Tuesday July 17th, 2007

Garbage time in Taiwan has always struck me as an odd thing. I understand why it's being done but I find it funny that one needs to add this to its daily routine.

Living in the city with three others ... were we ever able to meet the trucks? Nope. We all worked until 9pm which happened to be the same time the trucks were scheduled to pick up down the alley.

I can't name the tune that the trucks play but there is bound to be a comment from Brother J ... help me out here.

I've thought it would be great to go down and film garbage time because it is a very interesting thing to watch ... people gathering on the corners with their divided bags of recycling, compost and garbage.

There are schedules as to what nights you can take plastics or papers and so on. I think I recall my bro coming back with the recycling one night as it was the wrong night.


The garbage truck has flashing lights and loud music playing to let everyone know they have about 5 minutes to get down there if they want to have their garbage taken away. People line up to throw their bags into the back of a smelly dirty truck.

Once that is done, everyone walks back home and continues on with whatever it was doing before the music presented itself. Living in the county mountains, in a tall building complex, one doesn't need to worry about meeting trucks. Another added bonus to the luxury of Lotus Hill.

A lot of people are leaving Taiwan this year and it makes me wonder what life outside of Taiwan would be like. It is so easy to become use to what surrounds you.

Life has been busy and I'm glad tomorrow is the hump day. I'm going to make a mental note to decline summer camp next year and say yes to spending my mornings at the pool. Sometimes money just can't buy the preciousness of time off.

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

The song my dear sister was (and still is, I'm sure) "Fur Elise" by none other than Ludwig Van Beethoven. I'm sure he'd roll over in his grave knowing that one of his masterpieces is more commonly known as "The Garbage Song". Any song by Barbra Streisand or Celine Dion would be better suited for that title.

J.

Jennifer Turek said...

I knew you'd come through ... you're so smart!