About Us
While studying at Oregon State University, Alicia and I met online in November of 2008. On December 11th, we met for the first time at Bombs Away Cafe for "Dollar Pint Night". The next day, we went for Turkish Coffee at Crysta's Cafe, and the day after that it was at the Brick House for a movie, "The Dragon Story". In July, I moved in to Alicia's tiny aprtment, but we soon discovered it was just too tiny, and so we moved into the little yellow house on the corner of 10th and Adams on November 3rd. On the 1st of January, 2010, I asked her to marry me to which she happily said "YES!". We were married on May 30th, 2010, in Corvallis, Oregon. On December 24 2010 at 7:24 AM we were blessed with the birth of our daughter, Doruntina Elizabeth Juniku.
My name is Rajan Juniku and I was born on May 9th, 1974 in Peja, Kosova (aka Kosovo), a former province of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. I studied chemistry at the University of Tirana, Albania (1993-1998). After earning a Bachelor degree, I worked at Meteorological Institute in Tirana as an analytical chemist. In 1999, I went to back to Kosovo to be with my family after a devastating civil war. Over the next 3 years, I worked for Doctors Without Borders (psychologist interpreter, translator and assistant) and The United Nations (Information Technology staff). In 2002, I came to Oregon State University, where I earned a Masters degree in Organic Chemistry (Prof K.P. Gable research group) in 2004. In that same year, I started persuing PhD in Prof J.D. White's lab.
My wife's name is Alicia Juniku. Alicia was born on January 29th, 1984 in Portland, Oregon. She and her family lived in Portland until she was in the forth grade and then they all moved to Rainier, a small country town in vicinity of Portland. She traveled to Costa Rica and Europe while in high school, and learned to Speak Spanish. In 2002 she graduated high school and then moved to Miami, Florida. Within four months she discovered that Miami was simply not for her, and so she moved to New York. There she began college, studying Elementary Education...but ended up changing her major 5 times over the next 6 years. She spent four years in New York and then moved around the North West for a few years. Fianlly, she settled in Corvallis Oregon to finish up college (with a degree in Psychology) from Oregon State University. According to her, she has never been happier in her whole life, and I believe her.