5 Random Facts About Me Tag

I was browsing through one of my favourite blogs recently and decided that I wanted to make more of a light post. Possibly a bit egocentric but it seemed like fun.
I came across a '5 random facts' tag and thought...well why not make my blog a little personal by sharing some facts about me. I know that some of my lovely Twitter followers read my blog, so it would be nice to give them something.
Then came the hard part. I find it terribly difficult to narrow down facts about myself without sounding like I am obsessed with ME ME ME. That was why I was reluctant to make this post in the 1st place... so here it goes.

1.
I am a cocktail.

I have mentioned before that I am of Armenian decent from both my Mother and Father. I also mentioned that I was of Palestinian decent. All very true, but there is more to the mix. After having a long chat with my uncle when I was 15, I found out that his grandmother was Assyrian (the land does not exist anymore)
I am guessing this was hidden from me because Armenians and Assyrians... well they don't have a great relationship.
My uncle also revealed that we are distantly Russian, Georgian and other countries...this is only on my Dad's side. My friend once told me she found it very difficult to tell where I was from when she 1st met me. It's understandable. On my Mother's side I am full Armenian, her grandmother was adopted by a Turkish family. My Mother will never admit that and I will never understand why.
I am mostly Armenian but I am proud of the fact that I am very mixed. It makes people interesting.

2.
I hate tanning.

ouch!!!
I'm sure that it is apparent from my blog that I when I believe in something...I really act upon it. When I was a child on holiday my Mother used to let me swim and play in the sun without worrying that I might get sunburn. I am quite pale but I tan easily. I used to go so brown that I didn't look like the same child. 2 years ago on holiday, I tanned a fairly normal amount when I was in Spain, in fact less than usual. When I got back to London and my skin was returning to its normal state, I noticed a difference to the skin on my face. It was blemish central. After that I researched how harmful tanning is and have never sunbathed since. I know that my face was never going to stay so white and pure forever, but I wasn't expecting it to happen so fast!

3.
I love Fashion

Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with finding unusual things. Now let me elaborate. I always wanted unique toys, unique bags, and as I got older...Unique fashion items. I swear I was the 1st person to buy a two finger ring and an Alexander McQueen scarf :-P
I love the effortless New York chic look. That can also apply to effortless London look...
If anything I think about fashion everyday. I will never dress myself to please someone else, I will always do it for me because it makes me feel good and unique. My style icons are the Olsen twins because they pull off effortless like there is no tomorrow. Ever since I was a kid I have been OBSESSED with them. They have amazing style.

4.
I want to travel

I really really REALLY want to go to some certain places...and to make documentaries as I go along. I am a media arts student and I want to use the skills that I have learned to do this. My 1st stop will hopefully be Armenia. I have never been but I want to show people what it's really about and why they should go there. I promise that one day, I will go to Palestine. I want to go back to my Father's birthplace. It feels like I have spent most of my life thinking about Armenia and not Palestine. It is just as important...

5.
I want to start my own business.

This is really thinking far ahead, but I want to start my own business at some point in my life...

On that note, I want you to tell me 5 facts about YOU

Unfinished post...Flotilla

I stopped writing the first part of this post because my laptop went crazy. Not sure why.
A lot of things have happened in these past few days I don't really know where to start...
The Flotilla had set sail for Gaza to bring aid to Palestinians (most people on ship being Turkish) this included things like medicine, pens and paper for kids...
Any harm in that? We didn't think so.
I was lying in my bed the night the flotilla set sail, getting constant tweet updates from pro Palestinian twitter accounts. Great for me considering my net was not working, although I hated the fact that I couldn't watch the live feed.
It got to 3am, I rolled over in my bed and grabbed my phone. The last I had heard was that the flotilla was getting threats from Israel. This to me meant maybe they would send the passengers home when they got to Gaza. How wrong was I?
At 3am I read a tweet “people are you seeing this, 3 people have been killed we can see it right in front of our eyes”
My stomach dropped. I felt so sick and angry at the same time I didn't know what to do. It was one of those feelings you get when you want to help but have no way of getting to it.
The number kept on growing “nine people dead...some injured”
I went to Facebook immediately to express my anger, of course the Jewish boy on my Facebook friends list replied instantly, defending Israel in every way he could. Slime.
I do not wish to post what he responded with purely because it will frustrate me to look at what he wrote again.
As an Armenian, this is the 1st time in my life that I have ever supported Turkey. Turk or no Turk...those people were doing a good thing and got attacked by ruthless Israeli's. I came across a video of Gerald Kaufman, this part stuck out to me:

The Rachel Corrie Ship is still on its way and should be arriving on Saturday.
'Deep Regret' from certain politicians will not bring the dead back.
R.I.P to those who died.

