Update on Air Quality

For the past several days blue skies were hard to find. It's really hard to determine whether it's haze, fog, and or smog. All I know is that I've met American's connected with the USA House and they say that when they were in Beijing a year ago the pollution was so bad that it made their eyes water. I'm glad to report that my asthma has not been acting up. I can tell the instant I enter a place where the air is really harmful. I have only experienced that once in China and that was in Xi'an. It becomes hard to breathe and my chest tightens. It's a little scary.

Although it's been humid, it hasn't always been very hot. It's been breezy at times and that can be refreshing. Being hot and sticky reminds me of my visits to the Philippines. Hydration is the name of the game. We're lucky that we are allowed to get as much to drink at the House as we want. I bring a bottle of water wherever I go. My roommate and I are finding that we are having to do laundry more often than we thought. Since we have to wear a specific uniform shirt everyday, we have to do a wash about every three days.

Generally it has been warm and humid. It can be uncomfortable, but what can I do? I'm learning to tolerate it. Everyday I adjust more and more. Whenever I walk outside for any length of time I immediately begin to sweat. Originally the plan was to walk to and from work, but because of excessive sweating, we usually only walk home at night. I don't think that the taxi drivers like to drive us such a short distance. It's probably only a little less than a mile, but we get drenched everytime we walk. I may try to walk to work today wearing a non-uniform shirt and then change once I get into the house. I hope that I don't regret it. It's an important day in the House, but you'll have to stay tuned to find out why.