Weather report from London, 1859: "Doth the budding clouds of May, bring rain to make the colors of spring? / Alas, [don't] take a gasp, the rain is laced with acid." -- Walt Whitman
Los Angeles "The Smog City" California is certainly being given a run for its money. The last several days here have been awful in terms of air quality (see picture below), which I'm sure is a combination of poor environmental regulations (i.e., cars and trucks that would never pass DEQ in the US), the widespread use of wood fires for cooking, and an unsettling quantity of dust (pun intended). It's too hot to sleep with the windows closed at night, but when we wake up in the morning, walking out to the bathroom leaves footprints in the dust that has collected in the hallway since we swept the day before.
Sarah and I both came down with some sort of flu-like virus last week, but our friends all informed us that everyone gets sick at this time of year. Interestingly, no one is interested in hearing any sort of infectious diseases explanation; instead, they want to attribute our sickness to a variety of environmental causes. For example, the "foggy weather" we've been having is common just before cold season, and the change in weather gives people colds. As Sarah pointed out, it seems more likely than not that the "colds" are just mistaken for (perhaps more serious) upper-respiratory complications from the air pollution. Other explanations we've heard: "Baba just isn't used to the food here" (this time around, I had no stomach complaints, just a perpetual fever/headache); "Maybe the tea made you sick?" (no, probably not, we've been drinking tea our entire time here); "It's because you drink too much soda" (well, an acceptable risk! Coke tastes better out of a bottle...). However, I think the best explanation came from Sarah's father, the good doctor Martin Smilkstein, as interpreted by her host-aunt Tanti: we've been drinking too much water. Yes, you heard it here first -- 4 out of 5 doctors agree that drinking fluids while sick can only prolong your illness. We're not quite sure how Tanti came up with this explanation, let alone be convinced it came from Sarah's father, but alas; the city has shut off the water to our neighborhood once again, and we are feeling better! Coincidence? I think not.
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