The Never Ending Garbage Routine

This story is a typical thing that happens when you live in another country...Especially one that doesn't speak English as their first language.

So, four girls moved into an apartment and of course the garbage is piling up throughout the weeks. They know that they can't just put the garbage outside to be collected by the garbage men, like at home. They just don't know where to put it. They are a little lazy and put it off until garbage is falling down the stairs. One night, they all decide to go for a family garbage outing. They were told that they just bring it to the main road at the specified times and they will see lots of people with their garbage ready for the dump trucks to arrive. So, at 9:25pm, they walk the couple of blocks and they do see almost the entire neighborhood standing on the corner, garbage in hand ready for the trucks to arrive. They are the only white faces in the crowd of Asians with their hands full of garbage. Of course every eye is on them wondering about their garbage and they want to scream out,"Yes, we are normal and we do have garbage to throw out also!" Finally, the trucks arrive at 9:30pm and they still stand there wondering what the hell to do with the various bags of garbage and recyclables. There are about 3-4 trucks and everyone is running around with their bags tossing them into different trucks. In the crowd they see another white face. Thankfully he has done this before and helps us a bit. The wise man told them that they need to have special bags that are only bought from 7-11 and there are certain days for each kind of garbage. A Taiwanese man finally comes over and tells them that this is Taipei City and there are rules. You need a special bag!!! After begging the garbage men a bit, the poor girls slowly walk back to their apartment, garbage and all. The garbage is now rotting in their staircase.

The next day, after the electricity was cut for some reason. The neighbor comes and yells at them (in Chinese) for the garbage in the hallway. They assure him (in English) that it will be taken care of. They are still not sure if that conversation got through to any of them. Again, at 9:30pm they gather their garbage, now in the special bags that 7-11 provided. They walk down the street with loads of garbage and start getting very odd looks. It's Wednesday and 9:30pm, time for the garbage trucks to arrive. They look to the corner and no one is standing where the whole neighborhood stood the previous night. They have the right bags and they are ready to finally dispose of the garbage. Wrong...A Taiwanese man on a motorbike drove up the sidewalk and mumbled something about the number 3 and no. They are translating this to mean on the third day of the week, no garbage trucks will come. So, the poor girls again walk back to their apartment with all their garbage in their hands while being laughed at by all the people that were giving strange looks. The garbage again remains in the hallway to be nice and heated up by the daytime heat and the lingering smell increases. They had the right bags this time, but not the right day. When are they ever going to figure this out??? Tomorrow is a new day and also the 4th day of the week, so they are hoping that the garbage will finally be disposed of. This is hard work!

One little secret is that before they found out about the rules for garbage disposal, they left a bag and some boxes in front of a shop to be picked up last week. Little did they know that was not the correct spot for garbage. They wonder what ever became of their misplaced garbage....

Let's just hope their neighbor will forgive them for not getting rid of the garbage tonight. Oh, and the electricity went back on finally!