Well, after a crazy day, Alea finally got to celebrate her birthday. She came down with a rash yesterday, which we quickly self-diagnosed as rubella (no aches, pains, fever, coughing or itching – just red dots all over her body). She’s in the midst of finals, though, so there was some concern on our part about her going to school. I figured that I’d be able to teach my first class, and then with a prep period, lunch, and a “silent reading” time, 2 1/2 hours should be more than enough to get her from home, go to the clinic that is less than 3 miles from the house, and get her looked at.
But no – Jakarta traffic reared its ugly head. Something – we still haven’t figured out what – totally jammed up all the roads in all out little neighborhood. It took us over 90 minutes to get to the hospital, and we were pretty darn frustrated by the time we got there.
Once we got in, though, things went quite quickly. We saw 2 doctors, had blood drawn, and were told it could be any number of things (including measles or rubella), and that we’d know more in 3 days. But they also figured that she was not (probably) infectious, and could go take her last test – in isolation!
So we rushed back through traffic (which had gratefully thinned) to the school, and got her set up outside the main room where the test had already started. Once she was done, she and I hopped back into the van to get it home so Susan and Breck could turn around and go back to the hospital, this time for a checkup on his braces. Crazy!
But at last she got to celebrate her birthday! She made herself a cake, and used the new frosting decoration kit that she got to make it pretty, and then we ate it. I’ll bet she uses some of her new aromatherapy oils to relax tomorrow, as the rest of us still have to go to school – but she’s done!! I guess that’s about the best birthday present around. Her freshman year is over, and she’s now staring down the barrel of summer!!
