I almost spent more time in the car!

I made my first journey to San Antonio and it was most definitely too short! I am excited to go back and spend a longer period of time there to explore the city. My great friend from Bethel, Sarah, just moved there (two days before my visit) and I wanted to take the opportunity to go see her new place and help her get settled.

The reason the trip was so rushed was because it was in the middle of my workweek. I worked three nights, had one night off, and then worked again the next night for three more in a row. It was this one night off that I decided to make the three-hour drive to SA. Perhaps a little ambitious. I arrived in San Antonio around five in the evening and Sarah gave me the tour of her cute, little apartment! It’s on a quiet street full of large, old homes and Sarah’s building has been turned into four apartments. Her apartment is full of charm and detail.

After the tour, we decided food and beverage were of the utmost importance. Just down the street from her place was a hole in the wall joint called Mary Ann’s Pig Stand – quite possibly one of the kitschiest places I’ve been to? It was chock full of pig statues, pig photos, stuffed animal pigs, etc. Sarah ordered their signature item, the Pork Sandwich (which has been on the menu since 1921) and I made the mistake (again) for ordering country-fried steak. Now, this southern delicacy always sounds amazing when you’re looking at the menu, but don’t be fooled. It is a thinly pounded steak, breaded, deep-fried, slathered with a thick gravy and usually accompanied by some kind of unnecessary carbohydrate like a baked potato – which you naturally respond “yes!” to when the waitress asks if you want the potato loaded. After ingesting most of this plate full of food, I could barely walk away from the table and was promptly searching the yellow pages for the nearest cardiologist. This is the second time I have ordered this meal, become so incredibly full, and then regretted my decision later. Maybe the third time is the charm?

After dinner we waddled to the car and drove downtown to scope out the Alamo. It was a pretty impressive building, but more so because it was smack-dab in the middle of the city. Had it not been 38degrees and SO windy, we would have stayed longer. However, we decided warm alcoholic beverages were in order so we could thaw out some. We made our way to the river walk, which is a highlight of San Antonio, and it absolutely beautiful. Google it. It has this amazingly European feel to it. Surrounding this small river are shops, restaurants, and bars; all with ample outside seating to enjoy the water, the lights in the trees, and the tour boats floating by. Because the atmosphere was so lovely, we posted up under one of those outdoor gas heaters so we could enjoy our beverages in what little heat there was to have. Eventually, the cold drove us out and we made our way to a very eclectic bar closer to Sarah’s apartment. We fed the jukebox, watched football (Sarah was the main participant in this activity), and chatted the night away.

After waking up incredibly early the next morning we went to a Mexican place for some breakfast tacos – which were quite delicious. It seems that here in Texas the only places to get breakfast (outside of IHOP and Waffle House, of course) is in small Mexican restaurants. While, I would love a bit more variety in my dined-out breakfasts, I’m not complaining about the breakfast tacos. They are legit. After some hugs and well wishes, I was on my way back to Houston so I could work that night. All in all it was a wonderful, yet short, trip to San Antonio. Like I said before, I can’t wait to go back to explore more – and to see my amazing friend, Sarah! It is making me realize that I want to spend a few more weekends in both San Antonio and Austin, but that I only have two more months here. I guess I have some work to do!

Austin

What a fun week! Sarah, our new friends Abby and Sydney, and I all decided to go on a last minute overnight to my favorite city… AUSTIN! It was so amazing to return to this beautiful city. Austin really seems like a large Burlington to me. It is clean, they recycle, they’re weird, there is amazing food, amazing beer, and live music everywhere you turn. Being there made me a little sad that I didn’t get a travel assignment in Austin. I do believe, though, that everything happens for a reason.

It was a blast to be in Austin while not being there for ACL. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Austin City Limits, but it was cool to be there and have free time to explore the city a bit more than I usually do. We found some cool new restaurants and an amazing little neighborhood of bars (Google Rainey St). It is this neighborhood of old houses that were slated to be torn down, and someone had the amazing idea of turning the houses into bars. So from the road it looks like your standard neighborhood, but inside every house is a bar with a backyard full of lawn games, hammocks, and other seating arrangements. It was really neat, and I was so surprised I hadn’t been there before. It was a whirlwind trip, but I will definitely be visiting a few more times during this travel assignment. I wouldn’t be surprised if I took an assignment there later on.

Work is going well, I feel pretty comfortable with the workflow and the expectations. The staff continues to be friendly and helpful – which is really nice. I’m not sure if I had mentioned the cockroach infestation we were dealing with at our new apartment… but after a few commercial grade sprayings, some store bought sprays, and 20 or so traps later… we may have a handle on los cucarachas. Instead of killing 10-15 per day, I have only murdered about one a day for the last week. So, there’s some improvement.

As previously mentioned, it is becoming quite cold here (don’t shoot). I can’t believe how quickly my body has acclimated to the warmer climate. When I left work this morning at 7:15, it was only 49 degrees and I had to turn the heat on in my truck on the way home. The good news is that it warms up by the afternoon to about 70. I am hoping to go spend a few hours by the pool this afternoon. Also, BIG NEWS: I went to the gym yesterday. I’m hoping to make this more of a routine than I have in the past. Mostly because I have been eating like a Texan since I arrived. While not everything might be bigger in Texas… my appetite definitely is. So it’s time to burn off some of the queso that I have basically been ingesting nonstop. All is well here; I am getting really envious of the snow on the mountains at home… I can’t wait to ski. Everyone at work is sick of me talking about how badly I want to ski. Perhaps if I get a long stretch of days off I could fly home to make some turns. We’ll see.

