What the Hao?

Welcome to Tales from the Hao Life, a blog detailing two middle class Canadians’ (Geoff and Kathleen) journey as they quit their excellent jobs, sell their comfortable home and its contents, and say farewell to their wonderful families and friends to move across the globe in search of time and, ultimately, freedom: we are leaving our comfortable and secure life in Calgary in search of the time and energy to identify and pursue passions, take risks, and enjoy life in a region unfettered by winter.

So what the hao? Hǎo (好) is a wonderfully expressive Mandarin Chinese word/character that variously can mean good; right; excellent. The word is also used in certain situations to indicate agreement (yes or o.k.). So why have we chosen this word over all others to express that which we seek? First, the Chinese language has personal relevance: Geoff and I met in Taiwan in 2005, where Geoff was teaching English and I was studying Mandarin; we’ve achingly missed the island since returning to Canada in 2006; and our plan is to return to Taiwan in 2010 to live — Taiwan will be our base camp as we search for the hao life. Second, the word does a pretty darn good job of articulating the type of life we are looking to create: a life that is good; right; excellent…yessssss!

This blog will detail our journey as we leave Canada to create a life reflective of our values: time over money, palm trees over snow, and the freedom to take risks in how we fill our days and earn an income. My ultimate goal is to be able to work from anywhere in the world: travel writing and teaching and consulting online, hopefully with some automated income streams that allow us even more freedom. Geoff wants to live somewhere he can play Ultimate Frisbee year-round, travel, and not be rushed in day-to-day life. Oh, and one more thing: once we leave Calgary at the end of 2009, we never again want to live in place without palm trees.

This blog will detail our tales from the hao life, or at least our tales in search of such. We hope you look forward to a mixed bag of travel writing, photos, budgeting, the world of overseas banking and international taxes…this will be both a tale of our journey and, hopefully, the beginning of a blue print for anyone who may want to take a leap themselves!