Home is where the cobbler is.

Today I had orientation in the hospital where I will actually be working, the 5th floor, a general surgical unit. I met my nurse manager, and then was partnered up with a regular nurse aide to learn what a typical day would look like. She was a sweet girl from NY, who had a daughter and a pit bull. She showed me around a little, but there wasn't much to the work so I wandered off on my own. In between exploring, I went to the break room to eat a little snack. Of course as soon as I did that, my nurse manager walked in. I was so embarrassed! She did not seem to mind though, and we talked for a while about my job and how neither one of us knew exactly what I would be doing. I made a mental note to only pack snacks that could be carried in my pocket from now on, finished eating, and went back to see if there was anything I could do. While asking the nurses if I could help them, one british nurse took me up on my offer and had me change all of the full "sharps" boxes in the patients rooms. (Sharps boxes are where we put small, hazardous material such as needles.) I was glad to have something to help pass the time. One nurse said to me "honey, count your blessings," implying that I should be glad they were not busy. Before my orientation ended, I went back to my nurse manager's office to go over my future schedule. She told me more about my job and how she can tell I am eager to learn. She also told me that the british nurse had come up to her and mentioned me saying, "I don't know who that girl is, but you did a good job hiring her." It made me happy to hear that I made a good impression, but I don't want to get caught up in that.

After my day, I came home and was welcomed by the smell of peach cobbler. YUMMM. I feel like we have had some type of cobbler every night this past week. Maybe because of how close we are to the farmers market and the fact that cobbler is stinkin easy to make? It's like I am at one of those camps from tv. Actually, I have been pleasantly surprised by the joy coming home to a house full of girls brings. Whether we talk or not, knowing that someone is there is comforting. It feels like a family. A few of the girls ended up cooking indonesian stir-fry for all of us for dinner. I did dishes and some laundry in exchange. I felt like I was someone's husband, coming home from 8 hour work day to a sweet aroma of homemade goodness. Luckily there were no children to tend to... I don't think I would have minded snuggling and reading a bedtime story though. Oh wait, my roommates do that with me too!

I am soooo tired. Working a full time job is a lot harder than I thought. Maybe growing up isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Welcome to Ashburton!

Orientation Day 3

Hello, hello! I am actually in orientation right now... Bad, right? We are having a little break because some of our speakers decided not to show up, thus giving us an opportunity to check email, etc.

I am really excited about working here! I love that the hospital is so small and that it is not typically a teaching hospital. In Charlotte, while the hospitals are huge and great, nursing students are almost an inconvenience because there are so many of them. Here, there are only 4 "Professional Nursing Assistant" students so we get a lot more individual attention. The nurse recruiter talked to us today about different programs the Hospital offers that will pay for nurses to get a Masters Degree at Duke University. How awesome would that be?! Then I talked to one of the traveling nurses about travel and the great opportunities that come with that. She said it is a lot more fun to travel with a partner though. Any takers? Ahhh there are so many opportunities, it is hard not to get too excited. Honestly though, I really just want to graduate, get trained, and then go to a foreign country and do surgeries and mission work. Whatever that means, or however that looks.

Enough dreaming and scheming for now... our next speaker is here to talk insurance.

Orientation Day 2

Today was my second day of orientation at Duke Raleigh. Check out my awesome badge!!! I feel so official. Working at the hospital comes with all kinds of perks too: memberships, educational opportunities, a mobile farmers market every friday in the parking garage, discounts EVERYWHERE, and today I got signed up for the Race for the Cure race this Saturday for FREE! I am not going to lie though, orientation is horribly boring. I am actually really tired... I didn't get much sleep last night. One of my roommates, Kayla, made an amazing dinner of tomato basil chicken, sauteed squash & cucumber, corn, green beans, bread, and peach cobbler. All of the food was from the farmer's market too. I stayed up until 12, was awoken by the other roomies at 12:30, went back to sleep, and then got up at 5:45am for my day of work. BLAH. I have had a mad head ache all day. Therefore, this is going to be very short. One great thing about orientation is that it has helped me to feel even more confident of my call to nursing and where I am right now. I have had different people (old nurses about to start working at Duke Raleigh) give me their "advice" about how I should join the military for more respect, or to skip nursing altogether and be a doctor to focus on medicine. In the past I would have let other people's advice confuse me, but what good does that do? I know I am here for a reason and am doing what I am supposed to be doing. That is good enough for me!

Tomorrow is the big day!

Hello all! Welcome to my summer blog for my internship at Duke Raleigh Hospital.

