Don’t Give Up on Chinese!
Every few months, I go through my old bedroom in my parents’ house and find new things to give or throw away. On returning from China, it was apparent I don’t do this enough. Man, I have a lot of junk. So I went through everything again and ditched even more stuff. Then the garbage man hauled the trash away, and I wheeled the garbage can back around the house. Curious, I glanced inside the can and saw that one thing didn’t make it into the garbage truck. It was my little case of character flashcards from my Chinese 1010 class.
I guess that’s a sign that I shouldn’t give up learning Chinese just yet. Don’t worry, I haven’t!
Chinese Schools Take Out the Trash
Every day after lunch, a big pile of trash bags accumulates outside the middle school cafeteria:
That’s a lot of garbage. And a happy new year.
The Worst Job
My apartment is in a great location. Outside my kitchen window is a bunch of construction, and outside my living room window is the garbage house. These little buildings are all around campus and fill up with crap surprisingly fast. Then all the crap disappears just as quickly. Where does it go? Mommy, where does all the crap go?
Well, Timmy, somebody has the unfortunate job of sorting through the trash several times a week, separating it into what can be recycled, what can be turned into compost, and what needs to be burned. Sometimes, I’ll see the workers with their children out there, squatting in the garbage strewn all over the road, tossing certain items into the cart to be taken away. It’s a “bring your son to work” day I’d rather skip out on.
Knowing my garbage gets sorted by hand makes me a little hesitant to contribute to the pile. It’s pretty obvious which garbage bags are the foreign teacher’s, because I’m most likely the only guy in all of Wujin district who buys cold cereal. I can just see them snickering amongst themselves, “Who goes through that much toilet paper? Is this guy made of corn or something? Ha, ha, ha! What a loser.”
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