Hamtoro

We bought a hamster!
...yes it is a big deal.

You don't see a lot of pets on Korea. Perhaps the odd rat-dog or house-cat, but there is a huge difference in the amount of animals I see here when compared with England. Of course there are a few reasons for this; one being that animals are seen as unhygienic, another being that animals are generally considered food and just food (old people, man... they eat anything),  but the biggest reason being the apartment size in Korea. 
Asian countries are known to have extremely high populations and not quite enough space to house everyone. Similar to Japan, Korea attempts to combat this by building huge apartment buildings and keeping the individual apartments compact and basic. Expensive apartments here are about the size of an American living room, and cheap apartments can literally be 5 X 5 meters in size. So, even if you love animals, it's very unlikely you'll have space for them.

Because of the lack of pet owners, Korean people are often uncomfortable with animals. Makes sense: I mean, some people here have never touched a dog or cat. The lack of exposure makes people very hesitant towards animals; so much so I've seen grown men and women run across busy roads to be as far away from a dog as possible. Or scream like children when a cat runs past their view. I've also seen a woman run face-first into a tree to avoid a pigeon. Asians are defiantly the most graceful race.

For people who love animals there are a few options, for example: cat and dog cafes. A cafe filled with animals where you can go, buy a coffee and embrace the fluffy. My area even has a reptile and snake cafe. Another option is the zoo, however... Korea doesn't have the same animal protection laws as back home, so if you're a true animal-lover then it's probably not the best choice... aquariums are awesome here though.

I had pets in England. A good few pets, actually. And I love animals. Usually more than people. So, from the get-go I missed having them lounging around the house. My new Korean apartment is quite big (because I'm a posh bitch now), so as soon Seong and I moved in, I started.

Koreans don't share the feels.

So yeah. After weeks and months of nagging, he finally caved-in and we bought a Hamster! A cat would have been my pick, but you know, start off small.
I picked the grumpiest one. They are always the most hilarious. He bit the pet-shop workers finger as soon as her hand went in, and it was love from then. I named him Alfredo Augustus Theodore Hwang. It suited his grumpy-old-man personality.

He doesn't actually have a moustache.
 I'm working on the top-hat.

At first Seong was very standoffish, but as time went on I'd catch him sat next to the cage, in intense focus. After a few weeks he gave the hamster the nick-name "Hamtoro" claiming "Alfie" was too hard for a Korean man to pronounce. As more time passed he started to ask questions, and I'd catch him searching "hamster homes" and "caring for a hamster." 

That's when I realised... he's become... ONE OF US. 
No longer afraid of the fluffy! My darling has come to enjoy the squishy, snuggly, glorious world of a pet owner!
Hand-nibbling, poop-scooping, cage-cleaning. He does it all. 
And just like that, a wonderful, furry friendship was born.