I must admit to becoming a sort of sky gourmet – I am always checking out the horizon and the sky to assess for clarity, clouds, and color. Before my stay in China, I never noticed too much pollution around me. Sure, I could tell if a day was a bit smoggy, or if there was a haze hanging over a city.
However, I’m now a connoisseur of beautiful days. After one year in the most shockingly polluted place I’ve ever been, I have never appreciated the blue sky more. I now notice the slightest touch of pollution, the very vaguest veil of smog, the thinnest hint of haze.
I have been surprised upon entering Madrid by the amount of pollution over the city. Even in the green paradise of Asturias – traditionally quite polluted due to the mines, coal plants and steel plants – one cannot escape the scourge of the particle.
I’m not really sure what effect living in the not-so-natural clouds of China will have on my health. I read once that simply living and breathing in China equals the health detriment of living in a home filled with second-hand smoke. (That on top of the fact that most Chinese are smokers or at least living in a home with second-hand smoke.)
In an effort to scrub my lungs, I am making this my main view:
(The view up from the patio of a lovely cafe in San Cristobal, Asturias, Spain, under a Fig tree.)
Spending as much time as possible looking up!
(The view from my in-law’s apartment.)
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