Settling In

Well my first full week of work is on the books, and things are going well so far.

I am getting used to the electronic health record, which is the hardest adjustment for me. Everyone at work is friendly and helpful. It'll be fun to see the hospital change and grow as it expands and moves towards being fully operational.

 

In my free time this week I have been spending a lot of time reading by the pool. Our pool overlooks Clear Lake, which flows into the Houston Bay. It's a nice, relaxing place - sitting by the pool and watching the water. Sarah, our new friends (Sydney and Abby), and I have been exploring different restaurants and a few bars in the area. I'm amazed at how cheap some things are here. Gas is $2.65/gallon near us, which for my truck means about $15-20 less per tank to fill up. Also, food and drink is definitely less at most restaurants. We've been good to find the specials and follow them around to save even more money.

 

I felt very left out of Halloween this year, as I had to work Halloween night and I have been so busy that I didn't really have time to figure out a costume or find a good place to go on Saturday. I will have to make up for that next Halloween. The day after we went up into Houston to explore a bit. There is a beautiful little park in the city that has an enormous wall of water that is flowing at 11,000 gallons per minute. It was really quite spectacular. Afterwards we found (thanks to Yelp) a neat bar with this giant patio. The bar doesn't serve food, but right next door was this delicious restaurant that does take out and has a drive through. We basically called it the McDonalds for rich people. It had amazing hamburgers, sandwiches, and you could even get a $30 prime rib. So we ordered some food from there and walked it back to the patio. Later we went over to a hip part of town that is near Rice University. There were a lot of restaurants, bars, and it seemed like a bunch of shopping. We had a beer at a bar there that I had actually been to one night during a HOBY training a few years back. The bar looked fun and once we were inside I recognized everything. We called it an early night and made the half hour trek back to the Webster area. I wish we lived a bit closer to Houston so we had easier access to nightlife, but I am glad that we're near the water. It's peaceful.

 

You all will probably shoot me for saying this - but it's getting cold here. I can't believe how quickly we have acclimated to the climate here. 65 degrees feels chilly. But I did tough it out today and sit by the pool in the 65 degree weather. I wore a sweatshirt. The photos of snowcapped mountains at home are really making me a bit homesick for Sugarbush and skiing. I thought to myself the other day... "What was I thinking leaving Vermont for the first half of the ski season?!" Maybe I'll have to fly home for a long weekend of skiing, visiting, and eating local/organic food. This area is big on the chain restaurants, it's hard to find good/local food. Also, I have yet to see one recycle bin. We asked our apartment complex manager if there was a recycle bin we could put our returnables in and she said "Oh, I don't know where one is. I don't recycle." It has been hard for us to just throw our plastic, glass, and paper in the trash. I'll be looking soon for a recycling center.

 

Overall things are going well. I am getting settled into a routine and am learning my surroundings.

Hope everyone at home is well and not freezing to death!

First Week

Well, it has happened, I have finished my first week here in Houston. Boy has it been a crazy one. Sarah and I applied for the waterfront apartment building, and were accepted. We received our keys yesterday and will be spending the next two days moving our things in around our work shifts. We have rented furniture, set up our utilities, and are very excited. I'm very ready to have a place to call "home," as the Studio 6 just doesn't cut it.

We also spent three 8-hour day shifts at the hospital doing our hospital orientation. Most of these hours were spent going over hospital policy, equipment use, and the electronic health record. We were able to spend four hours on our units getting oriented to the layout and workflow. I think the hardest thing to get adapted to will be the EHR. It is very different from the one I am used to at Fletcher Allen, but I am sure in a few weeks it’ll feel normal and will be a breeze. A lot of the equipment the hospital uses is similar to FAHC, so that is very reassuring. Also, nursing is nursing, and I know that I can be a great nurse no matter the facility.

All week Sarah and I have been hanging out with some awesome nurses who are here on travel assignments, also. We have mostly been hanging out with a girl from Indiana, one from Illinois, and a guy who is from the Galveston area and just finished a travel assignment in Vermont. There are four other travel nurses who are just wonderful, also. It is nice to have them as resources, friends, and people to hang out with outside of work. Their travel experience ranges from this being their first assignment, to some that have been traveling for years.

Tonight is my first regular shift, and I am both excited and nervous. Being on the floor for those four hours on Wednesday really helped to take some of the nerves out of the equation. The patient population seems very nice and wonderful, so I am excited about that. I was only able to sleep for about 3 hours this afternoon, and that was mostly because I was too nerved up to sleep. However, I have faith that tonight is going to go very smoothly. We have almost finalized our schedule through to the end of the year. They use self scheduling here, so we basically were able to pick all of our shifts. We are just waiting on final approval from our manager. So all in all I think things are going well. I’ll be excited for next week to be over so I can be settled in the new apartment and also have a week of work under my belt.

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.