Korean Kittle Love

by Jenn

As Karl mentioned in the last post, we got a kitten. We decided to do some volunteer work through Animal Rescue Korea (which is a great organization, if anyone reading this is interested) and since I still have a few weeks until my contract begins, I volunteered to be a foster. Over in Daejeon, which is between one and a half and two hours away from here by bus, the shelter is overflowing with kittens. I suspect the recent influx is because of the time of year it is now. The shelter there tries hard to be no-kill which is excellent, but they also don't limit the number of animals they take in, and unfortunately due to that and lack of volunteer manpower, many of the animals there die anyway. Now, we had a little fiasco with the train schedule the day we had set up a meeting to take a foster kitten-- we got to the station and it was closed, boarded up, and there were gates over the train tracks! Little did we know, and were not to discover until many days later, there is another station in our city (I use the word "in" loosely here) way over on the west side, probably 1 km from downtown. So anyway, we hopped a bus and since we were late, another ARK volunteer picked up a kitten for us and handed him off to us at a subway stop in Daejeon.

The kitten she picked for us was a little sick, which is not unusual given the conditions of the shelter, so we immediately went to a vet that she was familiar with. The name of it is Africa and it's in central Daejeon near the Lotte department store-- I highly recommend it. They give a big discount for adopted animals, you just have to show proof of adoption from a shelter. The vet also speaks enough English to answer questions and give you instructions about medication and the animal's needs. Even better than that, in my mind, was the cost of services. For our kitten's check-up, lab work, medication, and an injection to fight parasites, it came to 18,000 won. That's it!! In the U.S. I know it would be at least 3 times that.

He's now on his last day of medication and he is acting like a normal kitten and even starting to fatten up. I'm so happy we could help this little guy :3

His name is Tama!
 

Isn't he cute?!

We're settling into a routine of daily life now. Grocery shopping still presents some challenges, but not always in the way you'd think-- for example, I love how many samples they give out at the stores on the weekend, but sometimes the samples aren't what they seem to be. What I thought was fruit juice turned out to be pomegranate flavored vinegar. Needless to say I hightailed it over to the coffee samples after that-- thank goodness it was actually coffee! Here are a couple of other curiosities that are easy to find and are growing on us. First up, gum flavored like coffee & ice cream. Together. Yep. As gross as it sounds, it's actually not too bad. This ID (I'm Different) brand seems to have a variety of flavors. I want to try more!

Next is the little yellow melons that are in season right now. These things are everywhere! Seriously, there was even a guy who just pulled his truck over on the side of the road around the corner from us and set up shop right there. They're also the big thing at the grocery stores- picture baskets of these things rotating on a conveyor belt and men with microphones announcing their deliciousness. Naturally I had to try some. They're very tasty and a good alternative to watermelons, which will leave a 16,000 won hole in your wallet.

I might slice on of these up to go with lunch. Yum!