Smog Days

Dec. 17, 2016
11:00 pm
Beijing, China

Back in Ohio right now, everyone has started Christmas break and is enjoying a relaxing time at home between semesters. Even if they weren’t on break, school would definitely be cancelled based on the amount of ice Chillicothe currently has. Here in Beijing, though, we don’t get snow days. No, we get smog days.

“What is a smog day?” you may ask. Imagine a dense fog surrounding you. You can see your hands and maybe 3 feet in front of you, but not much else. The air feels heavy and you can feel it enter your lungs each time you take a breath. Now imagine that the air you’re breathing actually tastes dirty. You can feel the grime on your tongue and up your nose. Breathing is becoming more difficult and your lungs are rejecting the air. You sound like you just ran a 100yd dash after walking a block and your cough rivals someone with smoker’s lung. And guess what, you’ve got phlegm that continues to form no matter how much of your lungs you cough up.

Yep, that’s what’s happening here right now. At a certain point, the amount of air pollution hovering over Beijing becomes just plain dangerous. The Air Quality Index (AQI) currently is 428 (the chart on my app only goes to 500). That level is listed as “Hazardous.” Literally, it says, “Health Warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.” The AQI gets worse at night, but it wasn’t much better during the day today. Amazingly, the next few days are expected to be even worse. Any time I walk outside right now, I have my mask on to catch at least a bit of the bad stuff. Even then, I have a hard time breathing. There’s only so much a non-electric, portable filtration system can do. Tonight, though, I’m inside my apartment. I don’t have an air purifier or anything, so it’s probably not great in here, but it’s better than outside for sure.

The crazy thing is that China predicts air quality like the U.S. predicts weather. You get a warning a few days before that a winter storm is coming in, predicting 4 inches of snow. Before the first flurry falls, schools have cancelled for the next 3 days in preparation. That’s exactly what happened here. On December 15, officials declared a Red Alert, stating that the pollution was going to be extremely dangerous from December 16 to December 20. As a result of this alert, the government has restricted the amount of cars on the road (they already do that, but this is a more extreme decrease), all outdoor construction is required to cease until the alert is lifted, and all kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools are required to cancel classes. Additionally, young children and the elderly are encouraged to remain inside and avoid the air. As a result, we get two “smog days.”

I should amend that. Students get a “smog day.” Teachers, on the other hand, are expected to brave the hazardous weather and come into work anyway. We have no classes, since they’re cancelled, so we fill the 8 hours of our day doing other tasks. Today, for example, we did training on the new Trailblazers product coming out in January and planned for next week’s classes. Many people finished other class tasks, like progress reports. I have a certification exam on Thursday, so I studied for that a lot. In addition to getting work done, we spent the vast majority of the day goofing off. I can’t tell you what exactly we did because “fight club” laws apply 😉 We also don’t have classes tomorrow, so I will probably try to get a lot of work done then. I was planning to take a vlog tour of our center today, since there weren’t kids around, but I wasn’t able. I’m going to try again tomorrow so you can all see where I work.

Okay now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like to make a few announcements.

1. The McKell Family Christmas Letter went out today. The story “An Old Man’s Whistle” is available on Kindle for free until December 21, as well as two of my dad’s other stories, “Searching for Santa Claus” and “Holy and Humble.” After the 21st, the stories will cost $3.00 on Kindle. You can also purchase a hard copy of all of these stories and others here at varying prices. As you can see, our Christmas photo for this year is based on what “family” has looked like over the past couple of months. Although this is not an actual picture of us FaceTiming, this is how all of my interactions with the family have looked like since I’ve moved to China. I think it’s a pretty cool idea, and this year all the credit goes to Dad. Also attached is our “Newsletter” for this year. It’s a little update on what’s going on in everyone’s lives. Of course, you already have a detailed, and possibly tedious, record of my exploits, but here’s a little insight into my parents’ and sisters’.

   

2. 

   If you haven’t seen the new Disney movies Moana yet, I would recommend you go see it. I saw it in Chinese, understood about 10 words and part of 2 songs, and I still absolutely loved it! Go see it and let me know what it’s actually about. I do hope to actually see it in English here soon, but you do run the risk of seeing a children’s movie in Chinese when you live in China. They do say that it’s one of the best ways to learn a new language. Not sure if I learned any more from it, but at least I tried.

3. I officially passed probation today! Although my probation period technically ends tomorrow, Brian and I had our last meeting with Adam today. It’s official! We even got our Teacher Mugs today (notice featured picture at the top of this blog). I am now a full teacher at EF and, barring any emergencies or problems, will finish out my year-long contract here in Beijing. Yay!!!!!

Talk to you soon,
Kristen