Holiday Spirit!

Hello friends and family near and far.  Some of you we get the pleasure of talking to and seeing on a regular basis, while others we unfortunately haven’t seen or talked to in a long time.  Through traveling we get the awesome opportunity to meet and become friends with so many wonderful people!  The down side to that is we always have friends that seem so far away. 

During this holiday season we have been away from our family for the first time.  Although we have traveled a lot these last 3 years we have always been able to be back “home” in America for the holiday season.   So this season I have been doing a lot of thinking about those who we have come to love from all reaches of this beautiful world. 

Although we have not seen some of these people in over 5 years our love and admiration for them still grows stronger with each passing year.  (Disclaimer: these are just a few of the many people who have affected our lives in a positive way through knowing them.  If you are not on this list know that I’m grateful for our relationship and that I’m blessed to know you.)

The Guerra Family, Guatemala:

A more recent group of friends are those that we met in Guatemala in the summer of 2012.  It is hard to believe that it has already been a year and a half since we were in Central America for the summer.  The wonderful Guerra family  took us in under their wing and took care of us non-stop for 3 months.  They were our personal tour guides, chefs, and most of all our friends.  We love and miss every one of you.

Asha Orphanage, India:

A group very dear to our hearts are the residents and orphans in New Deli, India who work and live at Asha Orphanage.  We worked at Asha (which means "hope" in Hindi) for a month while on the world race in 2011.  (For more stores from our travel around the world or our time in India please visit our old blog: world race blog)  These vulnerable children and humble servants that took care of them were some of the most amazing people I have ever met.  Their life, no matter how difficult it was, was full of love and humility.   We learned so much in that short time in India; how to better love each other, how to be content and grateful no matter the circumstances, and how to take joy in the little things.  Thank you Asha for opening our eyes.  For more information about Asha or ways to help please visit their website: Asha Mission.

 

The Conways, Kenya:

Our first place to visit abroad as a couple was Kenya in the summer of 2007, and since that very long and eventful summer our love for Kenya and its people has filled our hearts.  Some very special missionaries have been in our thoughts and hearts since that summer.  Larry and Hollye Conway have devoted their lives to missions and currently work for Made in the Streets in Nairobi, Kenya.   Their loving hearts and servant spirits have changed so many lives of people who have passed through their home or received a big hug from Hollye or a witty joke from Larry. ("That's right, girlfriend!")  These two are the epitome of love and compassion.   Thank you for being that example.  For more info or ways to help Made in the Streets please visit their website:  Made in the Streets

Our families back home:

None of our travels would be possible without the love and continual support from our families back home.  They love us enough to let us pursue our current passion of serving, traveling and exploring the world!  We miss them so much while we are gone and cherish the memories we have with them both past and present.  Tears fill my eyes as I think of the love I have for these amazing people.  I know they say you can’t pick your family,  so I think we lucked out big time with this crazy cool bunch! 

If you want an update on 2013 for the Hanes’ please feel free to read the previous blog entries or skim through the photos.  We hope that 2014 finds you healthy, happy, and humble.   Love sent your way from Busan, South Korea.    

Living for the Weekend

As life in South Korea passes by I find myself living for the weekend and this is not ideal.  Let’s just say I think I’m having a HARD time adjusting to my new LIFE.  I don’t know whose idea it was to work 8+ hours a day for 5 days a week?  But whoever decided this must HATE LIFE.  OK, that was a little dramatic, but let me explain.

Justin and I have been living a crazy, unrealistic, free, nomadic life for the past 3 years.  Although sometimes I've complained, or felt homesick, I’m so GRATEFUL now more than ever that we were able to travel and serve in the ways we have.

Not having “real” jobs gave us so much freedom to do WHATEVER we wanted.  We served, we rested, we played, we smiled, we swam in the ocean, we missed Mexican food, we got really skinny, we got frustrated, we went on vacations, we sweat a lot, we took cold showers, we got attached to people, we loved, we grew, and ultimately we CHANGED.

Although we are still traveling, this experience is a lot DIFFERENT than anything we have experienced in our previous travels.  We are committed to live in one place for at least a year, we are working (which is over rated), and we are living a pretty “normal” life.  We have our own apartment, we work separately only seeing each other for short times during the day, and we are finding ourselves LIVING FOR THE WEEKEND, like any other American.  No offence Merica.  If you are not familiar with this term please click on the link for the very funny definition!  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Merica  

I think that this is a good lesson for me.  I need to learn how to be more adaptable, I need to re-learn how to have a good work ethic, I need to be reminded that life is hard for people and that despite my grumbles I have it PRETTY DARN GOOD!  
(Fine, fine thanks for the reminder.)

