Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Koreans really take recycling to a whole new level. In order to throw away garbage, we need to buy specific garbage bags from grocery stores in a pack of 10 for around $3. However, almost everything can be recycled: plastics, paper, cardboard... pretty much anything that has a recycling logo on it. All that needs to be done is to place them in a netted bag! Food waste can be recycled by placing it in a red bucket with a strainer inside and a lid. We need to also buy a tag from the grocery store in order to let food waste collection know that it needs to be emptied. Collection comes quite frequently (at least twice a week), so nothing ever really piles up.

It is quite cheap to buy food at the open market, but also cheap to eat out. The other day we went to a 막창 (place that serves intestines) by accident. We ended up getting cow intestines stew (sort of like a hot pot). It was chewy and really weird, but everything else was quite tasty ^_^ The hotpot plus rice per person was ~$8+$1. Then we ordered a pop and potato pasta (sort of like gnocchi... I don't know what the exact translation is) and it cost another $1 each. In total, we spent ~$20 eating out, tax and tip included. Dinner always comes with side dishes, so we always have to make sure we do not order more than we can eat.

Yesterday night, we went to downtown Daegu to listen to one of the English teacher's(Bryan's) band. We ate out at an Italian restaurant and each had a type of spaghetti and a German potato salad (which was a vinagrette salad with a potato sliced in half that had sauce on it). Dessert was included, but the dessert here is not what someone would expect. Dessert here is normally a drink (coffee, tea) or some sort of Korean food that is not a sweet. The dinner was extremely filling. I could have done without the salad as the spaghetti was more than enough.
Bryan's band was a hip-hop-like band and it was better than I expected. We ended up leaving early though as a lot of people were smoking and I was starting to feel unwell. I tried a non-alcoholic drink called Cinderella, which was made up of grenadine and pineapple juice. Last night was the first night we took a taxi and it went quite well. The taxi had a DVD player that played some Korean talk show during the drive. The taxi driver understood Aaron and we made it home safe ^-^
Should get internet next week sometime, so hopefully I can post some pictures.