Summer Reading

Every summer I like to find myself a new book to tackle. For most of my life I conquered The Harry Potter series without fail, This year is different.

The Author Elizabeth Laird visited my school (Queen Elizabeth's Girls') in 2002 (I think) when I was 12 years old. To my delight, she began to talk about Palestine. I never imagined that any English lady would talk about such a subject. I scurried to her at the end of her speech and told her my Grandmother was Palestinian. She recommended that I read her book "A Little Piece Of Ground"

"I first visited Israel in 1968, and enjoyed a warm welcome from many Israeli friends. Later, I lived in Beirut with my husband and son during the civil war there, and became aware for the first time of the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees. I visited both Gaza and Ramallah, in the occupied territories, in 2002, while leading workshops for Palestinian writers. I was appalled by the circumstances in which people were living, and became aware that we in the west know very little of what life is like for Palestinians living under military occupation.

I have written A Little Piece of Ground in collaboration with Sonia Nimr, a Palestinian archaeologist, storyteller, writer and translator, who lives in Ramallah. We have tried to make our story as true to life as we can"

I ended up buying her book but never got round to reading it. I lost it while moving homes and recently re-discovered it. Now that I have it in my mits I most certainly will be reading it. i am older and wiser on the subject and will enjoy it a whole lot more.

http://lairdelizabeth.blogspot.com/

Karl Who? Israel Who?

If at any point in my life I could meet Karl Lagerfeld, I will be a happy woman. No its not the urge for that £2000 bag that makes me admire him (to a certain extent) It is the fact that he always remains to be one of the coolest people around, effortlessly.
I would love to get my mits on one of those "Karl Who" bags. I love how versatile it is yet being a simple shopping bag.

It pokes fun at our ever growing consumer society, or am I reading into it too much?
Thinking about consumerism here is another image worth thinking about, including the quote.

There are some things wrong with this picture.
1. McDonalds.
If there is any other reason to boycott McDonalds apart from health, it would be their relations with Israel. As you know I have major empathy towards Palestine and I do not support any company that funds Israel's military aid or sells things in their country.
(for more info check here: BoycottMcDonalds )
2. "Fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight" I don't know what is more wrong with this?!!! The fact that it is up against a picture of McDonalds or the fact that it screams Anorexia. We all know Karl was put on a diet years ago to get to what he is now. He did say that it wasn't the most fulfilling diet. It made him lose the weight whilst feeling hungry... right. I think there is a book on it, go find it if you feel like being a little bit gaunt.

What is right about this picture? Well it is motivating me to lose a bit of weight or just get a bit healthy. It makes me remember that McDonalds works with the devil and being healthier will have its benefits.

This blog post is a little messy, I say sorry to those that feel like they hate me already hah.

Inspiration: Children Of Gaza

Picture courtesy of Channel4.com

Coming from an extremely mixed heritage is something to confuse a child highly. I, out of anyone, should know this. I grew up as a little Armenian girl in London, simple enough? nope.
As I grew older I had to tackle the incredibly annoying task of having to explain myself whenever I met someone new.
"But you look Muslim!" they would tell me...
"How can you look Muslim, It's a religion not a nationality" That shut them up for a while :)
I hated the fact that I knew exactly what they meant. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with looking that way at all, but when you grow up as a Christian white Caucasian, it gets a little annoying when people constantly assume what you may or may not be.
Anyway, as the years went by I found out I was in fact a quarter Palestinian. My grandmother was a Christian Palestinian. She met my Armenian Grandfather in Palestine. His family had moved out of Armenia way before the genocide (that is why I am here)
I got so annoyed with my family growing up, the constant frustration of not knowing who I was lead me to get incredibly touchy.

But these 'troubles' are nothing compared to that of the Children in Gaza.
I came across a program on television not too long ago named 'Dispatches: Children Of Gaza' on Channel 4. Of course no other station would dare broadcast this, with our mainstream media controlled by biased idiotic human beings.
"In December 2008, the Israeli Defence Force unleashed a campaign to destroy the ability of Hamas to launch rockets and mortars into Israel. Around 300 children were among the 1,300 Palestinians that were killed.

After the ceasefire, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Jezza Neumann arrived in Gaza to follow the lives of three children over a year."

After watching the show, I got inspired to a new level. I enrolled myself on the animation module of my course (2d animation that is) and wanted to work on a project about the children of Gaza. Palestine has become a big part of my life, not only because it is my heritage, but because anyone who doesn't believe what is happening is wrong is utterly insane.

Here is a badly photographed picture of the 1st frame of my animation: