Testy Trash Men

Germans are very into recycling. I have 5 separate garbages in my small kitchen. I have a bio container for all plant, fruit and vegetable matter - like a compost, a bin for glass which needs to be deposited at bins located around the city and separated by color of glass, a bin for paper and cardboard, a bin for plastic and aluminum and finally a bin for residual waste.

Luckily, my parents actually have this same set up at their cabin so I am somewhat familiar to this system. However, their kitchen is three times the size of mine so they have the space for five different garbage containers.

Jim is still not totally on board with the effort that this recycling requires. He jokingly asked me the other day if his nail clippings needed to go in the bio container.

I haven't quite figured out when the garbage is picked up. I simply do whatever my neighbors do. Whatever bin they put out, I do the same.

Yesterday was the residual trash bin day. I had an old mop, shelving unit and old milk crate that wouldn't fit so I leaned them up against the trash bin. The trash man was really pissed off. Apparently, anything that doesn't fit inside the bin they don't take. He threw the stuff leaning on the garbage across the sidewalk. Someone picked up the shelving unit so I am only stuck with an old mop that I doubt anyone will want. Maybe I can break it half and fit it in the bin? I wonder what people do with their large sized items? I momentarily thought about waiting until cover of darkness to sneak the mop in someone else's garbage, then I thought that might not be the way to go about meeting the neighbors.

I drove in Germany for the first time last night (without incident). I was really apprehensive about driving here. There are so many bikers, very narrow streets and lots of one way streets (einbahnstrasse). I also don't exactly know all of the road rules and signs which is probably the more concerning issue. I am embarassed to admit that for a while I actually thought einbahnstrasse was the name of a street which was quite confusing. I kept thinking that I was walking in circles because I kept ending up on Einbahnstrasse.

Thankfully, we have a navigation system which is absolutely key here. If you take a wrong turn the system recalculates and gives you new directions. So many of the streets are one way or a pedestrian only street. If you do miss a turn, it may take 20 minutes just to get back on track. Now I know why so many people bike here - it's faster!

I think my driving stressed Jim out a bit because when we got back to the house, he downed his wine and ate a bar of Ritter Sport Chocolate. Yes, I said Sport Chocolate. I'm not sure what exactly is so sporty about this chocolate. Although if eating chocolate was a sport, I have no doubt that Jim and his mother would be Olympians.