Houston, We've Landed!

Yesterday was a relatively easy day in the car: a mere 9 hours across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and finally into Texas. Louisiana was quite beautiful, and many parts of the interstate drove right through the bayou. Miles and miles of road were elevated on stilts. As we entered Texas and started getting closer to Houston, the sun was going down and it was one of the most beautiful sunsets. Now, was it better than a Lake Champlain sunset? Unlikely. However, because it is so flat here you could just see forever and that made the sunset seem so much larger. As we started entering the Houston area it had become dark and all of the oil refineries were lit up with thousands of lights. They all created the illusion of a mini city lit up at night. Sarah and I arrived to our extended stay hotel, checked in, and crashed. We peeled ourselves out of bed long enough to drive to the grocery store and get some staples. Afterwards we came home and passed out.

After a very necessary morning of sleeping in, Sarah and I decided to go and scope out the area. We first made the drive from our hotel to our new hospital in order to figure out the route and see how long it would take. We are, luckily, only about 10-15 minutes away from the hospital. Once we got there we went and took a walk around the lobby. It is stunning! I’m excited to see what the inpatient units look like. The afternoon was very productive. We drove around to scope out Kemah, which is a little town in the Galveston Bay area that has a boardwalk, amusement rides, and such. After that we went and looked at three apartment complexes. The first was very cheap, but wasn’t the cleanest of places. It also didn’t have the best reviews online. But it had four pools, a fitness center, and was close to a lot of things like grocery stores and pharmacies. It was definitely in suburbia. The second complex was gorgeous! A bit pricier, but there was a pool and fitness center, and it is RIGHT on the water. It was hard to not want to pick it immediately. I knew, though, that we needed to look at least one more place to get a semi-good feel. I mean… I’ve watched enough episodes of House Hunters to know you have to look at a minimum of three. The office of the third place wasn’t open on Sunday, the cops were there, and it seemed a little run down. So we will be applying for the waterfront one after work tomorrow!

Work tomorrow! Crazy! I’m a little more excited than I’ve been. Still nervous, though.

I never want to sit in a car again...

Longest. Day. Ever.

From the beginning, today was already supposed to be a long day – coming in at thirteen and a half hours. That was, of course, before I made a MAJOR error in driving directions near Washington DC. Instead of skirting the city, my GPS rerouted me RIGHT through DC. Traffic wasn’t ideal (it wasn’t rush hour, thankfully) but I ended up driving straight down Constitution Ave. As annoying as it was to add 45 minutes onto an already long day, it was kind of nice to drive through the nation’s capitol. I have always loved DC, and today was no different.

I ended up driving through Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and finally made it to Alabama. There was a huge traffic jam on the interstate in Tennessee (an RV caught fire). Sarah was about an hour ahead of me and was stuck in that mess. My GPS must have known the traffic was bad because it had me get off the interstate just before the jam. I was then traveling on a side road, which, come to find out, ALSO had a traffic jam. The reports from people on waze were over an hour old and said that traffic was at a standstill and many cars had all turned around. I spoke to a local who said it had been held up for almost three hours. After waiting for almost 20 minutes, and speaking to another lady (who had more teeth than the other guy), I decided I needed to find another route. Thankfully Google maps found me a way around BOTH traffic jams and back onto the interstate… 45 minutes later.  So what should have been 13.5 hours of driving turned into 15.

All I wanted to do was get to the hotel and sleep. That is, until I actually got to the hotel. Now… I have stayed in some terrible places before. But this one takes the cake. It was a Motel 6 in a “not-so-desirable” part of town. The door handle to the room didn’t work, the police paid the hotel a visit while we were in the parking lot, and the real clincher was the review on TripAdvisor from 2011 about a patron who was held up at gunpoint in his room. Needless to say, we promptly asked for a refund, and went on our merry way to a nicer hotel down the street. I didn’t even bother taking my bags out of my truck. I feel safe, clean, and comfortable in our new hotel…. Even if it is three times the price.

Time for bed. Nine and a half hours of driving tomorrow.

Day one on the books

On the Road Again…

After one full day on the road towards Texas, I am feeling better about this whole move. I left Bethel just after 8am today, filled up my tank, and made my way south. The rain was heavy for most of the morning but let up just north of New York City. Traffic was manageable all day, and I only dealt with one small delay. I made it to Delaware in time for Janet to give me a tour of the town as well as the hospital. Lewes is such a cute town, and the beach was absolutely stunning. I have already started thinking about a travel assignment here next summer… as long as I get in my hours at FAHC.

I spent:

$125 in gas

$20 in tolls

$15 in food.

Tomorrow holds 13.5hrs of driving, and close to 900miles. This should put both Sarah and I in Webster in the evening on Saturday.

And I'm off...

I can’t believe today is the day that I am leaving Vermont, my home of 26 years, to start the drive towards Texas. So many emotions are taking over.

