In and Out

LOOK AT THESE DELICIOUS GRAPES!

Korea is full of all sorts of delicious foods! The restaurants are great, but we also buy food from markets and shops which have lots of things to try, even if we can't read the label. We have a sort of unwritten rule that at least once each week we will choose something that we haven't had before. One week it was these lovely grapes - yes - we have eaten grapes before, but not ones that were quite like these Korean grapes. They are big, tightly clustered, and really yummy. They taste like a cross between a Concord and a Muscadine - sweet and a little tart all at the same time with a very firm texture. The only downside - seeds. We liked the ones we tried so much we went back for a case and we ate them all!

Many things in this country are very cute, including some food items. We did not know exactly what these were, but they were in the candy aisle so we figured they were sweet. Well, they are! These cute, slightly worried bears are very sweet bubble gum.

This is a package of what has become Sarah's favorite snack! In this bag are 24 individual packages of little sheets of kelp (seaweed). The sheets are lightly oiled and salted and are delicious all by themselves (at least Sarah thinks so). Even better is that they can wrap around all sorts of little things, but the best way to eat them is to fill them with a little rice and pop them in your mouth. The following photos show this process - it is easy enough that the ingredients (and chopsticks, of course) are a popular item in school lunches. Yum! And healthy too.

Of course, when you bring things into the house, eventually things have to go out of the house, usually by way of The Trash. Korea has quite an extensive recycling program, and our apartment complex has a rather elaborate system of participation. This is how we do trash. First, we sort into the major categories. Layden is in the elevator with our pre-sorted garbage. We have a bin for paper and one for plastic, and a bag for metals (soon to have its own little bin). There is a lidded container for food scraps/bio trash (no bag in this bin) which Layden is holding. And then there is a bag (with blue handles and Korean writing) which is for "other" stuff that doesn't fit into a category. This includes things like kitty litter, disposable diapers, dryer lint, and stuff like that. These bags have to be purchased and MUST be used for this sort of trash. We also have a bag for things like lightbulbs and glass. Once we get all this into the elevator we take it downstairs to......

....the recycling area! Here we must further sort the trash. Paper goods get sorted into bins for 1)heavy cardboard, which is boxes, packing material and other heavyweight paper goods, 2)Cardboard, which is things like cereal boxes and other lightweight packaging, 3) Newsprint paper and 4) All the other paper stuff. Plastic has categories too. 1) Water bottles and clear plastic, 2) White or opaque plastic such as yoghurt containers, 3) Plastic bags and wrap 4) Black or heavyweight white things like PVC pipe, hoses, and such, and 5)Other plastic stuff. Metal is only 2 categories (we think) which are 1)Aluminum and 2) Everything else. Lightbulbs have their own bin, and so do batteries. Glass gets sorted into clear and colored. Food/bio gets emptied directly into its own bin. Since we can't read the labels on the sorting bins we are doing this all through what we call "Match the Trash." We hope we are getting it right because improper sorting can result in fines. Once we get all this done....

...we rinse out our bins and take them back upstairs. It is quite a process! For all you grandchildren and men of the house out there who have the job of taking out the trash - we have NO sympathy with your plight. What we do hope is that this process will make our world a better and cleaner place to live.