"Words have no wings, but they can travel a thousand miles" (Korean Proverb)

Welcome to Flying Words, Jon and Aileen's blog of our adventures in South Korea! We will be in South Korea for a year, starting in mid-July, teaching English in a private school. We just graduated from college this past May, and are looking forward to having some adventures before continuing our education. 
We started this blog to keep all our family and friends updated and to share our photos and stories. We hope this is entertaining for you! We will miss you all, and are very thankful to have the internet to keep us in touch. 


Monday, September 1, 2008

Kimchi the Hedgehog (Don't act like you're surprised :) )




Well, I finally gave in to my years of wanting a hedgehog. It all happened at Homever, a big supermarket/department store in Jeonju where we went to scout out the food choices, since we had heard you could find things there you couldn't find anywhere else. Which was true. We found things like actual spaghetti sauce, tortillas, and good spices. And a hedgehog. Which was very cute. 
I didn't really consider buying her until the second time we saw her. I figured, since 
hedgehogs are hard to find, and I've been wanting one, I should check out the procedure for bringi
ng her back to the States to see if we should get her. Turns out, there's
 not really any requirements for pet rodents/small mammals. So, after some research into how to take care of a hedgehog, we went to Homever after work last night and bought her. Of course, we took our Korean friend to ask about its health, age, a guarantee and other things. Turns out, the guy who sold her to us owns a hedgehog too, so he was helpful. 

Kimchi, as we named her, is about 3 months old but fully grown. (For those 
who don't know, kimchi is Korean fermented/pickled vegetables, usually cabb
age, that are buried underground in pots for months with an ungodly amount of chili powder. Its served with about every meal he
re.) Hedgehogs are nocturnal, which is good since we work all day but get home at around 9 and usually stay up until about 1am. Kimchi is very curious, and adorable. She is not really afraid of us-- hedgehogs curl up in a ball when they are afraid, and she lets us pick her up without pause and spent all her time in transit and getting used to her new home exploring rather than being scared. 

Last night I didn't sleep too well, being nervous about every strange noise, and the few times I checked on her after a particularly strange noise, I found her rearranging the things in her cage, climbing the wire walls and otherwise playing. We had cut a shoebox in half
 and put it in her cage to make a shelter for her to hide in, but we found her asleep this morning underneath her flipped-over shelter. It didn't look too comfortable, but obviously she thought it was. You could see it moving up and down with her breathing. :) 

(The pictures are from when we put her into a cardboard box while arranging her cage...she didn't really like it in there, and escaped as soon as she could)

4 comments:

Mom/Mama Bear said...

oh my gosh I can't believe you got your hedgehog in Korea! Soooooo cute! Anna already left for school...can't wait to tell her to go online to your blog when she gets home...she'll be way jealous of you and in 11 months she will be excited to see Kimchi....not you! Ha!

Anna said...

ok holy crap CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!! how big is she? yeah i cant wait for u to bring her back with you!! cute!!
awwwww... kimchi is a cute name just make sure you dont mix her up with real kimchi and eat her... :( that would be sad.

Lyn said...

That is quite possibly the cutest, awesomest thing ever. Congratulations! :)

Russell Phillips said...

My wife and I just moved to South Korea to teach as well. We also love small animals and saw some hedgehogs for sale and have really considered buying one. Thanks for the info!