Month: January 2017

We’ve only been in Korea for a couple months, but I have to say that we are enjoying it. Our district is beautiful, the food is yummy (well, most of it), people are nice, and it’s safe and clean. I would like to be better with language (more on that later), but nearly all the Koreans we encounter are kind and patient with our painful mangling of their native tongue. While there are some inconveniences, so far we have only noticed one big downside to living in Korea.

Smog.

Specifically: Chinese smog.

That’s right, all that nasty off-the-charts hazardous smog you’ve been hearing about in China lately (if you follow international news) blows across the Yellow Sea and right over the Korean peninsula.

I have this app on my phone that shows me air quality readings nearby. It even has a little map that lets you see air quality readings throughout Korea. If I check it frequently enough, I can tell when smog is coming, because I’ll notice some reds pop up on the west coast. Then, they start moving east, towards our district, then on to Busan, and often all the way to Kumamoto in southern Japan.

What are “reds”? It’s an Unhealthy air quality reading. Here’s the air quality index…

On a normal day, most of Korea should be greens and yellows. Maybe orange. To be fair, Korea creates many of its own smog problems, but primarily in the big cities. Seoul can get pretty nasty all by itself. But we live in a small town on the coast. Even with diesel vehicles and farmers burning rubbish piles, we should not have a major problem with particulates.

Here’s a map of Korea on what I would call a “mixed” day. Seoul is that big cluster on the upper left, and Busan is the bottom right.

See those reds popping up on the west coast? Where could they be coming from?

Want an actual picture? Here’s a satellite photo of China. All those brown clouds you see are smog.

And here’s that smog blowing towards Korea.

It’s pretty ugly from ground level, too. These photos were taken from my living room…

What is causing all this hellish smog in China? Well, it’s a somewhat complex answer involving economic development, mountain ranges, humidity levels, atmospheric layers, rising global temperatures altering air flow in the northern hemisphere, and various poorly understood interactions between sulfates, nitrogen oxides, water vapor, and particulates.

But the short answer is: coal, coal, and more coal.

Coal is a dirty, dirty source of energy, but we’ve been using it for thousands of years (intensely since the Industrial Revolution) and just can’t seem to kick the habit. In fact, coal consumption worldwide increased over 70% from 2000 to 2013, and is projected to increase more with development in India and Southeast Asia. Today, China accounts for half of global coal consumption.

In the face of public outrage over shrinking life expectancy and the millions (yes, millions) of premature deaths each year due to air pollution, the Chinese government announced plans in 2013 to tackle the country’s pollution problems. They gave their environmental regulations some enforcement power, closed many of the worst-polluting factories, set limits on car sales, and banned coal burning in urban areas. China now leads the world in renewable energy investment. These measures, along with a general economic slowdown, are helping to a certain degree. Each of the past few years has seen a decrease in the highest concentrations of PM2.5 (small particulates… the ones that can get into your bloodstream and wreak havoc with your cardiovascular system), as well as a decrease in the number of red, purple, and brown days.

But they have a long way to go. Just this past month, Northeast China experienced its longest stretch of severe smog days, and during that time some cities in the area recorded air quality readings approaching 1000. (Note that the chart above stops at 500.)

Lest you mock the Chinese government for its short-sightedness, let me remind you that it was not that long ago Los Angeles had the worst air quality in the world. The city began having smog problems in the early 1900s, but it was during the WWII economic boom things really got bad. A severe bout of smog in 1943 – in which visibility was reduced to 3 blocks and residents thought it was an enemy “gas attack” – finally brought air pollution to the public’s attention. The smog problem persisted for decades, until the Clean Air Act and emissions regulations eventually brought it under control. Now, while the air in downtown LA is not going to be the same as Middle-of-Nowheresville, Montana, it’s a vast improvement.

And for the life of me, I cannot understand the current administration’s desire to roll back emissions standards. If you think it’s so great giving business precedence over the environment, come take a look out my window and see what that philosophy has done to this part of the world.

And lest you think it could never again get that bad in America, consider this… After London’s Great Smog of 1952 killed 12,000 people, Britain enacted its own set of air quality and emissions controls to bring smog under control. But just last week, thanks to traffic pollution and a massive increase in the number of households using cheap wood burning stoves, London’s government issued their highest air pollution alert for the first time, calling it a “health crisis.” Air quality readings in London exceeded those in Beijing.

