Trash Lady

There's a sense of desperation that overtakes you in a country where most things outside of pickled beets and cab rides are expensive and where comfort foods like guacamole are nearly impossible to find. You start craving peach daquiris or hummus and your frustrated hope implodes with the impossibility: you don't have a blender, and buying one is going to cost you far more than you're willing to spend. Dejectedly looking at the space on your counter that could be taken up by a blender is a daily enterprise, and your anguish over lacking what's so commonplace at home grows. So when you see a blender that looks like it was made in 1972 discarded in the recycling heap, you throw off the incredulous looks of the Koreans around you as you elatedly scoop it up and take sprightly leaps back up the stairs to your apartment to see if it actually works. You throw open the door and desperately search for an outlet beforing plugging it in, pausing to say a prayer, pushing the power button and finally hearing the gorgeous whir of mechanized blades. Enraptured and wide-eyed, you whip up what turns out to be two weeks' worth of hummus and happily eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

tags: korea  humor