Anyone got some nose plugs?

Sighhhhh, I’m such a complainer. I realize this. During the winter months in Korea, I whine about how cold it is and blabbity blabbity blah. In the summer, I have the joy of being nice and hot but with the heat and humidity comes a lot of stench and foul, foul odors. =/

I have the nose of a dog. I know this. I can only imagine if I were to ever get pregnant how miserable I would be from being attacked by putrid scents (someone’s dog breath, cheap perfume, cologne that a wo/man had bathed in, squid guts, etc…) A friend of mine is pregnant over here and she has been complaining about the smell of kimchi and every other Korean dish exacerbating her morning sickness. I totally get that. I could only think about  that terrible, terrible reaction I would have if *I* were pregnant. Just think: my current canine nose in overdrive. UGHHHH**** Smelling the old cabbage and broccoli fermenting together along with chicken bones and fish skin in a plastic bin that gets emptied out every other day but never gets WASHED out. Sighhhh. The system needs to change over here.

The current system is this: People have to separate EVERYTHING over here. We have to separate our recycling from non-recyclables but even non-recyclables get sorted out. And we have to throw away our FOOD scraps separately. So, my method is: I put all of my food scraps in a plastic produce bag from the grocery store and toss it into the bottom drawer of my freezer until it’s full and then I take it out to the “compost” bin outside and dump my food into the vat. The only problem is that the food “composting” bin is not only for fruits and veggies. There’s fish and meat and whatever the hell else is part of the food grouping. So, it’s not composting but they might as well try to make some sort of composting bin and just put up a sign declaring no meats or dairy products should go in…

Anyway, I’m not a composting expert nor am I wanting to write a blog about composting. I’m trying to say that their current system of throwing food waste into a plastic trash bin with no bag/etc is a STINK ASS process and it is not helping my SNS (sensitive nose syndrome) one bit. =/

This morning it was raining. I believe the rain brought up all sorts of poop and whatnot from the crevices in the brick ground they’ve laid over here. And it also got the stenches from the food waste bins wafting through each little water droplet from the sky. When I walked out of my apartment building this morning, I almost passed out due to the overwhelming FUNK of rotten insides blowing through the wind… ACK!!!! ATTACK!!!  The odors are in full force today, troops!!! Bring in the reinforcements!!!

Am I getting my point across? Dude, if THIS kid is bothered by the smell around him, imagine lil’ ol’ me.    😦

Damn straight, girl!  FIGHTING!!! ((Fighting is a Korean/Konglishy word for “Yes, I’ll persevere!”))

“The act of smelling something, anything, is remarkably like the act of thinking. Immediately at the moment of perception, you can feel the mind going to work, sending the odor around from place to place, setting off complex repertories through the brain, polling one center after another for signs of recognition, for old memories and old connection.” —Lewis Thomas

So true.    🙂   The first hot day in Korea this year I walked into my school’s elevator foyer and immediately was taken back to my first night in Korea in 2006–a rainy, muggy night in July. And I smelled that SAME summer smell and thought, “Here I am again.”