I arrived in Raleigh on Tuesday evening, unpacked, and had dinner with my roommate Sarah Joyce and her (boy) "friend." Dinner was fun, but I was tired and ready to go to bed. Driving is exhausting! Sarah is a friend that I met when I was a freshman at NC State. One of her roommates is studying abroad for the summer, so I am sub-leasing her room. The house is cute and old, and the kitchen is infested with ants. Gross. There are two other girls that live here as well, but they have been off visiting family these past few days. Hopefully I will get to spend some time with them soon too!

On Wednesday I drove to Charleston for a beach retreat with some girl friends from Charlotte, and returned back to Raleigh on Friday evening. Charleston was WONDERFUL! I have been a few times before and almost didn't go this week, but I am glad I did. I needed a little vacation before feeling ready to get to work.

Yesterday Sarah and I had quite the adventure around town. We practiced driving to the hospital which is only 10 minutes away!!!, went to the farmer's market, the grocery store, and did some other random exploring. The farmer's market was great. I am so excited about having one only a few minutes away from the house. We got 4 sweet potatoes, cabbage, a bag of green beans, and a tomato for less than $6. I can't wait to experiment with cooking and shopping off of a budget. For dinner, Sarah made pasta with squash and a little chicken, accompanied by blueberry cobbler for dessert. She invited over her "friend" and a guy that I was supposed to be going on a blind date with. He was a sweetie, but I doubt it would be more than friends. He was 25 and had just bought a house... I am not ready for all of that! I could see the four of us hanging out again for the sake of outdoor fun, but no summer romance. I would, however, like to find him a nice wife. Any takers? A lot of folks came over after dinner to play games. I ended up leaving the scene early to skype with a friend from home. It was a very refreshing talk, so I didn't feel too bad about ditching my "date."

Today I went to an interesting Church, ran some errands, laid out in the sun, talked to Charlotte-ians on the phone, and prepared for my first day of orientation tomorrow. I am not really sure what to expect, but I am excited! Orientation is from 7:45-4:30. Yikes! I guess I need to get used to long days because I will soon be working 12 hour shifts.

By the way, the house is referred to as "Ashburton", the name of the street it is on. Therefore this summer I am an "Ashburton Girl." haha.

Talk to you all later!!!

Hong Kong

Hello, Hong Kong!

Well my friends, I have arrived in Hong Kong and must now wait for 6 hours until my final flight to Kunming. 

Here is some "blogging" I did on the airplane to keep you updated...

"There is another girl from my trip who actually has all of the same flights as me.  She lives in Gastonia and goes to Chapel Hill.  She is a biology major and is thinking about going into research.  I don’t really feel like knowing someone doing the same course of travel has really added or subtracted to the traveling experience.  I guess it has been good to know that if I get lost I am not alone, but everything has been a breeze so far.  Maybe when I arrive in Hong Kong it will be another story! 

I ended up falling asleep as soon as I got on the airplane, even before it took it off.  I think it was around 4 am?  I almost pulled my first all-nighter!  It was a shame I was so tired because the woman next to me seems like an interesting lady.  She says she is the program director for a group called “University of Dreams” that sets up internships for kids at colleges in the United States in Hong Kong.  She says they have programs all over the world.  Definitely something to look in to for the future.

Anywho, I woke up at 5:30 to eat some dinner.  It was actually not bad; pasta, a roll, cheesecake desert, and a weird salad thing that had lettuce, a piece of red tuna?, cherry tomato, and some strange looking white mixture.  Needless to say, I stuck to the pasta, roll, and tried a little bit of the desert.  Not bad at all.  I proceeded to fall back asleep until around 9:30.  I am not sure whether I should be putting am or pm because my body is so confused right now.  I am hoping that by taking little naps throughout the rest of my flights I will be able to have just enough sleep to keep functioning, but still be tired enough that when I finally do get to a hotel for night rest, I can hopefully get in to the swing of things fairly quickly.  That is my theory at least. 

The Cathay flight is really nice! Besides the decent food, each chair has its own television that you can watch tv, movies, play games, listen to music, etc.  Also, instead of the chairs tilting backward, when you want to recline the bottom of your seat moves down and forward and does not affect the person behind you.  They gave each of us this cute little bag with warm socks and tooth brush/tooth paste.  The Chinese are so considerate. 

I did a crossword for a while which made me feel a little bit like grandpa.  I may scan the movie list in a little bit to see if anything looks appealing. Laterrrr."

One more thing... there are a lot of people walking around with Doctors masks on to keep from getting the swine flu. Kinda funny looking.

Testing numero dos

Heylo! I sent out an email to a lot of folks today telling them about this blog. Please let me know if you have any difficulty viewing it. I am excited for this journey...!