I need to be reminded to LIVE FOR THE MOMENT.  Every minute we have here on earth is a blessing.  It is a chance to make a difference, to love, to learn, and to BE HAPPY.
(No matter the situation.)

With all that being said, I want you to look at your life, to find a joy in little moments, to take a deep breath and look at how beautiful your life really is.  Sometimes it takes a slap across the back of our head to realize this.  So here is a gentle slap. 
LOOK AT YOUR LIFE PEOPLE…
OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE THE BEAUTY NO MATTER HOW SMALL IT IS. 
Realize you are not here to work, you are not here to fight, you are not here to complain, and mostly you are not here so that the world can revolve around you. 
Sorry, but it is TRUE.

As I step down from my soap box I will leave you with some photos from our last 4 weekends.  Here is to living like every day is the weekend!  PEACE and LOVE my friends.

Teajongdae Park

 

Eating a dinner of grilled shellfish, that we grilled ourselves.

Our view of the sunset while eating dinner.

On the subway to the fireworks festival.

Random pot luck dinner while we wait for the show to start.

Amazing firework show at Gwangalli bridge.
There was a million people on the beach watching this show, we were lucky to watch it from inside a hair salon. 

Our wonderful hosts and new friends that we watched the show with!

Justin surprised me with a date night...starting off at the beach!

We went to the aquarium,
it was my first time do ever go to an aquarium.

It was amazing...but look at this very creepy shark.

After the aquarium we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant.
Here we are on the subway going home.

Naejangsan National Park

Our sweet friends, tour guides, and photographers.

Such a beautiful and cold day!

Working and Living…in South Korea.

We have now been LIVING in South Korea for a little over a month.  This is the first time we have “lived” overseas. The first time we have invested in a place of our own, the first time we have had to get a foreign bank account, and the first time we have had to find a dentist.  (Yes a dentist, I’m in the middle of getting a root canal done!!)  We have TRAVELED all over the world but knowing that we will be in one place for at least a year is a different feeling.  It is hard to explain.  

At the dentist about to start the root canal!

We found an apartment, finally!  And each day it is feeling more and more like home. The apartment is in a good central location in the city and is closer to Justin's work. Therefore Justin is walking about 15-20 minutes to work and I’m mainly riding the subway for 25-30 minutes a day!  That has been a challenge in and of itself, and a definite reminder that we are not in west Texas anymore. The city is very clean and safe which has been a nice change from some of the other places we have been.

Riding the subway one night to work.  This picture doesn't even do it any justice.  

Lets just say it was a little crowded.  

We just finished our first month of teaching.  At Pagoda the classes are a month long with 20 teaching days per month.  This is both the good and bad thing about working here!  Each month we have to get used to a new work schedule, new students and new levels of teaching.  I guess it keeps us on our toes and work is never boring.  Also, we get our new schedules/students/and class levels the night before the new month starts.  So planning ahead is really not an option. 

We will be teaching an average of 7 hours a day, in a variety of different classes.  Last month I had both Level 1 and Level 2 classes as well as a one on one English student. Justin had 5 different classes he had to prepare for.  We are still learning how to manage our time throughout the day.  

After class one night! 

Some awesome things about our apartment:
 

- We live on the 10th floor, so we have a good view!

- We have no roommates…no offense mom ;)

- We have glitter wall paper that makes me think of the stars.

- 400 square feet!

Some NOT so awesome things about our apartment:
 

- 400 square feet.

- Elephants live upstairs.  Well, at least as far as we can guess from the sound of heavy walking 24/7!

- Our neighbor across the hall smokes and likes to leave his door open. 

- We have sweet purple and gold wall paper, which was cool in the 70’s!

We are having trouble uploading the video to see it go to: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXe0yZMgAA.

Some have asked about our mailing address:

 Send envelopes here:

Justin and Tiffany Hanes

Topopilia 1011

Jeonpo-Dong 643

Busanjin-Gu

Busan 614-865

SOUTH KOREA

Send packages here:

Pagoda Seomyeon

Justin and Tiffany Hanes

Bujeon-Dong 232-2

Busanjin-Gu

Busan  614-032

SOUTH KOREA

Kickin' it Korean Style

It is hard to believe that we have already been in South Korea for a little over three weeks.  The transition has over all been a smooth one; we are adjusting to our new routine of life rather quickly.

