Trashing Days

One thing that sucks about living alone is that you have to take out your own garbage. The garbage truck comes by and everyone runs out and takes their garbage and recycling out to the truck. The truck also plays Fur Elise piercingly loud so you can always know figure out when it's close by. However, in my neighborhood, it comes by around 2:30 and then again around 7. However, since I teach at 5 generally, I need to be at school around 3 or so to start to prepare so it means the trash doesn't get taken out much. To avoid ant/roach/what have you infestations I try to eat at home as little as possible. This is pretty easy since my "home" is a dorm room like room with a large bathroom and a free TV and cable. Also a very large bed and a refrigerator. So I can't really cook anything.

However, there are times when I feel like my life has reached a new low. Such as eating standing up under a railing while walking home so I could throw my garbage away on the road and not have to take it home.

It's a good example in some ways of how family oriented that Taiwan seems some times. Most people live with their extended family and if you ask most people in Jilong if they are from Jilong and their parents were born here they say "Yes." I daresay that would be less true in a bigger place like Taibei, but I would say it would be rare for a place of comparable size in America. It also means most people still live at home so finding affordable places to live for one person is more difficult. I suspect even my room with its large bed is meant for two people to live in. Although I suspect they would just kill each other in the end. And of course, I have no grandma at home to help me take out the trash.