Tying up loose ends.

Today was my last full day in Korea. I spent it the way I've spent most of this past week: packing, cleaning, and running pre-departure errands. Tuesday involved multiple trips to the vet for health checks and travel papers. Wednesday was post office day - lugging four boxes of crap that wouldn't fit into my suitcases down to the nearest PO. Wednesday was mostly cleaning and packing, although I also lugged ₩60,000 worth of ₩100 coins to the bank to cash them in. Today I took my extra pet carrier (stuffed with all the excess pet things I won't be bringing with me) across town to donate to Animal Rescue Korea. Then I went and stocked up on birth control as the US seems to be nonsensically spiraling down the pill-is-evil rabbit hole. Bags are packed, and the apartment is clean. And now I'm just kicking my heels. 15 hours til I leave my moldy shithole of an apartment for good.

Tomorrow, two of my former coworkers will be helping me to cart two ginormous suitcases, a dog, a cat, and a carry-on bag off to the airport. Assuming all goes according to plan, I should be home about 25 hours later. It's going to be a long day. The critters are resting up:

When donating, always do your research.

Joseph Kony is a very, very evil man, who has done some atrocious things. The KONY 2012 video put out by Invisible Children documenting his war crimes has gone viral across the planet. While it's great that awareness of who Kony is and what he has done is spreading across the globe (even though there are some inaccuracies/misleading statements in the video itself), what is the result of all this awareness? Well, for one thing, after tugging at your heartstrings (and boy does it tug...), it asks you to donate money to Invisible Children.

But the thing is... Invisible Children, while obviously an excellent organization in terms of raising awareness, has a rather crap track record in terms of actually using their money provide direct assistance to children in Africa. In fact, Invisible Children only uses 31-37% of their funds to provide direct assistance. In contrast, here are some of the percentages of funds going towards direct assistance from other well known charities: Direct Relief 98.8%, American Red Cross 92.1%, UNICEF USA 90.3%, World Vision 88%, and Compassion International 83%.

The KONY 2012 movie is incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, it seems to be powerfully motivating individuals to donate to... filmmakers. Now, if you want to support a group that makes films to raise awareness, then by all means, give them money. If watching the film has motivated you to donate money to help children in Uganda, Africa, or the world... choose another charity.

When donating to ANY charity, for ANY cause, it is very important to do your research and see where your money is actually going. I wrote about this a good bit back in December, focusing on my main cause, animal welfare. The Humane Society of the United States has incredibly powerful ad campaigns showing sad, pathetic animals, confined behind bars in a shelter. The ads tug at the heartstrings of animal lovers... many of whom mistakenly believe that the HSUS funds local animal shelters. In fact, roughly 1 cent of every dollar donated to HSUS makes its way to local shelters. One penny. The shelter where I used to work received $0 from HSUS. Now, HSUS does a lot of advocacy work. Supporting them does help in terms of funding lobbying for animal rights and raising awareness of animal welfare issues. If that's what you want to support, then by all means, donate to them. However, if your main goal is to provide direct aid to animals, donate to a local shelter, humane society, or rescue (and read my earlier post for tips). $100 given to your local shelter will have a far greater direct impact on the lives of animals than $100 given to HSUS.

Likewise, $100 given to an organization such as Direct Relief, Red Cross, UNICEF, World Vision, or Compassion International will have a far greater impact on the lives of the people you wish to help than $100 donated to Invisible Children.

For more information:

Visible Children

Unpacking KONY 2012

Fact Checking the KONY 2012 Viral Video

Humane Watch

Pet Travel Papers!

There's something absolutely wonderful about lying in bed, sandwiched between a cat on one side and a dog on the other, listening to the rain pound against the window, and knowing that you don't have to get up and go to work... that is, it was wonderful until I became fully conscious enough to realize that the weather was utter shite on the day I needed to make two different trips to Itaewon with my critters to finalize their travel paperwork. Yuck. 

By around 11:30, the rain had stopped (although it never cleared; the entire day was cold, dreary, and blanketed in thick fog), so I shoved Charlie into her bag and hopped the subway for Itaewon to go to the Chungwha Animal Hospital. Even though there are plenty of vets in the Hongdae area where I live, including one right around the corner from my apartment, Chungwha had been highly recommended to me as a place where the vets and staff spoke English, and where they were experienced with the paperwork needed for overseas travel with pets. I'd been there once before, right after I got Mochi (and it's where I bought his crate), and I was definitely impressed. I'd also read the sign about how they were closed for lunch from 12-1. Which I forgot. Yep, Charlie and I walked in right as they all went on their lunch break. I figure it's good practice for Saturday, when she's going to have to be in her bag for a good 24 hours. Or at least that's what I told her (and myself) at the time. Once their lunch break ended, I was able to get Charlie's health check, health certificate, and rabies certificate quickly and painlessly before heading back home.

