Adventures of the last few days...

During the last three days I have adventured out a few times to experience NYC. Prior to me leaving on Sunday I had found out my start date had been pushed back to 4/16/20 due to my travel company not being able to submit everything in time for me to start on Monday. Although this had been communicated to me it had not gone through the system and I was still told to begin my orientation. I spent two hours trying to get on the online orientation meeting due to technical difficulties. So I made the hike to my hospital, it was pouring rain all day so I took a Taxi and it didn't take very long at all. After finding out that things had been rescheduled due to all the technical difficulties I made my way home to my apartment. It was still raining cats and dogs so and I could not find any taxis nearby so I took the subway home. It was eyeopening to say the least. To see all the homeless population of NYC staying in the subway to stay dry and warm, broke my heart. One of the men smelt like he had urinated himself. As I was exiting the subway a older woman tried to ask me for my metro card and I said...umm no. She then told me that she was trying to refill her metro card and I tried to walk her through how to do it from afar. I know that being in NYC will change me and maybe weeks down the road I will ignore requests like this. But I plan on staying away from the subway system and on days that I feel too exhausted to walk or bike to the hospital I plan on either taking a Taxi or Uber to get to work.

Tuesday began with me waking up and trying a NYC staple food item. The New York Bagel with cream cheese, lox and tomato. I also had some much needed green juice and a peanut butter and banana shake. I love seeing how many food options there are here and plan on trying as much as I can. I also love seeing how many healthy food options there are. After eating my delicious breakfast I got to meet up with a nursing friend of mine that encouraged me to travel nurse in the first place. I met Sarah while I worked back at Wesley and she and I have talked numerous times about my desire to travel nurse. She has answered all of my questions that I have and has made this transition as seamless as possible. I met Sarah just outside of Central Park, I was amazed with how beautiful it was that I forgot to take any pictures. I will continue to take tons of pictures. We walked to Times Square and even got to see the Naked Cowboy didn't get any pictures of him though lol. We also walked by Harry Potter the Cursed Child and of course I had to take a picture.

On Wednesday I woke up and made my way to Whole Foods which is next to my apartment. I waited in line for close to 30 minutes to get in and each individual had to stand 6 feet apart from each other. This line wrapped around the corner and down the street. Standing in this line reminded me of the pictures from The Great Depression of people standing in line for bread. Once I got into the Whole Foods I was in my Vegetarian/Vegan heaven, I went down the escalator and found a rainbow of fruits and veggies. It made me so happy to see all of this, I always though NYC didn't have much of them and especially in a pandemic I didn't know how much there would be in the city.

Today I am working on online orientation videos and tomorrow I will be doing my eMAR training all day. After finishing that, I should hopefully know my schedule for next week. It has been a crazy few days but if I have learned anything it is that being flexible, understanding and kind are so important when being a traveling nurse. I want to thank my friends and family that have reached out. I am sorry if I have missed getting back with anyone but I have gotten a ton of messages and will do my best to get back to everyone.

Love,

Destinee