Part of my role at Autodesk is to blog about emerging technology. Over the last 11 years, I've written around 1,600 blog posts on various topics, at the rate of 2-3 per week. My work blog is called "Through the Interface", in case you're interested in checking it out.

​The next 6 months are going to be quite different: I'll still be blogging for Autodesk as we travel the globe - I'm fortunate in that I'll be able to work part-time for the company during our travels - but I'll inevitably be talking less about technology and more about what my family is getting up to.

For instance, here's a blog post I wrote earlier today to introduce readers of my "day blog" to Celia and the kids. (If you'd also like to follow that blog, you can subscribe to the posts via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ or RSS.)

I'm delighted Celia has created this fantastic site and that the kids have started to use it to share their thoughts with the world. It's going to be an amazing journey!

​Blog post written by Kean.

Découvrir le Chili est un rêve de longue date... Nous nous réjouissons énormément de pouvoir admirer ce pays et ses habitants.

J'ai la chance de compter parmi mes amies, Camilla, une jeune femme chilienne qui a eu la gentillesse de nous aider à préparer notre périple en nous proposant quelques oeuvres cinématographiques de son pays. Ces films étaient tellement beaux, si authentiques, bien éloignés des grosses productions du nord du continent. Merci, Camilla, de nous avoir ouvert ce nouvel horizon!

Laurence, une amie passionnée et passionnante, m'a également proposé quelques très belles lectures pour découvrir la culture chilienne. "La Centaine d'amour", un recueil de poèmes écrits par Pablo Neruda, "Un nom de torero" et "Histoire de la mouette et du chat qui lui apprit à voler", de Luis Sepulveda.

​Comme cela faisait bien longtemps que je n'avais plus lu en espagnol, j'étais très heureuse (et soulagée!) de pouvoir lire ces romans en français. Cependant, quel plaisir de pouvoir lire une partie des poèmes de Pablo Neruda dans leur langue d'origine, grâce à cette très belle édition bilingue! Magnifique! Je me réjouis de raviver mes quelques connaissances de l'espagnol durant notre périple; c'est une si belle langue que j'aime tant!

Enfin, ma précieuse amie Inès, une femme aux grandes qualités et aux multiples talents, dont ceux de globe-trotteuse et aventurière, nous a aiguillés concernant nos choix de route... Grâce à elle, nous découvrirons des coins merveilleux, j'en suis certaine. Merci Inès d'avoir eu la gentillesse de me lire tes récits de voyage et d'avoir passé du temps à me conseiller sur les chemins à prendre durant notre voyage.

Merci, très chères Amies! Grâce à vous, notre visite du Chili sera merveilleusement riche!

​Publication écrite par Celia.

So here we are... we've dreamt of our voyage... we've finally decided to do it... we've acted on it and booked the tickets... we've got our bags, our camping gear and our passports ready.
So what's this feeling of slight panic hovering over us from time to time? Well I guess it's normal. Leaving our daily routine, our comfort zone, our friends and family is not going to be easy...

As the departure date approches, we find ourselves caught in a turmoil of emotions, ranging from panic and fear to absolute excitement

Our children are mostly excited.... Well that's what I think... they have their personal blogs, let's see if they concur...

Our family:

Kalan
Our eldest child has always dreamt of traveling, exploring and experiencing the world. He's always been fascinated by sciences, history and geography. For him, this trip is a dream come true.

Born in India, Kalan spent the first 2 years of his life in this highly diverse country and I believe that shaped him up for life. When we left India, we traveled to South Africa for a couple of months and then, when he was 3 years old, we flew to China (with baby Zephyr) for a wonderful two months period. Our extended travels as a family ended when Kalan started compulsory school but Kalan was born a world traveler...

Zephyr
Zephyr, on the other hand, is happy at home, in his comfortable room, reading a book. He explores the world through stories he either reads or invents himself. Gifted with a very sensitive and imaginative mind, Zeph brings the whole world within the four walls of his bedroom. He doesn't understand the need for us to travel around the globe when fantastic adventures can happen in the pages of a book. However, after much deliberation, he agreed to plunge into the family adventure, thank you, Zeph! We are aware we're asking a lot from you and we'll do our best to accommodate you.

Zephyr loves to read, as I mentioned already, but he also enjoys writing stories and he aspires to become a professional writer one day. His blog is going to be a good opportunity for him to exercise his writing skills. Zephyr's blog will be printed and displayed in our local library, thanks to Luciana, Zephyr's beloved librarian friend. Merci Luciana!

Anokhi
​Anokhi, our little whirlwind girl, is difficult to keep in place at the best of times. So yes, she's ready! In fact, she's always been ready to take on the world. Ready to see new places, ready to experience new things but most of all, Anokhi is ready to meet people and talk to them. Beware, whoever crosses our path, Anokhi has a lot of things to say and if she can't talk to you because of the language barrier, well that won't stop her talking to you anyway or trying to connect somehow with you.

Anokhi is very expressive, she draws beautifully, she's very talented in crafts and she loves dancing. She's passionate about theatre and music but mostly about life itself... She's a little tornado, full of laughter, mischief and energy!

Kean and I
We've traveled a lot but not enough yet... We are both children of bi-national families. Between the two of us, we cover 3 continents and, actually, if we look at our family histories, we probably cover more.
Kean and I have also lived in different countries and traveled for long periods in others. We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 3 years, in India for 2 years and traveled for extended periods to China and South Africa. Our round-the-world trip will also be a chance for us to introduce our children to our friends and family around the world.

Kean enjoyed the richness of different cultural backgrounds during his childhood. When he finished university, he worked in a variety of jobs for a multi-national company and managed worldwide teams, which meant he had to travel regularly around the globe. Kean thoroughly enjoyed his professional trips and now looks forward to travelling privately - and in a much more basic fashion - with our children.

As for myself, well, my parents probably transmitted the passion of travel to me when I was in my mother's womb already... As far as I can remember, my parents have always talked about the next places they wanted to travel to. They often had a gigantic edition of the National Geographic Atlas open on their coffee table or books about exotic flora & fauna and the beautiful wonders of the world. 
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When I graduated from school, I naturally decided to study languages and humanities and then moved on to study English, social psychology, ethnology and cultural anthropology for 3 years at university. We moved abroad at the end of my third year, therefor my degree was left unfinished. On the other hand, moving abroad allowed me to apply theory to practice. It was a great experience which taught me a lot of things one couldn't learn on university benches.

In one sentence, if I had to sum things up, I would say that the world fascinates us and we look forward to discovering more of it with our children!
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​We are ready... are our kids ready?  (I think so)... so let's go!

Blog post written by Celia