Today's air at 4:40pm

Today's air at 4:40pm, originally uploaded by Awreye.

This is not fog. I am breathing this as I type this entry. This is bad, even for Beijing.

What is this air doing to my body? Oddly enough I neither coughed today nor have much trouble breathing. Does this mean I've 100% acclimated to this city's air pollution soup? Oh dear.

Scary Air Pollution in Numbers

I just heard about BeijingAir, which twitters hourly readings of air pollution as measured from the US Embassy's roof. I'm not sure why I clicked on the link. The scary "Unhealthy" to "Very Unhealthy" readings for the past few days are no surprise.

Knowledge is power, so they say. Power to decide when to bring your dust mask when walking down the street to buy orange juice, power to barricade yourself indoors when you can actually see the air. . .

Beijing Cough

I have it. The Beijing Cough, a persistent hacking cough that erupts from your throat and brings tears to your eyes from the spasms rattling your upper body. I've become That Annoying Person clutching her stomach coughing in your subway car, coughing at the restaurant table next to you, coughing and interrupting your conversation (apologies, except to that smoker whose cigarette smoke kept drifting towards our table during lunch).

Medication has proven ineffective in stopping it (I'm trying a third kind now) , and I'm not ready to take the only surefire cure, leaving this city. Beijing, you and your health-debilitating pollution can't get rid of me so easily! For now I will continue trying different throat lozenges, smoky plum drinks and other suppressants recommended by friends in the hopes of making my coughs sound less like a death rattle. Locals have told me that The Cough comes and goes. Hopefully it'll mysteriously go away soon (because this dusty haze sure won't) and this will the final post that you'll read about my deteriorating health. Peace out.

Oh No Dayquil

I've had the sniffles, hacking cough on and off for the past two weeks. Despite wearing an absurd number of layers when I step outside my apartment and last fall's flu shot, I've managed to contract my third cold this winter. Dammit.

Symptoms come and go, but they've always returned. . .so far. Maybe it's the smog or temperatures hovering around 20 degress F, but I just can't shake this cold. I lacked the foresight to raid Duane Reade for meds before leaving New York, so I'm stuck praying that my immune system fights back soon. Just in case I stumbled to the local pharmacy and described my symptoms during my lunch hour. For some reason, the staff there were rather curious about the color of my snot. Their cure for persistant cough, yellow snot: drinking FuFang SangJu GanMao Keli, the above photographed nasty concoction dissolved in water 2-3 times a day.

Shudder. I've drunk 2 doses today. Crossing my fingers that this combined with lots of sleep and relaxation over the weekend works.