If this is a zoo, am I the zookeeper?

In coming up with a name for this blog, I wanted something that represented our life as a family. While there could be many words or phrases that fit the bill, nothing fully expressed how I personally feel so much as the fact that I am undoubtedly living in a zoo. Yes, the main attractions are my big lion and my little elephant, and they are exactly that. But they are wild and delving into the full fledged reality of parenthood is no less wild. However, unlike a zoo, someone took the bars off this exhibit. Perhaps, however, I'm the zookeeper and I'm in the exhibit myself. I can't seem to tell the difference.

Well, the zoo has moved to Cyprus and now we've been here for about a month. Yes, they actually have a zoo in Cyprus, so I am speaking figuratively. By now you have all been fully (or partially, because it gets really complicated) indoctrinated by Kayla into the reason that we are here. For starters, Kayla is doing her PdD research, my kids will be growing older by three months, and me....well, I'm here to oversee it all. 

Actually, I'm working remotely for my company, Fugro. How, you might ask, does someone get that gig. Well, stay with a company a good amount of time and work really hard and things tend to work out. At least they seem to, for which I am thankful. So what do I do? Well, its complicated but essentially I am in sales, marketing and business development for our offshore survey division. The market I target is geophysical and geotechnical surveying for the installation of submarine fiber optic cables. Yes, the internet, phone, data transmission as we know it globally is fed by thousands of fiber optic cables laid on the seafloor spanning thousands of kilometers across oceans. Quite strange that it is not satellite, huh? Well, that is the common perception, but satellite only counts for 1 or 2% of the total global communication. The rest is underwater. Fascinating huh? Ok, I won't bore you with details. 

So what else do I do? Well, I travel....to go to conferences, to meet clients, other meetings, etc. In the last two years I've been to Japan, China (twice), Germany, and Portugal among other (more domestic and boring) locations. In fact, this summer may be interrupted by a trip to Chile and come Monday (July 30) I will be traveling to Germany and then back to Seattle for the month of August. Yes, it is hectic...but so is having kids and a wife doing her PhD.

What? The month of August in Seattle? Yes, I will be in Seattle in August while Kayla and the kids continue on in Cyprus. But I will be back in Cyprus in September. Complicated huh. Anyway, while in Seattle I will be crashing with my very hospitable friend Ryan, I will be working and hopefully make many trips to the mountains for some climbing, and otherwise enjoying the Seattle summer. Hopefully Seattle will be having a full fledged summer by August. Oh and I'll be skyping frequently to Cyprus and otherwise also reading this blog to keep up on my family's life :)