So… yeah. Until somebody invents Mr. Fusion,* we need to protect our existing regulations, support energy innovations, and make smart, energy-saving choices in the home.

Oh, and keep a mask handy. Just in case.

*High five if you get the reference.

My goal is to post an update here every week, but obviously I’m not there yet. This month has been busy.

(And, I’ll be honest… it’s winter, it’s cold, we got ourselves a heat pad for the bed, and I may or may not grab a book and sneak back into its fluffy warm layers for a bit when I return home from walking the kids to school on a brisk 20° morning.)

Specifically, this month we have been occupied with (1) school beginnings and (2) Aaron’s injury.

(1) After winter break, Connery started back at the international school. This time, thankfully, without the tears. He seems to be enjoying it now, especially PE days because he gets to wear the cozy PE uniform pants. The school’s student body is not very large (180?) but the property is huge and they have a lot of rooms for specialty classes, like PE, music, art, library, computer lab. Beginning next quarter, his class will also start Korean language lessons. I’m pretty excited about that.

The only downside to this school is the fact that Connery came in ahead academically. In his previous school, he was already working on 2nd grade math and phonics. We would spend at least 30 minutes doing homework each evening, in addition to special projects like speeches and presentations. By contrast, his 1st grade homework here takes him approximately 5 minutes. I chatted with his (very good) teacher about this, and she said some families here came from no-homework schools so they don’t even do the small amount she gives. Aaron and I debated for a while, and ultimately decided that living in Korea and travelling around Asia will provide Connery with enough extra stimulation and learning that we shouldn’t worry too much about academics. Plus, he’s only in 1st grade; it’s not like a couple easy years are gonna break him. And besides, the Dutch don’t give any homework in primary school and they reportedly have the happiest children in the world. So… balance, I guess.

That being said, after 3 weeks off for winter break, I noticed Connery struggling with some easy math questions:
“Hey, buddy, you know this one. What’s 6 + 3?”
“Um… 5?”
“Try again.”
“…6?”
“…”

Well… maybe we’ll supplement just a little. Aaron has started spending a few minutes with Connery every evening doing flash cards. He wants to start some father-son bonding time building robots, so he’s using that as a carrot. Apparently, they will program it with a tapeworm brain, or something like that. All I heard was: box, wheels, eyes, likes to hide in the shadows. Sounds fun.

The week Connery returned to school, Lena started her new preschool. After another lengthy debate, Aaron and I decided to put her in a local Korean preschool. It was recommended by Connery’s teacher, and there are a couple other English-speaking kids there. It’s a nice (and cute!) facility, and the staff are super nice and helpful in spite of the language barrier. I really like Lena’s teacher. We communicate via broken English and Korean when I pick up the girl, and via text message when more detail is required (thank you Google Translate). I made sure Lena knew some key words in Korean before she started, e.g., hello, goodbye, teacher, water please, thank you, bathroom.

Both schools are within walking distance of the apartment, so we have this little routine of walking Connery to his school first, then walking Lena to the preschool (a bit farther away). Of course, that all sounds sweet and bucolic, but for a family of formerly-desert-dwelling-night-owls, it’s not so much strolling hand-in-hand as it is light jogging while dragging one small child by the arm and yelling at another small child to pay attention and watch for cars before he runs ahead through literally freezing temperatures, eyes and noses dripping, hoping we make it before the school gate is locked (we usually don’t). It’s not really a pretty picture. We don’t like early mornings in the Harris household.

Right now, Lena attends 3 days a week, but I may add another day when the new Korean school year begins in March, because on her days home she is booooooooooored.
9:00 am: “When does Connery come home?”
9:15 am: “Are we going to pick up Connery?”
9:30 am: “When Connery comes home can we go to the bakery?”
9:40 am: “Can we go to the bakery now? I want a chocolate donut.”
10:00 am: “Can we go to the bakery, get a chocolate donut, then go get Connery?”
10:05 am: “Is it time to get Connery yet?”
10:06 am: “How much longer until Connery is done? Can we get him now? And then can we go to the bakery?”
10:07 am: “What are you eating? Is it a chocolate donut? I want a chocolate donut. Is Connery done yet? We should get him the donut with blueberries inside and sugar on the outside. Get him that donut, and I’ll get a chocolate donut.”
10:08 am: “Are you done eating? Can we go now? Let’s get Connery and then go to the bakery. You can get tea, and I’ll get a chocolate donut, because I love chocolate donuts. Chocolate donuts are delicious!”

