Some of you may wonder who am I, and since today is our 1st birthday I will tell you a little bit more about me.

My name is Muna (as you already know) and yes, that is my real name.

I grew up in Ciudad del Este (where Itaipu is, the biggest dam of the world) that is in the border with Foz do Iguazu better know by its Falls (Iguazu Falls), I lived there until I was 12, we lived in front of a lake, lago de la Republica. Ciudad del Este at that time was known as Ciudad Jardin, a very prosperous land, that was known before 1989 as Ciudad Presidente Stroessner.

My childhood was great, growing up in Paraguay was a blessing, I had so much fun, had great friends, my parents owned a electronics stores that was one of the firsts ones, he imported electronics and radio equipment from Japan and other stuff from all around the world, he is a very skilled business man, he knows his way around. I have 4 brothers, 2 older ones that were very much into racing motorcycles and cars, one of my brothers is still doing that and is very popular in Paraguay because he won a lot of rally’s so far…at that time we didn’t have internet so people used to enjoy time. Distances were close, you could even spend the day in Brazil across the border if you wanted, (we used to do that on weekends with my parents and my brothers)

We had fun, we had so many friends and life was easy on us most of the time.

The good times of Ciudad del Este were slowly gone. We moved to Asuncion the Capital when I was 12. Adjusting there was pretty tough because I was admitted to a German School (Golegio Goethe, or Goethe Schule) and education there was strict and in German (My mom is German) I was fluent in German but couldn’t write and overall was tough because I was new, had no friends and life in smaller cities are different than the “bigger ones”

But soon I loved to live in Asuncion, we had a very nice and big house, we had tons of friends and normal life experiences. My parents were very loving and also my brothers.

I was a good girl, once my mom told me not to smoke or drink, or use drugs or have friends that are into this things…I always for my own good obeyed here, I never smoked in my life, never tried a drug not even the lightest ones, was not into that circle of friends and just drank in occasions and very moderately. Thanks God my mom talked to me, I still remember her words.

I finished I school at age 16 then I passed the admission exams to become a lawyer when I was 17, I finished law at the age of 23. The following year I completed another carrier called Escribania y Notariado and then went to Salamanca University in Spain for my post graduation course in Civil Law, after the course I toured around Europe, that was my third time in Europe, which I really love and since then I never went back.

During my university period I studied 3 years drama and participated in a play in a famous theater in Paraguay called teatro de las Americas, que play was for kids and its name was Que hay de malo en ser diferentes?, what is wrong about being different?, I also studied English for almost 2 years and Italian who I had the opportunity to practice both times I went to Italy, I also studied Oil Painting with Porfirio Bustos among tons of other stuff. My friends used to make fun of me because I was always studying things.

I opened a Law office in Paraguay with another peer and we became to work together in downtown Asuncion for a few years. Work there was difficult and most of the time I was surrounded by corruption, my daily work was to go to court (Palacio de Justicia) Or justice Palace. I was disappointed with the system, and most of the time I worked for free to help people that couldn’t afford a lawyer, I saw many things, many divorces and also many people getting back together, I saw big men’s crying because the were about to lose their houses or people that had legal problems and didn’t even have money to buy their kids medicine…the corruption, the negligence and the slowness and all the stress made of this experience a tough one, but I made me grow as a person and human being, has made me see things differently and not take situations for granted.

I had a very happy teenage years and my parents always let me study what I wanted

I moved to the US 5 years ago, I took several photography courses which I really enjoy, I’m studying chinese for almost 2 years, And I also started designing jewelry, and making some of them too, here you can see photos of my work.

I was always a very creative person and finally now I can really enjoy that part of my life.

I’m married for almost 9 years, and have 2 children, a boy and a girl (6 and 3 years old)

Some things about me…

My favorite book is: The unbearable lightness of being by

Milan Kundera

The places I most want to visit are: Prague, Sydney and Bora Bora

My Favorite Singer is:

Eros Ramazzotti

My favorite Activity is: Taking Pictures (specially street pictures and documentary pictures)

I’m afraid of Spiders

The place I most like to hang out is in Bookstores

I don’t like crowded places or noisy places like discos, I rather have a good conversations in a pub or so.

My favorite food is seafood, Italian food.

My personal goal is to travel around the world to take pictures.

I have 2 plants and both are of plastic.

My overall goal is move back to Paraguay to build schools and invest in Education that is the base of a corruption free country.

I don’t like to cook, (cooking is becoming a very dangerous journey…I always get burned or cut =(

Things I love to do: working and designing jewelry…I’m not a good designer but I have good vision about taste and beauty. Taking Pictures

Good things about me:

I’m a very persistent person, reliable and funny and very friendly.

Easy going, never have problems to do things

I’m multitasking, do millions of things at the same time.

I always believe in people, and trust them.

I’m a good adviser (specially in love related matter…I have some steady “clients” that call from different parts of the world.

I love people and being around them

Bad Things:

I’m not very very punctual, Don’t like to fight some times I’m a push over But I will fight to preserve my rights.

I speak too much, I’m very messy, not an organized person in order matters. I suck about directions and orientations (cant distinguish north from south)

Interesting People I met and talked to:

Bill Gates and Ricardo Arjona (Well known Guatemalan singer) I love his songs btw.

Best gift I ever got for a Birthday

At one of my birthdays my brother Sami took a group of Mariachis to play for me and my guests.

Short time dreams:

Spend my birthday in Paraguay with my friends in Family…December 28th is my date (which makes of my a Capricorn)…it’s been 5 years now that I don’t spend my birthday there =(

Things I have learned so far: “Life is all about the experience”.

 

My self portrait

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.