Lots of people on twitter, instagram and facebook ask:
What is all this yellow dust business about?
So we talked a lot about Yellow Dust yesterday for
our intagram, our facebook, out twitter and we also talked about it on the KMM
Where we had a whole skit about Yellow Dust, because Yellow dust
is pretty serious business here
Yep. Unfortunately.
That Yellow Dust Fairy, though. Very attractive
She was hot.
I thought it was a he
Hahahaha the Magazines
So yesterday the levels of Yellow Dust were really really high
So we were wearing face masks for most of the day
Because it is actually unhealthy to be breathing when the yellow dust level is so high
You know what I'm doing?
Hi-hihihihigh [GD&TOP "High"]
You might see a lot of people that are from Asia wearing these white facemasks on
And people are like "Why is everyone wearing there facemasks?"
Why are there so many doctors out there?
I know. Usually it's keeping yourself safe from getting sick from other people
But when it comes to Yellow Dust season it's usually to keep yourself from dying
By breathing in toxic fumes
It's like sucking the back of a car pipe
does that make sense? [S]Yep.
It's exhaust pipe? [S]Car pipe
You know it's a car, the car has a pipe. That's a car pipe
Yep.
So Yellow Dust which is also known as
Asian Dust is this giant shit storm of sand that comes form the Mongolian desert supposedly
Predominantly from there
And then affects a lot of China, Korea and Japan as well
And it's not just sand
I think a lot of people think that "Oh it's coming from a desert, it's just sand
being thrown at you"
No it has a lot of fine dust pollutants in there as well from China's factories
And Korea's cars and what not
In fact there is a very famous video about it, you might have seen it back when you were a kid
Nope, that was from "The Mummy Returns"
Could have fooled me.
That's not what it looks like
Although it doesn't get that bad in Korea
But I remember seeing pictures from people who live in China
And we were complaining yesterday the yellow dust level
The molecule, particle level [S]It had that that little Uuuuuu-G!
Yesterday it was almost up to 300
Anything above 100 is supposed to be unhealthy
And 200 is like: nu-uh
And anything above 300 is considered to be toxic
So here we are complaining about levels being almost toxic in Korea
But I'm pretty sure China's levels went up to a 1000?
Last year supposedly in January it got up to ~990 in China
So we're here all complaining about being 300 and China is like "Ooh little babies Pu pu pu"
You call that a knife? This is a knife.
And by knife I mean Yellow Dust
By yellow dust I mean spoon
Actually remember when Soozee said she was living in China for a bit?
That when it was a really bad Yellow Dust season
She could actually taste the sand in her mouth
And it was in her hair as well.
and remember: this is not just sand
People keep saying "Dust and Sand", but you're talking about pollutants and chemicals
That react so quickly on your body
That within that day
You feel like a pile of shit
Important thins about Yellow Dust is that it's not a year-long thing
It's usually in the transitional period from winter to spring
So you don't have to worry about suffering from this throughout the monsoon season or what not in Korea
It's just this time of the year
It's really itchy and nasty
So I don't think we've even explained what it really does to you
we've talked about what is inside of it and how it affects people and the air and stuff like that
But essentially what happens is: if you're outside during Yellow Dust
And you're there for maybe an hour or so
With no mask on
You start getting really itchy burny eyes
You think it pollen allergy
And I remember our first year in Korea
we had no idea why nobody was outside this one day
and we went for a walk in a park with Spudgy
And the cars and the ground was coated in this yellowy-browny
Like "oh it's nature releasing pollen"
So beautiful here
And then that night we were So sick
It feels like you are coming down with a cold
Your throat gets scratchy, you start coughing up really gross...
we have friends here in Korea who have had eye infections caused by Yellow Dust
In fact a really funny story about yesterday:
Because we follow very closely the Yellow Dust levels
So we could see when it's healthy to go outside
Because I do a lot of running
Yesterday before I went out for a run
It said it was a healthy enough level to go running
So I went running
And I'm not a phenomenal runner
But I can run 5km very easily
But by the end of the run I felt like I was going to die
But when I went up looking at the results
It said that 5 mins before I finished my run it quadrupled in the amount of yellow dust
Probably the worst we've experienced this year
And for the rest of the day I felt really poopy
That's how quickly it can come on
Everything is fine and then suddenly it skyrockets up to high levels
So it was a really terrible day to be outside
And all of our friends felt it
*cough cough*
It's nAsty
Poor Spudgy
I know. I'm worried about taking my dog outside.