First of all, I am nervous. Aside from living in Australia for a semester, I haven’t been outside of Vermont for this long. I am nervous to leave my love-filled nest of a comfort zone. I am nervous to leave my family and friends for an extended period of time. I also am INCREDIBLY nervous to be moving to a new community, moving to a “red” state, and also starting a job at a new hospital. I am also nervous about the recent Ebola fiasco. I know that it is a possibility that Ebola is going to end up all over the US, but it is already in Texas… the state I am moving to. Time for everyone to practice their best hand washing!

As well as nervous, I am excited. Travel nursing is something I have wanted to do since I met a travel nurse, Helen, in Australia. It has always seemed like the best and easiest way to travel, while working at the same time. For the same reasons that I am nervous, I am also excited. I am excited to learn a new area, to reach outside of my comfort zone, and to learn and grow professionally in a new setting.

To top it all off, I am humbled. The outpouring of love that I have received from my friends and family over the last few weeks has been nothing short of amazing. The hugs, laughter, smiles, stories, and gifts have made this transition so perfect and challenging. Every one of you has played an incredibly important role in my life, and I can’t imagine going day to day without seeing you all. Your love, support, and compassion have far exceeded what I ever could have asked for. I am so glad that I was able to say goodbye to (almost) everyone in the past few weeks. I think what makes it easiest for me is that I know it is only “see you later,” and not “Goodbye.”

And so today, it begins. The 30hr, two thousand mile drive, starts this morning. As the rain is settling on the valleys, the trees have provided their last bit of beautiful fall foliage as a send off. I can’t think of a better way to leave Vermont.

And we're back!

I have decided to resurrect the blog and transform it into a blog about my experiences while travel nursing. Here goes nothing…

As I write this I am currently flying first class from Chicago to Burlington while coming home from Austin City Limits. After some flight delays, I finagled my way onto an earlier flight and into first class. Now that ACL is over and I am no longer distracted with that weekend of amazingness, it is starting to hit me that I am MOVING to Texas in just 10 days.  ACL was such a fun weekend, and I had a blast listening to some wonderful bands with the girls. Of course there was a good amount of partying to go with it. Everyone left Austin early this morning, which left me to spend the morning/afternoon by myself. I sat by the pool, read my newspaper at Starbucks, and walked the city a bit. But mostly, I thought about the upcoming move to Houston.

I honestly can’t believe that I am moving clear across the country. Travel nursing has always seemed like this faraway dream; especially recently when Sarah and I couldn’t find jobs where we wanted to be working. The only significant amount of time I have spent outside of Vermont was when I went studying abroad in Australia. Those four and a half months were nothing short of awesome. I am hoping that travel nursing proves to be the same. I am very nervous, and excited, to meet new people, learn a new hospital and policies, and orient myself in a new city. The hardest thing is going to be leaving Vermont, Fletcher Allen, and mostly my friends and family. I have created such a wonderful life for myself there. What is partly scary about this move is that I may actually come to love another place more than Vermont. Now, is that place going to be Texas? Doubtful. Could it possibly be Denver or California? Absolutely. But I know (pretty wholeheartedly) that Vermont is the place I need to be later in life.

While I am almost done with all of the pre-employment requirements that my travel agency is requiring, there is still a lot to get done. For the most part, I packed everything I will be bringing about a month ago, so that is basically all set. I do, however, need to find a place to live. I am still debating on whether I will take the company housing or the monthly stipend. Ideally, I would love to find a little cottage or apartment near the beach, as I think that would make the whole experience that much more enjoyable. I will continue looking. I also need to map out a route and decide which days I will be traveling.

I am so glad that Sarah will be traveling with me to this assignment. I think I might have had a total panic attack had I moved to Texas alone. Traveling alone for a short period of time is one thing, but MOVING somewhere for three months is another. It will be nice to have a familiar face at both work and possibly home if we can find a place together. I think having such a close friend experiencing this with me will help ease me into a life of travel nursing, and should make future assignments easier to handle.

I have never really been a huge fan of change, so this whole experience will really test my strengths. Meeting people shouldn’t be too difficult, but I am happy that I will be put outside of my comfort zone a little in order to forge new relationships. One huge change will be moving from one of the most liberal states to one of the most conservative ones. If we had actually been offered jobs in Austin like we hoped, it wouldn’t have been too bad. However, I have a feeling that Houston is a little more on the conservative side than Austin. My biggest fear with this is how will people react to my homosexuality. While I don’t intend on pretending to be straight, I also think it’s important to be true to myself and to not lie by omission. I definitely plan to be judicious with who I share this piece of me with, however. From a nursing stand point, I am completely leaving my comfort zone. With the exception of two weeks of clinical in Australia, I have only worked at Fletcher Allen. To go further, I have really only worked/studied on Baird 6. I have come to know well and love all of my coworkers, and the work that we do. Moving to a new unit in a new hospital with different coworkers and a different type of patients is going to be a challenge. One I think I can face, though.

