First off, the way our apartment is set up has our kitchen window looking out at our neighbor's driveway and the side of his house. It’s not a very big gap between the houses, and we could probably read his gas meter from our sink if we felt like it. This is just an extension of the lack of personal space people give you here.
I guess our neighbor was having a problem with his gas pipes or something because there was a guy out there in a city workers vest on his cell phone talking loudly. Our window was open because it was a nice day and he was less than two feet from our open kitchen window…talking on his cell phone, way too loud. I closed it while starting straight at the worker and our neighbor. (the only previous interaction we’ve had with this neighbor is him telling Justin to cut our backyard grass shorter as he looks over our waist high fence, while Justin was out mowing the lawn.) The neighbor seemed confused while he stared back at me through out kitchen window until I closed the blinds as well, and I don’t think they even realized it was rude (to me). Who sings that song? Don’t stand so close to me? I realize it’s not the same sentiment, but I’d like to say that to people here constantly.
Then, later, we heard a knock at the door at about nine o’clock at night. Which is weird in its self because it means that the person already was let in through the gate without ringing for us. It’s the city worker who doesn’t speak much English but indicates that he wants to come inside. If Justin hadn’t been home and answered the door I would have never let him in. But he takes off his shoes and goes into the kitchen. He then turns on all our stove burners (they’re gas), testing them I guess, and then he turns off the gas to our stove and leaves! Umm, when can we turn it back on, who are you, what are you doing, what’s the problem? These are questions that are unanswerable, at least for us.
Just to be safe, we decide to leave the gas off until all the activity stops outside. The whole next day they're tearing up the driveway and street working on pipes and stuff. I'm assuming they've turned off the gas at the street, so maybe turning our gas off in the kitchen was just a way of explaining that we'd have no gas? I don't know, but it sure would have been nice to know what was going on.
***
As you know Justin and I take walks, almost every weekend to the park. We have a pair of bunnies that we always see and it makes me happy. I’ll frown at the Koreans who crowd the bunnies and make clapping or clicking noises trying to get the rabbits to look at their cameras, but I won’t do or say anything, because all they’re doing is scaring the bunnies away, but not hurting them. Today we saw a boy, about 8 years old running around off the path chasing the rabbits. His parents watched him calmly from the path and didn’t seem to think he was doing any harm. Maybe he wasn’t, as he would never be able to catch the rabbit, but it still pissed me off. A lot. Justin got a death grip on my arm and pulled me away from my desire to hit the child with my umbrella. I suddenly envied old ladies with umbrellas who could do such things.
On our way back out of the park I saw the boy chasing the rabbits again. But this time, his father was with him and they had one of the rabbits cornered under a tall bush and were on each side shaking the bush. I don’t know if they were just stupid or really trying to catch the rabbit, but it was too much. This wasn’t (idiotic) childish fun, this was cruel.
I could see the poor rabbit shaking from where I stood on the path. I started to walk over to them and using my best angry, authoritative voice shouted a sharp “HEY” at them to get their attention. Since I didn’t know if they spoke any English I just did my deepest scowl and shook my finger at them, arm at full length. The boy went around the bush to his father. I made a ‘shooing’ motion with my hands, telling them to leave. If people think I look mean when I’m zoning out and thinking, you should see it when I try to look menacing.
I walked closer to the bush, and the rabbit seemed fine. He started to munch on some grass as I stood guard over him while the father and son joined the mother on the upper path. I stayed there until they were out of sight. I was so mad I could have spit. I’m sure those rabbits get some unwanted attention, especially since some people bring dogs without leashes to the park. But it was the fact that it was an adult (supposedly) who was not chasing a rabbit, but cornering it. The rabbit didn’t even seem too concerned when just the kid was chasing it (even though I didn’t like it). But couldn’t these people just enjoy the rabbits without terrifying them?
***
These two events aren't related in anyway, just that they both happened this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment