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.