Busan is a place full of energy.  People are constantly going, there are coffee shops on EVERY corner, and every Korean woman has on the shortest shorts/skirt you could imagine.  (Ok, not every woman, just every woman under the age of 30 or maybe 40….they all look so young!) And when you think smiling at that cute old lady (aka: adjama) is a good idea, think again.  Because she will give you a “why in the hell are you smiling at me” look back.  It will just warm your heart!

At the Bujon market near our apartment.

I must say it feels good to be in another country again, to be uncomfortable and awkward for most of the day!  To constantly be thinking and unsure of things is good for me!    Don't get me wrong, I have had my "this is dumb" moments along the way, but overall I think South Korea will be a good fit for the Hanes’!

The first week in Busan was spent being jet lagged and finding a place to live, along with the occasional class observation and Korean cuisine. Unfortunately, in the first week we ate more Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonalds than we have in our entire life.  Oh, comfort food you hate to eat at home and crave when you are not!

An all you can eat raw tuna restaurant, complete with hot saké.

The next two weeks were busy with work.  We had to prepare for our new classes, teach students of a new culture, and adjust to our crazy work schedule.   We work mornings, afternoons, and evenings.  With random breaks in-between.  Not the best set up.

About to go back to work one evening.

We are already looking forward to having a vacation during the 18-22 of September.  It is the South Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving.  It will be nice to rest, catch our breath and then maybe go to the beach.

Some fun facts about Korean/Busan we have learned in the first three weeks:

1. Korean’s have a Korean Age, which basically added a year to my life as soon as I got here.  Hello 30!
2. My name has been many different things through the years and here in Busan it is “Teppany.”  (Korean’s in general have a hard time with the F sound.)
3. As if there are not enough people on the sidewalks, motor bikes feel that they are pedestrians too, so they drive on the sidewalks.  Yikes.
4. I will never lose my keys again.  Everything in Busan has a key code, so to get into work and our apartment we just need the 4 digit code!  I love this!
5. The emergency number is 119.  Tricky.
6. They make you recycle every single thing, which is a hassle.  But, I guess if you can’t beat ’em, join ‘em!

Mistakes some students have made that will make you blush.  See if you can guess the pronunciation mistakes.  Here are the correct sentences….I will highlight the mispronounced word…..have fun….

I love coke.        

I really like the beach!

One Week...

As most of you know, we have been trying to leave the country to teach English for about 9 months.  Well, the time has finally come and we will be leaving in ONE week.  Yikes! 

We started this process back in November of 2012.  We signed contracts to work at universities in Saudi Arabia, and started our visa process.  Well, after 5 months of going back and forth with the Saudi government it was decided we would not be teaching in Saudi.  A week later we started applying to teach in South Korea.  So now after 3 and ½ months we just got the news a week ago that we would be leaving Lubbock on August 21^st!  

We will be working with an organization called Pagoda.  To find out more info you can visit their website here.  We will be in South Korea's second largest city, Busan. It is coastal and beautiful!!!

Some fun facts about South Korea:

• The country is roughly the size of Indiana.
• The countries population is 48,486,823.
• That means there are 1,200 people per square mile.  Yikes.
• The peninsula is surrounded by aprox. 3,000 volcanic islands
• Fruit is a luxury item.  (this is very sad.)  
• Watermelon is one of the most expensive and can range from $15-30 USD.
• Tipping is not required in Korea.
• Most homes in Korea are equipped with heated floors.
• The number “4” is extremely unlucky.
• Religion: 46% no affiliation, 26% Buddhist, 26% Christian, 2% other.

Some fun facts about Busan:

• Busan population is 3.7 million, the same as LA.  However it is half the square miles.
• Busan has the world’s largest department store.
• Busan borders low mountains on the north and west, and the seas on the south and east.
• Busan is the fifth busiest seaport in the world.
• Busan has 17 universities and 9 colleges.
• Busan has FREE public restrooms!

So it's ONE WEEK till we…

are out of our comfort zones again.

are working again.  (this is a big one.)

are leaving our friends and family.

have our own place.

start our new adventure!!! 

You think you know...but you have no idea....

Some of you might recognize this saying from the MTV show Diary from back in the day.  Ever since then I have often quoted and been reminded of this saying throughout my life. It seem I am the one who thinks  I  knows....but I have no Idea.  Story of my life!  

