Kimchi, not for me

In Korea, trash is...complicated. It's not like in the States (or at least in my part of the States) where you have the HUGE green county-issued trash can, and you fill it up and haul it to the curb once or twice a week. There's no general garbage tax here, so you make up for that by buying the garbage bags. You can only use these specific government-made (or sanitation dept. made, you get the idea) garbage bags. They come in a variety of sizes...from 10 liters, up to near about 100. I buy the 20 liter bags usually. Anyway, you can't (or at least aren't supposed to) put any food waste in the garbage bags. Or anything that can be recycled. So really only small odds and ends, and (for me) lots of paper goes in the garbage bags. So then there's food waste, bins on the streets that are especially stinky in the summer, where all the food trash goes. (Or again, if you're me, you put manageable doses into the toilet and flush it.) Then there's recycling. Well, Lis and I live on the second floor, but it's really just like half a floor up, because it's kind of on a hill, and the parking area on the first floor goes down a small hill...just trust me, it's not so high up. So I think last week I suggested that I go downstairs, and she toss the stuff to me from the porch. We had been to Costco earlier in the week and had lots of boxes and such, and I knew that catching it would be a lot safer for my clumsy self than trying to carry it down the stairs would be. Well, we stumbled upon a gem of efficiency - not to mention an easy way to astonish, stun, and inspire laughter in those Koreans that happen to be walking by when we are taking out (throwing down?) our garbage. This week she went downstairs and I was the tosser. And I learned that it's a less humiliating ordeal if you're the one throwing rather than the one catching. Last week she was gracious enough to wait until no one was around before she threw things to me. I wasn't as thoughtful (or aware) tonight. Regardless, I think it saves a lot of time...and it makes both of us laugh (more at the responses of the Koreans passing by) than the actual activity itself. This is yet another reason that I enjoy living with Lis.