Ever heard of yellow dust?  I hadn’t until I moved to Korea.  Every year around springtime, all the dust and sand from the desert in Mongolia and China gets carried to Korea by strong winds.  Sometimes you can see the fine yellow dust on cars or buildings here in Seoul.  Once it mixes with all the smog in China, the everyday pollution of Korea, and springtime pollen, it makes for a nasty mixture.

It also isn’t good to breathe in a lot of dust, I feel even worse for anyone here with asthma.  Most people stay inside when the yellow dust level gets dangerously high.  I follow a Twitter page that tells you the yellow dust level in Seoul throughout the day.

I still try to have some fun though, even when I can’t spend a lot of time outside.

I can still take the subway

I can still go out for some pork barbecue.

I can still order some tasty snack foods.  The red stuff is tteokbokki (rice cakes in a fiery red pepper paste sauce).  The food at the top in a clearly greasy bag is various fried goodies.  This time I got shrimp, dumplings, squid, and sweet potatoes.  The last container is filled with fish cakes.  I will always make room for fish cakes.

I love spring but I will be happy when the yellow dust desists.