Wiener Mutt Update

Let me start this by saying that I have a firm policy against putting any naughty four letter words in print. I refuse to sound like an uneducated tool (or possibly offend) people of which I haven’t spoken to in years, or potentially have never met. The rest of you reading this know I’m not a tool. Plus my mother taught me to always be a lady. Well, on paper at least. However, if I didn’t have such a policy this blog would be written differently. VERY differently.  

My director stopped by around noon and brought my new Korean cell phone (yay!), my first paycheck (in cash!), and some news about my illegal animal.  Apparently in Korea passive aggressive is the way to go.  Apparently in Korea it is ok to threaten the life of my animal with no intention to actually follow through.  Apparently in Korea it’s all a contest of who can scream the loudest.  A contest of which I have never lost by the way.  But I’m in a different country now with different rules…

He informed me that he spoke with several people that have animals in the building and they get the letter often. A scare tactic.  They have no intention of following through, it’s just to frighten me.  Did it work? Yes. Is there a better to let me know that someone in the building was offended by my animal? #$&@ yes! Both my director and recruiter agree that this is just the Korean way to handle things.  Probably someone complained about Charles so they had to do something.  Stick a note under my door, I consider myself warned, and potentially scared enough to actually get rid of the animal in question.

This is what I think happened… I got a package delivered Monday morning and the delivery man came straight to my apartment door.  When Charlie heard the knock he went crazy nuts.  Delivery man got scared (everyone here is terrified of a barking dog) and complained. It may have been one of my neighbors that complained but I have yet to see anyone other than Andrea and myself on this floor.  And really it's irrelevant who complained. Well, irrelevant except that I might have given them apology cupcakes from Charles and I, but whatever.

Apartments here are different than apartments in America. I’m told that this is private property and no one can enter without my explicit permission. There are only two keys to my door, one that belongs to me and the other one in the safe deposit box at school. As my director said, “if someone comes in, shoot them.” (But again I ask you, how did my dead bolt get locked from the outside yesterday??)  

Essentially both director and recruiter told me I have nothing to worry about and to just ignore it.  Am I ok with this? Nope.  Do I have a choice? …I’m not sure. I’m not comfortable with this. In America you don’t make a threat like that without the full intention, and legal capability, to follow through.  But I’m not in America anymore. I’m in Korea now and the rules are different here.  I am terrified to go to work Friday evening and just hope that my little wiener mutt will still be there when I get back. I’m assured by my director, and reassured by my recruiter, that everything will be fine.  But I’m just not comfortable with it yet.

Charles acts like a buffoon sometimes.  I know this. He knows this. All of Orlando knows this. It’s his fun little game to scare people.  And while he acts like a tool occasionally, he really has only done it when we go for walks.  Anytime we are in the building I am carrying him in the lobby, elevator, etc, so he acts right.  I even give up my elevator ride to people who are visibly uncomfortable with being in a small confined space with an animal. A lot of people actually come up to play with him or will pull out their cell phones to show me pictures of their dogs. But as a culture some Koreans just really aren’t comfortable with dogs and I try to be very conscious of that.

Anyway, here are some pictures… We’ve been using the barker collar the last few days and it is the greatest invention of all time.  It’s also worthy of it’s own blog so that will come later.


Charles showing his disdain for the barker collar.

Why thank you. I believe I will. (First Paycheck)

 

“I wanna be a millionaire so frickin’ bad. Buy all of the things I never had.”

I’ve been singing that song in my head all day long. And then as I was typing it I realized the song is actually Billionaire, not Millionaire.  Oh well, I’m a millionaire.  In Korean won. haha.

For those concerned, I am only being paid in cash for this cycle.  The whole alien registration thing takes a while.  The fact that these are all 10,000 won bills makes this looks much more exciting than it really is.