I have no desire to work today...

[lenfaz]

A/N: English is not my first language, so I apologize beforehand for some spelling/grammar mistakes that might slip my knowledge

1. Name: Lena

2. Age: 26

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose? Amsterdam. I’ve loved the city ever since the first time I saw it back in 2000. I backpacked around Europe for a month (just a few cities) and A’dam (dutch shortname for Amsterdam) was the first city I saw. I fell in love: the museums, the cannals, the bridges, the bikes, the lights, the small streets and the 17th century houses.
I just felt that this city was the place I belong to... It’s hard to explain. Amsterdam has the type of cultural life that I love and cherish and some of the best managed art museums in the world.
When I went there for a 3 month internship in a museum in 2002, I corroborated my first instinct. That is where I want to be.
Runner up would be a tie between my home town, Buenos Aires (Argentina) where I still live and Prague (because the bohemian enviroment suits me just right).

4. What would your Room of Requirement look like?
An old room in an old house, full of old books, full of great natural light, a fireplace and comfortables couches and chairs for reading. I’ve always loved old houses that had those amazing wooden libraries on them and I’ve dreamt of being able to afford one at some point in my life, so I guess that would be my Room of Requirement. I love to read and I can lose myself in a book for hours and hours so I guess that was not a hard choice.

5. Who is your least favorite Harry Potter character?
People hate me for this answer, but it’s mine to give. Sirius Black. I don’t hate him, he is just my least favorite. I guess that, while I understand all his suffering, I believe he was reckless towards Harry and the others. He was cruel towards Kreacher and Snape. Granted, both are not such nice people, but you’re not to treat people as they treat you, but as you want to be treated. I cannot condone his treatment, he should have known better than that. Second, there is his attitude towards Harry. I know Sirius loved Harry, I’ve never questioned that, but he failed his task to be a guidance for the kid. I know some claimed that he was in Azkaban and he’s pretty much messed up, but he took a commitment to Harry’s parents and it was the one of being a substitute parent to Harry, not a friend that encourages him to break the rules. A godfather is the person that has to guide you and give you rules and structure if your parents are not around and for me, he failed to do it so. I might be very harsh towards him, I know, but those are my feelings. I’m sad he died because I think he had some good moments, but by the end of his existence, I was very dissappointed at him.

6. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Depends on the day. Sometimes it’s half empty because you’ve been through so much and you’re just too tired to see it half full.
Sometimes, you choose to see the good side of things because you’re certain life is not going to get the best of you.
As for what I see more often, I wish I knew. I’ve dealt with some depression background a while ago, so I’m very aware that I can let myself see the glass half empty upto a certain point, otherwise I’m going down big time. When you have a tendency to depression (it runs in my family) you know that it’s a fight you fight each day. That each day you wake up and make the choice to try to live by and not getting a bad day get you down. Sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s harder; but unless you really try, you’re gone.
Sorry for the ramble, I guess the short answer would be half full, most of the time.

7. Give us a quotation (Can be from a famous person, a song, or even a poem-whatever you want) you feel represents your life or personality.
I’d love to stay here and be normal, but it’s just so overrated (Tracy Jacks, Blur)

Let me start by saying that I worship Blur. While most people was into Oasis, Blur was the choice for me. A combination of amazing lyrics, good music and the lead hottie Damon Albarn. They came to Argentina in 1999 and it was the best concert I’ve ever attended.
As for the quote, I feel it totally represents me. I’ve been labelled as “weird” my entire life: when everyone was partying at High School, I chose to go to the movies alone, while everyone was into hockey and sailing, I chose swimming and reading all summer long. I’ve never trully belonged while younger and it used to be a source of stress for me.
But later, when I got into college, I realised that was me, and being something I was not it was going to be worse.
I’m known among my dearest friends for being the one with crazy plans: I chose to learn Dutch just because I liked the sound of it (and I plan to study more languages like Swedish, Czech, Hungarian and Polish eventually), I decided to do archery, something that is not that common in here, especially in girls. I’m always the one against the flow but for me, what I do is normal. I don’t see it as a weird thing because those things are regular to me, those things are the ones I want to do.
But if nomalcy is understood as doing what everyone else is doing, then it’s overrated for me. I’m sorry, things like going to the gym, or dancing pubs, or shopping sprees on regular basis, those are boring to me. I might do them once in a while, but for the rest... not so much.
I feel that quote by Blur represents who I truly am and where I stand in life.

