When we woke up yesterday, we thought it was surprisingly foggy outside. The thickest fog we'd ever seen on the island. We're talking Beaver Falls, PA-thick. Living on the fourth floor, we're used to being able to see quite a distance and things being brightly colored. This was the view from our balcony.
If you squint really hard and turn your head sideways (hehehe) you might notice the v-e-r-y indistinct form of a building directly in the center of the photo. (Don't worry if you can't make it out. I barely could and I was there in person.) The sun was out most of the day, but the light was filtered so much it gave more of an eery glow. Very odd. And the "fog" didn't feel damp...things looked dusty...and my contacts felt gritty. Not usual for fog.
After church we drove down to the Araha Beach area. Check out our view from Route 58!
Definitely not normal at all. When we got home, I went onto weather.com to find our answer.
It was 70 degrees and sand.
And again today, 75 degrees and sand.
If we lived near a desert, I'd understand "sand." But we live on a tiny, usually extremely humid, subtropical island. The "sand" we have isn't even real sand! It's more like grainy crushed coral. But this does answer the question of what happens when you live closer to China than mainland Japan while China is experiencing nasty sand storms. Really, China, you can have your sand back. We appreciate the idea of "sharing," but sharing sand wasn't very high on our list. On the other hand, any time you'd like to start sharing China KFC's chicken, peas, carrots, and corn sandwiches, I'll be first in line! :)
---Arielle
