Where to rest mice that have passed on
So boys and girls, I caught another one. Minnie Mouse is gone but Speedy Gonzalez is still on the loose. I went to the rice chest yesterday and placed the glue trap right beneath the drawer before I opened it but Speedy ran and managed not to touch the trap. Therefore, when I did it again (Minnie was still in the rice chest) I placed the trap more carefully and I caught her by the corner of the trap when she tried to sun out. I'll save you the gruesome details. Luckily, today is the day to throw out your paper and other burnables like food and I think that the mouse and trap fell in that category. I only hope that they don't return it. (I'll explain now.)
Garbage (or gomi) is all recycled or burned here; therefore, it could be somewhat difficult for a foreigner to get in the rhythm of throwing out certain trash on certain days not knowing what gets thrown out with what, when and where. (It's even more difficult than it sounds, at least in the beginning.) They have clear bags that are used for paper and other burnables like leftovers and dead mice. They have green bags for clean plastic; this does not include plastic bottles, those are cleaned and put in a separate bag. There is a red bag for cans and aluminum (they also must be cleaned before thrown away). There is also trash bags for clean glass bottles, a day for throwing out furniture and appliances, and a day for throwing out wrapped newspapers and folded up milk and juice cartons. All the days are rotated and color coded on a big 1 year poster calendar that goes in your kitchen (at least in mine) with a big matching poster index to classify different trash. Apparently my predecessor had a lot of trouble with this and they would often return her trash for improper splitting methods. How they were able to tell it was her trash neither I nor her know. Cristina's predecessor often went to the grocery store and thought that something looked tasty but refused to buy it because he did not know where he would throw away the packaging. I actually have one bag full of trash that my predecessor left that I do not know what I am going to do with.
Some other things I wanted to share with you. During lunch time I walk around the port, beach and river to read and eat or just relax. What I find amazing is that the river here is (now) very shallow and has what we call in the states koi swimming around. So essentially it looks like a huge water garden. For those of you who dont know what koi are, they are basically giant brightly colored goldfish. You can see them feed from the sidewalk and bridge about 15 feet up.
Something funny that happens to me after I come back from lunch is that certain people always ask me what I ate with great curiosity. They think it's so interesting to see what I do and don't eat. Side note: The japanese products that have english on them are so funny. Yesterday I bought a pack of these chocolate dipped long very thin pretzels. My predecessor had left me a box of them so I went to buy another box I liked it so much. Well this time I got the same pack but it was green instead of red and the brand "Pocky Chocolate" was modified by "Men's". . . so it read "Men's Pocky Chocolate". I found this so funny that I had to take a picture of it. The only difference was that this was dark chocolate versus milk chocolate (I think . . . I hope).
Last night Cristina was invited to go with this Japanese woman and her two daughters that are Cristina's age. They went to the "art festival" that was at a strip mall type thing but it did not have any art and it had "popular Japanese food" like cotton candy. This was in Koyama, the town between us. She also saw a fireworks display and enjoyed it very much. For more details you will have to ask her because I wasn't there.
This afternoon, Cristina is picking me up and we are going to drive to her house together so I can practice. Tonight we are going to Kanoya, a nearby city.
Well, I'll talk to you later. I may not have computer access this weekend unless I go to Cristina's so don't be alarmed if I don't write for a few days.
Garbage (or gomi) is all recycled or burned here; therefore, it could be somewhat difficult for a foreigner to get in the rhythm of throwing out certain trash on certain days not knowing what gets thrown out with what, when and where. (It's even more difficult than it sounds, at least in the beginning.) They have clear bags that are used for paper and other burnables like leftovers and dead mice. They have green bags for clean plastic; this does not include plastic bottles, those are cleaned and put in a separate bag. There is a red bag for cans and aluminum (they also must be cleaned before thrown away). There is also trash bags for clean glass bottles, a day for throwing out furniture and appliances, and a day for throwing out wrapped newspapers and folded up milk and juice cartons. All the days are rotated and color coded on a big 1 year poster calendar that goes in your kitchen (at least in mine) with a big matching poster index to classify different trash. Apparently my predecessor had a lot of trouble with this and they would often return her trash for improper splitting methods. How they were able to tell it was her trash neither I nor her know. Cristina's predecessor often went to the grocery store and thought that something looked tasty but refused to buy it because he did not know where he would throw away the packaging. I actually have one bag full of trash that my predecessor left that I do not know what I am going to do with.
Some other things I wanted to share with you. During lunch time I walk around the port, beach and river to read and eat or just relax. What I find amazing is that the river here is (now) very shallow and has what we call in the states koi swimming around. So essentially it looks like a huge water garden. For those of you who dont know what koi are, they are basically giant brightly colored goldfish. You can see them feed from the sidewalk and bridge about 15 feet up.
Something funny that happens to me after I come back from lunch is that certain people always ask me what I ate with great curiosity. They think it's so interesting to see what I do and don't eat. Side note: The japanese products that have english on them are so funny. Yesterday I bought a pack of these chocolate dipped long very thin pretzels. My predecessor had left me a box of them so I went to buy another box I liked it so much. Well this time I got the same pack but it was green instead of red and the brand "Pocky Chocolate" was modified by "Men's". . . so it read "Men's Pocky Chocolate". I found this so funny that I had to take a picture of it. The only difference was that this was dark chocolate versus milk chocolate (I think . . . I hope).
Last night Cristina was invited to go with this Japanese woman and her two daughters that are Cristina's age. They went to the "art festival" that was at a strip mall type thing but it did not have any art and it had "popular Japanese food" like cotton candy. This was in Koyama, the town between us. She also saw a fireworks display and enjoyed it very much. For more details you will have to ask her because I wasn't there.
This afternoon, Cristina is picking me up and we are going to drive to her house together so I can practice. Tonight we are going to Kanoya, a nearby city.
Well, I'll talk to you later. I may not have computer access this weekend unless I go to Cristina's so don't be alarmed if I don't write for a few days.
posted by Jesse Montano at
8:51 AM
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