Sorry, kiddo, but mommy can’t go to the bakery today. Mommy doesn’t have a dishwasher and she has to cook from scratch. But first she has to figure out which of these bottles is baking soda and which is salt, which of these curries won’t give us diarrhea, and what the heck is green pumpkin? It looks like zucchini? And then she has to tackle the strange dust problem in the apartment. And figure out how to organize the trash and recycling such that we don’t get fined for improperly sorting it into the TEN separate bins located in that hut by the parking lot. Then she has to figure out where to buy 2x4s to fix the headboard because a country of apartment dwellers doesn’t have DIY stores like Home Depot around. And at some point, she’d also like to find a nursery, because home doesn’t really feel like home unless there’s a houseplant dying in the corner somewhere.

And now Lena’s school is really making me feel like I need to up my game, food-wise. I have a bad history with processed foods, so I’ve always been a sort of homemade, non-GMO, organic kinda mom. But I tell you what, Americans could stand to learn a few things about eating habits from Asians. So many variety of veggies! Lena’s preschool includes 3 meals: morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. They’re served in the classroom, on an adorable little lunch tray that comes home with her for washing. The morning snack is always some kind of porridge: barley porridge, rice porridge, broccoli porridge. Lunch includes some kind of rice, some kind of soup or meat, a couple veggie sides, and either cabbage or radish kimchi. The afternoon snack is either fruit or a yummy carb (like toast or a red bean bun) with milk.

Just look at these lunches… these are for preschoolers!

And snacks… I mean, a whole steamed sweet potato. Are you kidding me?

Unfortunately, Lena recently hit a picky phase, so she’s having none of it. Just the rice. And the afternoon snacks. But I’m still making her try them, unless I know there’s absolutely nothing she would like even if she tried it. (They give us the month’s menu in advance.) So, for example, tomorrow’s lunch will be rice, fish cake soup, a pile of small dead fish, and kimchi. I’ll be sending her with a sandwich.

The other issue that took a surprising amount of time this month was (2) Aaron’s injury.

I mentioned in the last post that Aaron found an MMA class nearby. He’s been practicing it for some time now – over a year, I think? Running is boring, he says, and punching things helps him vent his frustration with bureaucracies. At first, he thought the Arizona class would be all happy, happy, punchy, punchy like your standard kickboxing class, but on the first day, his teacher pretty much showed them how to knock an opponent unconscious. Not a bad skill to have, I told him, just make sure you protect the brain.

Anyway, I was really glad Aaron was able to find a class here. It’s in a taekwondo dojang run by Korean Hercules, and not every night is MMA – some nights are judo and some are cardio. Well, a couple weeks ago, Aaron wound up going on judo night and – even though he was on the wrestling team in high school – it’s been awhile since he’s used that muscle set. And, to be fair to my husband, he hasn’t had a place to work out the past few months because of the move. And, you know, he’s starting to get a little bit older. And Korean Hercules is… well, Korean Hercules. And Korean Hercules decided it would be better for Aaron to wrestle him than the scrawny teenage boys in the class. And Aaron, being a man of pride, refused to let Korean Hercules pin him. But, in the process, Aaron forgot one important rule: when wrestling with Korean Hercules, you let Korean Hercules do whatever Korean Hercules wants to do. Be the reed. Just bend in the wind.

Aaron pulled a muscle in his shoulder. And the pain got worse, and nothing was helping, and sleep was impossible for several days, because while I prefer to weep silently into my pillow when I’m in pain, Aaron turns into angry bear. And it’s kinda hard to sleep next to angry bear when angry bear can’t sleep. Then his fingers went numb and he started having dizzy spells and I said, “GO TO THE DOCTOR!” and eventually he went to the little medical clinic next to our apartment complex. It was a fairly interesting experience, apparently. Doc said it was just a pull, not a tear, but nerves get injured along with the muscles and they take longer to heal. Then he did an ultrasound, gave him a few shots of something next to the injured nerves, put him on a heated bed, and then put some electrified suction cups all over his shoulder. (All this cost $50, by the way.) It kind of helped. I think hot pads and time probably helped more, but I was glad to hear it wasn’t anything serious. Thankfully, Aaron is much better and is even back to the MMA classes, where he and Korean Hercules had a good laugh about it all.