The UW Chronicles: Volume X: Homecoming and Christmas Coughs

Well, I’m sitting here, my back up against a pillar in the SEA-TAC airport watching people talk on cell phones, grade papers, stare at me. And for no particular reason. I look like every other college student on her way home and there are a lot of us, it's like the exodus out of Egypt or something. I’m tired, the day has worn me out. First of all, I hate packing. Second of all, I got to the airport about four hours early because everyone thought it would be insane, and that it would take me about two hours just to get to the airport. It took me half an hour and I’ve got about an hour left to wait. Oh well.
I’ve been getting over a chest ailment too. I had a dry cough for about two days, then I started hacking stuff up and my throat was dry and very ticklish. It was very unusual, I’ve never felt that way before. Then I noticed that everyone was coughing. I even saw an older man with an inhaler out as he walked along Stevens Way. I found out what the problem was…pollution. It hasn’t rained for a week and a half now and it has been very still. The pollution from the city just hangs out and mixes with the fog that creeps in from the Sound. It just hangs there and makes everyone sick. I hadn’t experienced this in Marin, and I was outraged. Why do we drive vehicles that produce noxious gases that make us sick? Why do we condone the release of tons of harmful gases into the atmosphere by factories? Harmful gases that filled my lungs with gunk and made me cough uncontrollably in lecture…why do we hurt ourselves like that? Why do we hurt the Earth like this? I just don’t understand it. My roommates were surprised at my outrage and frustration and said that I would get used to it. I don’t want to have to get used to it. I want air that is clear and free of toxins. I want everyone to be able to breathe clean, sweet air, the air that I took for granted in Marin. And now I’m going home to that air and the beauty of Marin, the crickets and the sounds of the creek outside my bedroom window, instead of the ROTC doing drills and the buses screeching, instead of the people above me playing with rubber balls at 2 am and the drunk students swearing outside as they walk home from Greek Row. I have gotten used to these sounds and no longer rely on my earplugs. These sounds have become the background of my college life, and I expect that the silence that exists in Woodacre will keep me awake now.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving,

Erinn

P.S. Back home from home now (say that five times fast, and yes, I did have trouble getting used to the silence in Woodacre) and the dry cough spiraled out of control into a full blown hack until my ribs hurt cough. I think I was sick and the dry, polluted air exacerbated my lungs. Yuck. But home (home home in San Francisco) was wonderful and fun. It was strange to have come from this totally different world of college and staying up until 2 am, and having papers due the next day world to the barking dogs, nine year old sister, driving my car back and forth over the hill, cooking on an actual stove with my mom world. Strange, parallel-ish realities. Coming back from SEA-TAC in the shuttle was beautiful (by the way, not having a car doesn’t kill you, it’s actually quite easy when you live in a city and is quite gasoline guilt-free and empowering.) Seattle really does it up for Christmas. The whole city was lit up, from the Christmas tree on top of the Space Needle to the lights strung on radio towers, it was amazingly beautiful. The water of the Sound was black behind the lights and the fog glowed orange. The next day rumors flew that it was going to snow, but you could already see the snow that had fallen on the Cascades, it was so clear. Mount Rainier was bright white and beautiful against the crisp blue sky, and the mountains that had a few weeks earlier been dark are now brilliant with the whiteness of fresh snow. It didn’t snow in Seattle, but it did snow three to four inches everywhere BUT Seattle. We were disappointed, but oh well. It’s almost the end of the quarter (eight days of class left) and I have a presentation to do tomorrow and an astronomy quiz and a paper to turn in for English on Friday, and I’m sick so I’d better get some sleep. See most of you very soon. All my love.