of Fantastic Posts did you read first?
A: Mysteries and Inconsistencies.

> Something you'd do over if you had the chance:
I'd do everything to keep several of my school friends I lost because 
of my former dislike of writing letters. 

That seems to be it. I tried to cut down on the rambling. :-)

Maria