Smoke Monsters

Me in my super trendy face mask. Like the fool that I am, I'm still smiling for the camera despite the fact that you cannot see my face.

Here are some pictures of the smoke all over the city. The State Department has offered to evacuate American students participating in the CLS program because the smoke is so bad.

For a reference point, here is the street that I was standing on for Saturday's festivities, you can see the red brick church in the corner of the picture*:



And here's the same street yesterday with the red brick church on the left side of the picture:


Quite the difference, right?

And the same red brick church from behind:




Yesterday was pretty bad. I smelled like a gigantic cigarette for the bulk of the day. We went to go watch a live soccer match. I don't know how the players were able to play because it hurt to breathe just sitting there. I can't imagine running for 90 minutes in the smoke. The air was so thick with it that when I looked down at my white watch, there was a fine layer of grit covering it. Just imagine that being in your lungs.


Can you find the players in the smoke?


No one seems sure how long the smoke is going to be here for. A good strong wind from the North East will blow it away from us, but the air has been pretty still.

I'm playing it smart today and wearing a face mask because my throat hurt from being outside yesterday and by the end of the day it was getting painful to breathe.


Greetings from the land of Rus!



*The signs are for a project for a girl recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. My friend Hannah is collecting photos of people with messages of luck in front of famous landmarks from around the world, so this was one of the photos I took.