Sick in Serbia.

I raced over to a Lilly Drogerie shop before closing hours to secure two at-home COVID tests.

Two tests were quite affordable in Serbian dinar.

James had been feeling alarmingly unwell for the past month (I'll spare you the details), my throat was beginning to ache, and fatigue set in something fierce to the point where I would take naps in between scheduled sessions with my patients. As a person who previously scoffed at napping and lived in accordance with the ol' maxim, "Sleep is for the weak," this chronic exhaustion alarmed me.

I wondered if there was particulate or micoorganism in the water we drank in Skopje or if our seemingly worsening conditions could be attributed to the atrocious levels of pollution plaguing the city in winter. The air quality index was something we'd naively neglected to factor into our travel plans. Upon further research, I learned Skopje regularly tops the lists of the most polluted cities in Europe--sometimes the world. The World Health Organization estimated around 4,000 premature deaths per year may be due to air pollution in North Macedonia. Trying to go out for a simple daily run only to be shut down by the faint burning of your lungs was not something I'd anticipated. For three months out of the year, air quality is so poor, residents refrain from leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary.

It was a saliva test. Results in ten minutes. Negative.

Congratulations, we won the runner up prize: The flu.

Having the flu with the муж is not a party I requested an invitation to, but at least there are LEGO (which, upon feverish research, is the correct way to pluralize a reference to the LEGO bricks).

I ran out of LEGO.

Now, it's time for a nap.