[Dona]

Hello all!

I've got a couple of questions, hope somebody can help shed some light...this might get kinda long, forgive me.

My Mom got a foreign exchange student on August 10th, he is from South Korea and his name is Jong Yoon Lee. My mom is raising a nephew of mine who is 12 and my nephew's best friend is being raised by HIS grandma too. My nephew's best friend's grandma has a foreign exchange student too, but it's a girl from India. Well, this other grandma was going out of town and could not take her foreign exchange student along (the girl from India) so she asked my mom if the girl could stay with her for the weekend. My mom already had plans to come to my house she didn't want to cancel so she asked if she could bring this girl from India to my house also and of course I agreed!! I welcome anyone into my home.

So, this past Saturday, my mom, nephew, their foreign exchange student (Jong Yoon) and the girl from India arrived for the weekend. The instant the girl is in our door she is screaming and swatting at our dogs. We tried to tell her they were friendly and would not hurt her, but she kept swatting at them. Things settled down and I tried to keep the Beagles away from her but I had to keep our Great Dane locked up the entire weekend, which she is NOT used to and I felt awful about it! Our dogs are INDOOR dogs and only go into crates if and when they want to. ANY time one of the Beagle's got near this girl, she would kick at them and scream (she'd scream "MOMMY!"). Finally I did try to ask her why she did not like the dogs when she could see we all loved them and treated them like our children. She was very hard to understand (her accent) but she said something like if they touched her clothing she could not pray??? And, she acted like she hated them. This did NOT sit well with DH and myself, it would be the same to us as if she screamed, swat at and kicked at any human children we may have had! Anyway, she pretty much put a damper on the weekend cuz our dogs are little love muffins and they are sweet and friendly but we had to CONSTANTLY yell at the dogs to get away from her and if we let one get too close, she would kick at him. For all of you who love your pups like we do, you know this tugged at our hearts, it was painful! Also, during the 2.5 days they were here, this girl did a few things that really bothered me. One morning she went outside by our swimming pool and slipped on a pair of my "outside" flipflops which she proceded to wear ALL day, INSIDE our home (we have new, cream colored carpet and NOBODY wears shoes in the house). These were the shoes I do NOT even wear inside the door as they are only for outside work and wear. I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure how to, you know? But, at about 6:30pm that evening as we all got ready to go to the park I finally asked her "Are you going to wear my shoes to the park too?" All she said was "no". She helped herself to whatever she wanted, when she wanted, including getting into the fridge and freezer to take or eat what she wanted. After swimming in our pool, she would leave her wet clothes (yes clothes, no swimsuit but pants and a shirt) lying on the bed in the room she slept in...soaking wet! After she left, I went in to clean the guest bathroom and found that she had gone into my supply closet and helped herself to a brand new toothbrush. Now, I know, it's only a toothrbrush but for me, that wasn't the point. She got into a closet she didn't even need to get in, took out a brand new toothbrush still sealed in it's wrapper, threw the wrapper away and made the toothbrush her own. It was RUDE and to me, it was stealing!!! She never asked, but just went into my stuff as if it was available TO HER to take what she needed or wanted. She never said anything about taking the toothbrush either. I had seen the toothbrush on the sink earlier and thought "how weird, she uses the exact same kind we do" and that is when I thought to look and we had six and there were five left in the closet and an empty wrapper in the trashcan of that bathroom. I keep even amounts on hand so that when we need new ones, DH and I each get one....but now we have only five in our supply closet. She never said thank you for anything, not even when we went TO the store to BUY her foods that she would eat. She asked me to buy her two cheese pizzas and I did, but she never thanked me. Also, Joey treated us all to DQ one night and she never thanked him, everybody else did, even my 12 year old nephew!!

I have been bothered by her behaviour all week and finally I called my Mom tonight only to find out my MOM was very bothered and does NOT even want this girl in her home!! My Mom said if she can steal one thing, she can steal anything. This girl also went through TWO boxes of items I had stored in the spare bedroom where she slept...I know for a FACT she did as things were neatly stacked and sorted in BOTH boxes, and after she left I went to clean up the room and noticed that the items in both boxes were jumbled and tossed around, and neither box was closed any longer. It was two large boxes of pharmacy rep items like pens, clocks, paperclips, bookbags, cotton ball dispensers, all with drug names on them that I won on ebay in two "grab bag" auctions. I have no clue about each and every item that was in each box as it was a LOT of stuff, but who is to say she didn't find something in them she wanted and took?? My Mom told me that the "host" parents for this girl were about fed up with her behaviour also, so I don't know if she'll be here much longer. This girl was HIGHLY intelligent and only 15 years old and said she was in the Indian army???

Can anybody she some light? Do you know of any reason why she would feel my home was open to her to use or take what she wanted without asking? I know every country has customs but I'd not think stealing was allowed in any? Also, I can't figure out her contempt for the dogs or why she did NOT want them to touch her clothes? She wouldn't hesitate to sit down in a chair or on a sofa RIGHT where a dog had just sat and a few times I saw her pick up and throw aside a dog toy that was in her way?????

Just any insight I'd appreciate, I'm very baffled here!

THANKS!