Thank U Card to Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan

Dear Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan:

     What do you think of the colour of ink I chose, a nice sunny kind of yellow, right? You know, I always kinda wanted to visit you Mongolia, and maybe even you Kazakhstan (sorry Northern China, not you so much), but after today's run-in with the yellow dust that you so thoughtfully sent our way, I have to say that you have moved yourselves much further down the list of 'must-see' places on the new map hanging on my apartment wall.
     My lungs feel heavy and my eyes are burning, and right now I can say that I don't like you very much. Now perhaps if in the future you could restrain your winds and keep the dust on YOUR side of the continent, I think I can speak for most of us here when I tell that we'd really appreciate it. Maybe I'd even consider moving you back up the travel list at some point. But I digress. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a shower - after going for an innocent walk: I feel so dirty!

     Sincerely yours,

          Dusty in Korea

Earlier this week when I'd been out for a couple of walks I noticed that my eyes were near burning when I got back. Nothing looked amiss outside, so I assumed it was just another one of those cases of mysterious flyabouts in the Korean air that occasionally irritate me. Today around noon when I was sitting at the computer working on my paper, and while staring off into space out the window I noticed that the sun never really had come out for the day - when I examined the sky more closely, I thought it kinda looked strange and hazy, a weird pinkish colour that didn't belong in the middle of the day. But, when I took Mags out for her walks nothing seemed up, other than the sore red eyes I had when I got back into the apartment building.

Turns out that for the next 2 days (i.e. today and tomorrow) were are supposed to stay home or otherwise severely limit any outdoor pursuits (e.g. long walks in the park with my pup), due to a yellow dust storm out of China. Notice how it doesn't look so yellow in the sky? Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky...

Now I've always heard about this dust, but never really have I been affected by it, until this year. It started raining this afternoon and you could actually see the dust in the run-off looking suspicially like pollen, though you can't see it in the air when you're walking. You can see it on cars that have been parked for awhile and have since gotten a bit wet from the rain - icky and gross!

The photo above shows what the sky looked like from about since I woke up this morning... that's not gray cloud in the sky, that's the famed dust. People were walking around here and there in face masks, some, not all, but once I heard that's what it was I was a little put off about being out walking around in it and made my way back home (where I will stay now until the weekend's over). I have about everything I need in my building so I don't need to go out anyway, other than to take Mags out (short pee walks only for now!). I'm off shortly to a shower after reading that wikipedia article, I don't really want it all over me and now I'm obsessing about maybe feeling it in my lungs - must breathe some clean steam - now!!! (Oh, and Mom - it's not toxic or anything just desert dust for the most part, not to worry!).

Tonight before I knew about the ick in the sky I met a couple of old friends for dinner, shabu-shabu, yummy! For this meal that boiling broth in the centre is used to cook the noodles, dumplings, veggies and meat, and then you just pull out what you want to eat and plop it into your bowl, adding more uncooked stuff as you empty out the pot. At the end of the meal (i.e. once you eat all your meat n' veggies) they bring a rice, chive and egg mix that they cook in the bottom of the very hot pot, making a kind of porridge once the soup is all done... very nice, very nice. 

Though I didn't really feel all that full after we ate, we topped it off with a Baskin-Robbins double-junior cup (who could go wrong with Twinberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse?!) and that was better!  :)  Korea has the greatest looking cakes - baking in general usually looks so amazing. Unfortunately, it is rare that it tastes as good as it looks, but you can ALWAYS count on good ole' Baskin-Robbins. (sorry for the terrible camera reflections in the glass, I took the shots in a hurry!)