Mission accomplished: I took the garbage out

In Taiwan, unless you live in a dorm or in a fancy residencial appartment you have to take out your garbage and put it in the garbage truck YOURSELF.
During my first semester of Chinese, I had this lesson about taking out the trash, chasing after the garbage truck and recycling. Back then my teacher asked us when was the time of the garbage collection around our place... I had no idea... I just rely on my Taiwanese flatmate who knows when and where to wait for the truck and would go with him if he needs me to help and I happen to be at home at that time. And I lived like that for 7 months, not knowing how to do.

But came the day when my flatmate had been gone for 6 days already, probably travelling somewhere, and my other flatmate told me he was coming back 3 or 4 days later. Our garbage bin was full, still with the image in mind of the last HUGE cockroach I saw in our kitchen 3 days ago, I decided it was time for me to take the garbage out on my own.
So what did I do? I looked for information in English on my phone. Could only find blog posts of expats writing about their experiences taking out their trash but nothing really concrete for me. So I tried to search for it in Chinese... and I found what I was looking for! On www.dep.gov.taipei knowing my address in Chinese I could find a map with schedules. Apparently there is one truck that stops just in front of my door at 7pm but I never saw it before... never really looked for it. Haha

I was prepared to go 10 minutes earlier and at the moment I came out I heard the truck coming! Yes garbage trucks in Taiwan, like the ice cream truck in the US, play music for people to know they have to quickly come out with their trash if they forgot about the time. The most common theme song is Beethoven's Fur Elise. It was raining, like almost everyday in Taipei, but a lot of people were ready with their umbrella throwing their trash in the trucks. The yellow one is for general trash you have to throw away using special blue bags that can be found in any corner store, and the white truck is collecting recycle items, you can use any bags for those as long as they are clean.

You have to know that there is no trash collection on Wednesday and Sunday, and I think the white truck doesn't come everyday... need to look into it more. haha
Now that I know I can do it I think I will take out the trash more often and don't just wait for my flatmate to do it, he will probably be happier. xD

That's it for today.
Thank you for reading my blog,

Floppy