As most of you know we have been trying to get our visas to teach English in Saudi Arabia.  We first told you about this back in December after signing our contracts and were expecting to leave by January. Some of you might even think we have already been gone, but no, we are still in good ole' Lubbock Texas.

After spending 5 months on our visa process it has been decided that we are NOT going to teach in Saudi.  We tried very hard to meet all the requirements put in place by the Saudi government, but when they change the requirements every 3 weeks it makes it very frustrating.  Their last requirement change stated that we have to have a college degree in Education or English to teach there.  No exceptions.  So, after 5 months of thinking we were going to leave we are now back at square one.

So now what?  Start the process all over again for another country?  Get real jobs and start our life here in America?

Well as many of you know we don't think we are quite ready to start our life here in America, that would be too normal for us.  So we have decided to apply to South Korea to teach English in either Universities or Academy's.  We are in the very beginnings of this process and are expecting for it to take around 3-4 months.  The process for visas in South Korea is more straight forward than Saudi Arabia so we are hoping this will be a good thing.
Until then we are finishing up the year subbing, (we are so glad there are only 2 weeks of school left.)  hanging out with family and friends and enjoying the luxuries of America!  Ha ha.  We appreciate all of your love, support and prayers throughout all this and ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts.   
Blessings from the Hanes'!!

Hurry Up and Wait!

This seems to be our motto right now...."Hurry up and wait!"  We have spent the better part of a month gathering together all of the seemingly endless documents needed for our employment visa. (check out the photo below)  We have finally acquired all of our transcripts, passport photo's, release forms, and medical records and sent them off to the visa agency in Washington DC.  All we have to do left.....is wait!  We have already been waiting for two weeks and now they have informed us that it can take an additional 2-3 weeks to complete the process and actually get our visa's!    

We have been able to take the time to visit friends and family and say our goodbyes while we are still here.  It's just a little awkward saying "goodbye" to someone and then seeing them a month later. Our bad.  At some point we really will be gone. We just wish we knew when!  Until that time comes we will continue to stuff our faces with American food, "allow" Tiffany to wear what she wants and drive a car, and spend time with those we love.  Again, thanks for taking this new journey with us......I promise, it will begin soon....hopefully....

Did Someone Say Shawarma?

Well I’m sure many of you are wondering what is next for the Hanes’?  It has been a while since we updated y’all and I’m sorry for that.  Don’t worry, we are still alive and doing our thing, even though we don’t really know what “our thing” is. 

2012 flew by as every year seems to do.  It was full of unknowns, questions and uncertainty.  We had just spent a year travelling around the world serving others so a natural question arose…now what?  How do you top that?  Well, slowly by slowly, as our Kenyan friends like to say, we just fell into life.  We traveled around the states visiting friends and family that had supported us the year before.  We spoke at a few churches who had sponsored us.  We just kind of floated around not really knowing our place. No matter where we went we would always get the same question.  What is next for the Hanes? 

Wow, what a question to be asked, especially when we're not sure of the answer!  Do any of us really know what will happen tomorrow?  Most of us have a pretty good guess at what the next day, month and even year may look like.  But for us it's been a little different.  We haven’t found a "career", we don’t own a home or have any debt, and although it would be nice to have some structure and stability in our life,  it looks like now is just not the time. And we are okay with that.

  

2012 was a transitional year I guess you could say.   We worked off and on as substitute teachers. (a bit of a reminder of how not ready we are to start a family and have kids!)  We lived in Central America for 3½ months over the summer serving, vacationing and just living.  We tried to live life as "normal" as we knew how. You know...normal...taking bucket baths when there's no hot water, lighting candles when the electricity goes out, walking everywhere, sweating endlessly and trying to communicate via charades. That is normal, right??  

  

Anyway, with 2013 in front of us we have decided to do something a little different, yet again.  Justin and I will be teaching English at a University in....wait for it.....SAUDI ARABIA!!  Yep that's right, Saudi Arabia. Home of falafels and shawarmas, deserts and sandstorms, Islam and Arabic, and much much more as I'm sure we will see.  We know that it sounds a little crazy.  It will be totally different than anything we have experienced thus far, but then again, I guess that is why it appeals to us.  

There are still a lot of unknowns; we have been working on the application for visas for about a month.  We do know that we have been hired and that we will be leaving in January, but we don’t know exactly when or where in Saudi we will be.

       

So what will you be doing in 2013?  Whatever it is that you are doing, we hope that it is something that you love, something that challenges you, something that helps you prioritize your life the way you feel you should be, and something that allows you to be surrounded by people you love.