I can't put a mask on him. You think dogs understand when you put masks on them?
No! No!
Can't reason with animals
So before we came to Korea
We learned a lot of stuff about the North Korea is nearby
There is monsoon season
There are four seasons in Korea
But nobody told us about Yellow Dust or anything like that
And when we meet people on the street that are visiting Korea
We say like "Oh, you guys should put the masks on"
"It's really bad the Yellow Dust"
They are like "What's the Yellow Dust? What are you talking about?"
Even on twitter, instagram and facebook
A lot of people didn't know what we were talking about.
So I don't feel there is a heavy enough emphasis put on how dangerous this is for you
Supposedly in the news now in Korea
This year is focusing a lot more on giving reports on how Yellow Dust is high
And they tell you it is high
But they are not like "Stay home, because it's dangerous"
It's just like "ah, the yellow dust is high, be careful"
yeah, but they are not going to say "Stay home"
Because during the monsoon when we were living in Bucheon
Trees are all over the street, power wires are like bzz bzz
And my students still go to school
Let me just Tarzan over this tree
nananannanananana Tarzan [wonder Boys "Tarzan"]
So if you're going to come to Korea we recommend you follow...
We have a yellowbot robot that we follow
yellowdust robot
Follow that on twitter
They'll let you know what's a good day, what's a bad day
And don't be embarrassed about wearing a facemask
This is your health.
Don't you think you can live forever, Mister Missy, Mr.Pants
You put on that mask
The things I let you get away with when you're on camera sometimes
Anyhow we have some more interesting sites and information that we want to share on out blogpost
So make sure you click on the link here
So we can carry on the conversation a little bit more
Here is my question for you guys:
I am curious if you've experienced anything like this from your country as well?
Do you get dust storms? You get .......... storms?
You get ravenous bees that come through and you scream "The bees!"
Also if the yellow dust is really bad it can actually effect some parts of US
It blows over
So I'm not sure if you see that or not?
So for last week's TL;DR we talked about how things have changed, things we've noticed in the five past years in Korea
And ashleywinter left a comment about goat cheese
And how she missed it
But she said she buys goat milk and she makes her own cheese
Funny you should say that
Are you dying of choking from Yellow Dust?
I'm trying to..
Sorry. [M]It's ok, big guy
I made Simon goat cheese on the weekend
but I did not see goat milk at my local emarkt until only recently
So I made my own goat milk
I made my own goa... I bought a goat, milked the goat
Ok, I made goat cheese
But what was your saying about this, Simon?
It didn't really taste like goat cheese...
Tasted like cream
That you put on something
I didn't have the rennet or rennat or... there is some word [S]ever is that ingredient, I don't
I just lemon juice and apple cider vinegar
Also OCSleazy who has an amazing username
Told us that we should open up our own cheese boutique here
in Korea somewhere like in Hongdae, Itaewon or Gangnam or what not
So a lot of foreigners could get their cheese fix
And that EYK has a lot of possibilities to expand and to make a lot more money
And I'm like: we can make cheese
And by expand did you mean expand my hips because I would eat all of the cheese
I wouldn't even know what business models are there apart from:
Make cheese, eat some of it, give some of it away
Maybe sell it.
You think we could get sick of cheese?
I didn't get sick of it when we were in Europe
Nobody can get sick of cheese
But what about people who are lactose intolerant and hate cheese?
They get sick From cheese
Ooh~
So deep, man.