I am Sam, Clean Sam I am.

  

     As I said before, Koreans are serious about cleanliness. So serious that whenever the kindergarten class of New York Academy of English has a field trip (to the mountains, on a hike, to the river) all children must be cleaned and properly scrubbed before returning to their respective homes. I guess the thought of sending students dirty is unacceptable. Since my temporary host's home was closest to the school, her apartment was the volunteered location were such and event could take place. When I arrived at the apartment that afternoon there were twenty five tiny pairs of shoes lined up in 4 little rows by the door. And like an assembly line in a Dr. Seuss book, 25 dirty children filed into the bathroom and emerged as 25 sparkly clean children. They were quickly rounded up re-shoed and returned to school for a clean bus ride home to Mom and Dad. The most amazing part was the state of the bathroom- it was a complete un- disaster. As if there were no little children pitter-patting through our bathroom at all- not even a wet towel. Astonishing. 

Trash. Korean Style.

  Koreans are serious about cleanliness. So serious in fact it took me good week two find out where the trash is. This is very different from the way we see garbage in America: land of plenty (land of plenty garbage cans more like it.) In Korea, the point is not to have less trash receptacles but rather produce less trash. What a brilliant idea! I have to say though that this system although eco-friendly, is probably more out of necessity than conscientiousness. (that being that there is a serious spatial issue in the East.) Anyhow, it has been a confusing process figuring out how to of dispose of my personal waste properly and without getting fined. Yes, fined. Garbage is broken down into five different categories: paper, plastic, glass, food and un-recyclable waste. Each type of waste has a designated bag which is acquired at the grocery store when your groceries are bagged (smart huh?) You are charged 10 cents per garbage bag. Then you take your garbage bags home which are, by the way (only slightly bigger than our usual grocery bags), empty your groceries, and  begin to thoroughly separate your waste. 

     In some ways, I feel like I am at summer camp, separating my edible trash from my un-reusable trash, scraping my leftover food into the slop bin for the farm animals. Ultimately that is just what Korea does with our giant slop bin: we feed it to the pigs on a massive national level. It is one of the many ways this country has elected efficiency over personal convenience. It has made me very aware of the trash I make or try not to make, making garbage day a borderline intellectual endeavor.