It seems that I was wrong. I am not impervious to all Korean illnesses. Well, to be fair, under nominal conditions, I am impermeable. But if it weren't for that accursed Yellow Dust that wafts up from the Mongolian and Chinese deserts. If you're uneducated, let me school you for a moment. The Yellow Dust (aka Yellow Sand) is stirred up by desert storms usually around Spring and seasonal winds carry it South and East. So what? you say. A little sand in your shoes. No, Sir or Ma'am, it is not so trivial. Over the last couple decades, industrial China has become a smokestack chain smoker, puffing out as many plumes of industrial pollutants as it can fund. Yeeeuck! (see the bottom for Wikipedia's reports on the variety of wholesome pollutants). So the Yellow Dust becomes the freighter for unimaginable evil. Oh, and the desert storms are increasing due to deforestation and desertification. Where are you Captain Planet?? We need you now more than ever!
As a naive foreigner, you might at first mistake the situation for a pleasantly golden fog, and maybe skip to your bus pondering the curious climate of the East. But you would be gravely mistaken. That yellowy fog has killed the young, elderly, and those with immune or respiratory weaknesses. Many Koreans will advise you to wear a mask on days forecast to be hazardous. Thus my Scorpion-fashioned mask in the picture (video game reference). That, or simply to stay in your house. On a less important note, Korea is a world leading semi-conductor manufacturer, and the yellow dust sneaks its way into factories and has led to the corrosion and defectiveness of many valuable electronic products. The estimated financial damage is in the billions.
Anyways, I was too late. Of course, there may be another solution, but I'm sticking to my gut on this. I started with a sore throat 17 days ago - shortly after Yellow Dust season commenced. Being uninformed, I continued with my lung bursting jogs up the local mountain. And voila! Throat infection. It isn't viral, and I stopped playing with those monkeys, so it's the only plausible explanation. I have been on antibiotics for the last 5 days, and I hope my symptoms will disappear within the next couple days. By the way, it sucks to live in fear of losing your voice when your job depends on it (and you have no sick days).
Until Yellow Dust season passes (about 3 weeks), I think I'll stick to jogging in my gym. Oh, and sometimes it gets so bad that it blankets everything in a fine yellow layer. Like snow, but deadlier. Canada, you only feel a pin prick of our modern age's ecological damage.
On a side note, while I was in the doctor's office, I bumped into a Korean co-worker with a rather raspy voice. She works and yells 6 days a week, and used to do it for 12 hours a day. Is her voice a coincidence? She looks in her thirties. Then there's a co-worker about my age who works two English teaching jobs back to back. She also sounds like she'll lose her voice by 40. Is it worth it? Is the money worth the cost of your voice? Seriously, I was upset at her and admonished her. I know so many Koreans that are workaholics.
Over.
[btw, did u notice spiderman in the background of my picture?]
According to Wikipedia, Yellow Dust contains: "Sulphur (an acid rain component), soot, ash, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants including heavy metals (such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, lead, zinc, copper) and other carcinogens, often accompany the dust storms, as well as viruses, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, antibiotics, asbestos, herbicides, plastic ingredients, combustion products as well as hormone mimicking phthalates."