Chungwha Animal Hospital lobby

Charlie, waiting to see the vet.

Then came the more challenging part. In theory you're not supposed to take animals on the subway, but I've seen plenty of people with tiny dogs and the occasional cat-in-a-bag on there. As long as you can pop it into a bag and pretend you don't have an animal, there doesn't seem to be any problem. Mochi, while not a big dog by any stretch of the imagination, is too large to pop into a bag. I'd also discovered on my previous trip to Chunghwa with Mochi that a lot of taxi drivers will speed off the instant they noticed I had a dog with me. Obviously I was going to have to take a taxi to Itaewon... so...

I wrapped Mochi in a hooded sweater, with the hood over his head, and held him on my hip with his little paws around my neck. I should have gotten someone to take a picture, because it totally looked like I was carrying a toddler, bundled up against the weather (the people at the vet clinic agreed). I got a taxi both there and back with no problems, although both drivers seemed quite surprised about halfway to the destination when they discovered that my child had four legs and was covered with fur. 

Mochi - who had been so shy and terrified on his first trip to the vet was wagging his tail and playing with everyone. It's so wonderful to see how much his personality has developed, now that he's become confident.  And speaking of his development - it's a good thing that he has learned to love going for walks. On the taxi ride back, I made it just past Sangsu (one subway stop from Hongdae), when I knew I needed to get out ASAP or I was going to be violently ill. Stupid car sickness. Could have been avoided if I had sat in the front, but that would have given the whole dog-in-a-sweater trick away right at the get go. Anyway, Mochi and I had a nice long walk through Hongdae proper to get home. Tuesday afternoons aren't the busiest time for Hongdae by far, but there were still plenty of people for Mochi to show off for. He totally struts.

Mochi at the vet, where he got his health check, health certificate, and rabies certificate.

Three thoughts following my last day of work:

I just staggered home from my last day of work hwaeshik/going away party. Not really in a state for writing, so instead I'll give you three videos that pretty much express how I feel. Enjoy!

A Day in Daegu

I took the train down to Daegu this morning to spend one last day with my friend G and her family before heading back to the US (I leave next Saturday!!). It was rather a lazy day, as we just hung out and chatted and ate (and as the weather was pretty crap down there), but it was a good day. Baby S was very excited to see me, and kept saying my name over and over and over. At one point, he woke up from his nap feeling very cranky, and didn't want his mom... he wanted me. Babies scare me, and usually the feeling is mutual, so this was a bit odd :-)

Overcast, dreary, and cold in Daegu.
G and Baby S
Baby S
Baby S

Me with Baby S after his nap.

Death of an Onion

Remember my onion that I planted back in December? For an onion that was destined for someone's belly, it had a pretty good run:

It didn't get as much sunlight as it probably needed, since whenever I put it by the window, Charlie immediately showed way too much interest in it. However, as long as it sat atop the fridge, Charlie paid it no mind.
Then I put the litter box atop Mochi's crate to keep Mochi from snacking on cat shit. Take a look at the onion in the upper right to see how big it had gotten...
Once Charlie had the dog crate as a convenient stepladder to the top of the fridge, the onion began to shrink in size. Can't imagine why.

The poor thing really is on its last legs.

Out and about with Mochi

I'm so thrilled that Mochi likes to go for walks now. It's so much fun walking around with him. He's fascinated by the great outdoors, and just wants to sniff and investigate everything. He's still timid - and cars suddenly speeding by or people carrying large items scare him - but in general he's gotten quite comfortable being outside on a leash. Almost everyone who sees him calls him cute, or talks to him, or wants to pet him, and he marches along with his head held high and his tail curling up over his back. It's such a change from the terrified little guy I got back in January. He still doesn't do stairs though. Granted, for a dog whose legs are super short and whose back is super long, I can see how stairs would be a bit daunting, but it would be nice not to have to carry him out of the building and back in. I managed to convince him to climb a flight of stairs outside today, but  they were rather shallow - and even so it took forever. When we got back to the apartment, he just planted his feet in front of the staircase and waited to be picked up. But hey, we're walking around outside! Baby steps. Here are my cellphone pics from today's walk:

We found a rather bizarre collection of statuary...
...guarded by a distant relative.
He wanted to play, but his leash was too short.
Mochi was interested, too.
Slowly climbing the stairs.

Mochi and I: Out and about in Seoul :-)