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Friday, January 20, 2012

Where to throw garbage

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I got some sandwiches from outside and we had lunch and much needed hot coffee. We did the cleaning and sorting of things. 

Later I went out to buy basic grocery for dinner. Soon we had some trash piled up. And it was time to clear them. Now I had not asked the owner where to throw them.

In USSR we had a room in each floor for garbage with segregated bins. In another city in USSR and in US we had the common system. It was like few “holes in the wall”. You throw segregated trash in it and it falls down in wide pipes, which collects in big trash containers in the ground floor. And the way to find them is you take a trip around the floor and the sign “Garbage or Trash” in English or “Mycop”(read Moosar) means Garbage in Russian. But what is it called in French. I had no internet connection. So I cannot find it out !

I wrote a SMS to the owner who said you can throw in basement -2. So I went there. It was the parking lot and I read every sign board. One board said, “Sans issue”.  Now that did not seem like Garbage to me on the first day. And yes now I know it means “This is not an Exit !”

I saw a dirty area in basement. This was not a parking area. I thought for a moment that this might me the spot for garbage. You just keep it there and someone collects from there. And I justified that it’s because of the timing that my trash bag is the only one there.  :-) Good, I kept the trash bag there and came up.

I had a very good sleep on the first night. Next morning I met a neighbor in the lift. One good thing I noticed people say Bonjour ! (Good morning or Good day ) to even strangers. After the Bonjour ! the gentleman told few sentences in French which I did not understand. I asked him. “Parlez vous anglais ?” meaning “Do you speak English ?”
He answered yes and started morning conversation. My first question was, “Where do you throw trash ?”. He offered help and walked me to the -2 basement, the same room with the sign “Sans Issue”. And voila, there you had segregated bins, one for Plastic and Cartons, second for Glass, and third for Kitchen waste.

I thanked him and went to the spot where I had dumped my Trash bag. To my surprise it was still there untouched. Thankfully not decomposed and stinking, as it was 2 degree centigrade there.

I corrected my mistake. But first I had to segregate the day old trash and then throw in the right bin. A lesson learnt... 
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