So things that need to happen between now and when I leave are:

-       Find a place to live

-       Get my last bit of paperwork completed

-       See as many people in Vermont as possible

-       Put the finishing touches on packing

-       Plan my route to Texas

-       Try not to cry too much

Here’s to my new adventure!

Wrapping Things Up

After being home for almost 5 days now, and still exhausted, I think I finally mustered enough energy to finish this segment of the blog.

On Thursday we had a pretty lazy day around the neighborhood. We tied up some lose ends in our work before heading to a speech from a Bangladeshi member of the WHO on arsenicosis, a growing problem in Bangladesh. That evening we had our final class and spent the night devouring the prized meal of Pasta Alfredo that a few of us splurged on. After dinner we played a ton of cards, and it was a lot of fun.

Friday was a very busy day. 10 of us decided to take a van back to the part of Dhaka with the NGO stores we had been to before. We left at 9 in the morning, got to the first store 20 minutes before it opened, and we were all shopped out and home by 3 in the afternoon. I went back to the art store to try and get the paintings I had negotiated on a week prior, but it was closed. I got the cellphone number of the owner from the neighboring shop, but he wasn't opening until later in the afternoon, after we had to be back to the house. It was funny, he called me that afternoon asking me if I was going to come and buy the paintings. However, I told him I couldn't make it back out there and he missed his chance. Guess it wasn't meant to be for me to buy the paintings, oh well. I did treat myself to a nice watercolor of some rickshaws instead. I finished up on some last minute items at the NGOs and them relaxed for the rest of the journey.

The reason we had to be home so early that afternoon was because IUBAT was throwing a reception for us that evening and all of the girls would need time to put on and perfect their Sarees. I would be attending in a traditional Panjabi which takes all of 2 minutes to get on. The reception was so beautiful! Outside the university a massive bamboo tent was erected in the courtyard. The frame was draped with lovely white fabric, flowers, Christmas lights everywhere, and a ton of tables of chairs. At the front of the tent, behind the stage was a giant poster with a greater than life size photo of our group. Which was taken the afternoon I was admitted to the ICDDR,B. You can imagine how nice I looked in that photo. Not only was this photo used for this giant poster (it came home with us), but it was also plastered all around the school on fliers announcing the reception. The tent quickly filled with people and I estimated that there was probably around 500 people. After some wonderful speeches from Rycki, Tenylle, and some of the IUBAT faculty as well as a singing of our national anthems, ours by us and the Bangla anthem by a few IUBAT students, it was time for the culture.

Now, we had heard about this reception before hand and were aware that it was being followed by a "Cultural Event." However, we were not enlightened at all as to what this cultural event would contain. But, we were to provide something for the event to signify American culture. It started off with multiple Bangladeshi songs and dances from their students. All of them were so wonderfully entertaining and it made our planned event seem a little dull. Not knowing beforehand what to expect or what to do for our portion of the event, we decided to use the videos we had previously recorded of our home lives to create a quick movie to show where we came from. The video was fine and it held people's attentions, mostly due to the images of snow I'm sure, but we knew that something else needed to be done. So in the spur of the moment and with some luck in the fact that I randomly had my iPod with me, we invited as many people as possible to come on stage with us and dance/sing to an American classic: Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. It was a complete success, and made us feel a lot less boring.

Shortly after, the night came to a close and it was time to go to the Vice Chancellor's home for a wonderful dinner. He and his wife were some welcoming and had a beautiful home. The Canadian volunteer teachers came with us as well as a few of the IUBAT staff. The dinner was served on the rooftop terrace and was so serene that I almost forgot I was in Dhaka. It was such a terrific night filled with good food, great conversation, and even better company. Like all things though, it had to come to an end, and it was time to head home.

Saturday morning was filled with packing, running some last minute errands, visiting the orphanage one more time to drop off more gifts, and then having one last group lunch before our evening out. It was a sad day. I just wasn't ready to leave our life there that had just started. It was hard for me to go from Australia, where I lived there for nearly 5 months and had so much time, to Bangladesh where I was only visiting for just over two weeks and was barely able to scratch the surface. Everything I saw and did was so amazing and I had the move wonderful time. Everyone we met was so willing to bend over backwards for us and be so incredibly hospitable.
All of the citizens were so helpful and so interested, I felt so welcomed. While it was so hard to have to come home when I was just getting comfortable, I knew it must be done. While I know I will return at some point and put my time and efforts into bettering the country, or a country like it, it was still hard to leave without leaving a real mark. Everything about the trip was perfect. Our group was fun, meshed well, and made me laugh all of the time. Rycki gave us the perfect amount of guidance while also letting us branch out and explore. The IUBAT students were so generous in helping us learn the area and inviting us into their homes. While I was taking my last rickshaw ride back to our house to await the bus that would take us to the airport, I took a deep breath of that smoggy Dhaka air, looked around me, and smiled; knowing that I had a wonderful time on the trip and couldn't wait for my return.

Bangladesh will always hold a special place in my heart.

Thank you as always for reading, and until my next big adventure... stay well!
Love and miss you all!