Let me just start with a phrase that I have used constantly the past week while at the Zao company meetup, “It’s just like in the movies!”

As you might have guessed by now, last week my wife Roxana and I were part of the first /giphy party Zao company meetup in Portland. To put it simply, it was just amazing. The road there, however, was lonnnnng (15 hours to be exact, with 3 connections and 4 hours in layovers) but it was totally worth it!

After months of only video chatting with Justin, Justin and Liz (Yes, there are two Justin’s at Zao, Justin Sainton aka The Boss and Justin Sternberg aka JT) it was a nice experience to finally get to meet them all in person. I have to say they are the best people in the world and I am really grateful to be a part of the team that makes Zao.

Having almost a full week to spend with the team and their families you get an “I’ve known these people all my life” feeling that you just can’t ignore. Not to mention their kids, the best 9 (yes 9) kids i have ever spent time with in my whole life. This led my wife and I to the conclusion that we are ready to have kids of our own. We will rock at parenting (at least I hope so!).

There was a bit of anxiety for me since we come from a different continent with a different “everything.” I was always trying to make sure whatever we did was OK here in the USA, but I came to the conclusion that we were doing fine pretty quickly.

Getting to spend time with my co-workers and people that I consider friends was healthy for my mind and soul. After getting to know them and their families, it became easier to talk about different things that I would not have mentioned before since I had no idea who they were and what they did/didn’t like. Sitting at a table with all the family members was wonderful. It gives you a taste of what a company that focuses on family really is like; it is purely awesome!

I am glad that the meetup happened and that we were a part of it. I hope that we can still do it every year for as long as we can.

Kudos to Justin, Justin, Liz, all the kiddos present and to the country of USA which I am still exploring until the end of the month.

P.S. No “blair-blaines”* were damaged during the meetup time 🙂

*Ed. note: One of the youngest children in the group would happily exclaim “blair-blaines!!!” every time an airplane was spotted.