8. In your life, who comes first: family or friends?
This one is hard. Can I just say both? No? Oh well...
I guess family. They’ve been there ever since the beginning and they will be there at the end.
My friends are also an important part of my life. But I guess you can say that the closest ones are like family to me, like brothers or sisters, so they enter the aforementioned category.
It’s hard to chose. I’m not close to my sister, for example, as we’re very different one from the other and I’d never choose her as a friend. But she’s my sister, I love her and I’d die for her... she’s family. I feel the same way with my closest friends. They might not be that many, but they’re my second family and as that I’m very protective of them.

9. What is your favorite childhood memory?
Well, my mom’s family comes out of the country, this (not so) little town called San Pedro and this small place called Ingeniero Moneta, full of farms and whatnot. We (me, my sister and two cousins) used to go there all the time for winter/summer/Eastern holidays and my best memories come from playing in the woods in there and just running around all the time. We had this great time ala “Anne of Green Gables”, only in the 20th century.

10. What would you say is your biggest flaw?
Just one? I guess I’m very stubborn and sometimes I’m really a pain in the.... (fill in the dots). But my biggest flaw is that sometimes I set standards too high on both myself and the people around me, which leads to frustration. I demand a lot of myself, I’m always trying not to be the best, but to do the best I can do and well, I tend to forget we’re all human and that we’re not perfect 24/7. Same thing goes for the people around me. I guess that, since you’re always learning in life, I should learn that sometimes I need to be more laid back and just let it flow.

11. If you had been at Hogwarts during Harry’s fifth year, do you think that you would have joined the D.A.?
I guess I should, because I’d love to learn more and because it would be the right thing to do. The D.A. had the perfect mix of knowledge, danger and breaking the rules that would attract to me and it had this idea of rebelling against the dictator and being the defense of the needed. Well, my heroic part would have felt very very attracted to that.

12. Describe how you react to difficult or stressful situations.
Depends on the situation, but I always try to remain calm and think things through. Bwah, who am I trying to fool...
This is the standard Lena’s reaction to stress/difficulty: I rant/yell/cry/whatever comes in handy for like 10-15 minutes, until I get it out of my system and then I take a deep breath, get some coffee/tea/water/beer/firewhisky and sit to think things through.
I don’t know if it’s appropiate or not, but I’ve discovered that keeping it all inside it’s not healthy for me. So I let it all out and it allows me to have my head clear to think properly.
Besides, catharsis are very theurapetic.

13. Which do you value more: compassion or justice?
I have a strong sense of justice, but I believe that justice is nothing if compassion is not next to it. Being compassionate (sp?) does not mean you’re weak, it means that you can balance the different outcomes and backgrounds in life that can make a difference between the same situation in two different men. Justice is the same. If we do not carry compassion within justice, there we’re not making justice, we’re seeking vengeance and that is not good nor healthy for a society.

14. Would you say that you’re a child at heart, or that you have an old soul?
I think I have an old soul. I’ve always felt connected to the books I’ve read and to the life in previous centuries that they told me about. I’ve ached for living different lives at different places. I think I have an old soul mainly because I feel connected to the wisdom history brings to a society and how we learn from the past. And my appealing to art and museums makes me feel older than I am.

15. Which Hogwarts House do you think that the Sorting Hat would place you in?
I’ve been sorting into Gryffindor at other places, and I feel very comfortable there. There is this passion I certainly have. But I also feel very close to Ravenclaw, mainly for the desire to learn from it all.
I see traits of all the houses in me, but primarily those two.

16. If you have a picture of yourself and feel comfortable posting it, please do so! Pictures are fun!
Ok,. Just don’t laugh....





(me doing archery... I love it)