A Day in SF!

We feel like we should start out tonight's post by emphasizing that we are definitely feeling a little better these days.  Bela still definitely HATES day shift and never wants to work another day shift in her life after this contract.  Ever.  Never.  (Those are all her words, btw)

This week we took a day trip into SF!

^^^We came upon the Golden Gate Bridge a lot more quickly than we expected, and then didn't know where to go after that.  We ended up in Sausalito, and because we were STARVING (translation: I was starving) we stopped at a diner there. 

^^^I had a Greek omelette, DELICIOUS!

^^^Bela ate raw eggs.

Actually, it's french toast with a fired banana and candied walnuts and powdered sugar on top. 

^^^Then we drove to Muir Woods, where we got to see giant redwood trees!  Yay! 

^^^We went back to the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures (of course we sang the Full House theme song!).  It was SUPER windy, and turns out that we were under some pretty strong wind advisories that day and evening.  This picture was as presentable as my hair looked all day.  It was actually blowing all over the place until this second.

^^^Bela in front of the bridge. 

^^^We walked the bridge!  So cool!  And again, SUPER windy!

^^^Here we are on the bridge. 

 ^^^And we went to Philz Coffee!  Seriously the BEST coffee I have ever had.  And that's saying something because I am a coffee connoisseur!  They grind the specific brew you ask for and make each cup freshly, and even make their own half and half!

^^^And this, dear friends, is Bela enjoying the wind in her hair.

The Reality of Travel Nursing

We have been feeling a little down lately. Having a rough week. Travel nurses are not treated the same as regular RNs working on the floor. We came off of a high after traveling and spending time with family and friends.  We have settled into our apartment, and are done with orientation. We were excited to start, but our 2 days of orientation on the floor feel insufficient preparing us for working on our own.

This afternoon I (Bela) got off of work and felt just like this picture below...

{I (Natalie) woke up from sleeping after work to Bela laying on the floor in her room like this.  We were both sad.}

This picture is EXACTLY what I did when I got home. I went into my room, laid on the ground (because I still had my scrubs on) on my belly, took off my glasses and was in the same position as this dog. Expression and all.

I usually work night shift and picked up day shift and evening rotating 8 hour shifts for this assignment. I remember now why I hated working days!

We are definitely feeling a little discouraged this week.  After Bela got off work tonight, we decided to take a nice walk at a beautiful park just a couple miles down the road from our apartment.  The fresh air and beautiful scenery did us some good, and now we are sitting at a Starbucks, sipping peppermint mochas, enjoying the Bing Crosby music playing in the background.  Right now it's the simple things that are comforting.  We both definitely know that this is where we are supposed to be, but it's also a little hard right now... and on top of it we don't have the support system we are used to.  We're turning our brains off and seeing Ender's Game tonight at the theater.... we'll deal with reality tomorrow!

First Week in Castro Valley

Hello!  Today will complete our first weekend as travel nurses!  And boy, did we need the break.  The past week and a half has been an overwhelming whirlwind of traveling, sightseeing, orientation, meeting new people, moving, unpacking and re-packing, and very little sleep on top of our bodies being three hours ahead.

So we are somewhat recovered now, and back to give another update.  We started out our weekend Friday night by taking the Bart into SF!  We didn't really know what we were doing and just decided to pick a stop to get off at.  We didn't know where we were going and may have ended up in a somewhat sketchy part of the city.  Anyway, we found our way to Union Square with a little help from friendly San Franciscans (people here are NICE!) and walked around.

Here we are on the Bart, super excited! 

Saks and Tiffany's.  What!

So we went into Saks Fifth Ave and decided to check out the fur coats.  Here I am holding a $60,000 fur coat.  Ridiculous.  I was afraid to try any on, but Bela wasn't!  (SN: I would never in a million years buy or wear a fur coat!)

I (Bela) totally look hot and would buy fur coats all the time. (Just kidding) 

(No she's not)

Waiting for the Bart home.

Natalie back again.  We went and saw Thor last night, because we just felt like we wanted to do something normal and relaxed.  And it was!  It was SUCH a good movie and you all should go see it!  Team Loki for life! 

So, the Bay Area is always super cold at night.  Which makes for cold floors.  Somehow, the cold here is different than the cold back home.  So we decided to buy fuzzy slippers to wear around the apartment.  Ain't they cute?

 Eating lunch on the floor yesterday.  Our furniture rental will be delivered this week.  Both of us feel like we could do without furniture, however.  Well, we might want to have beds... and a couch.... and a chair.... but y'know, otherwise we could do without!

So, we are pretty much all settled in here in Castro Valley! Bela's cousin and husband were very gracious enough to already invite us to over for thanksgiving! And we actually met a really awesome family this week (long story as to how) and they go to the church we tried out today.  These are, hands-down, among the nicest, most open people we have ever met.  Almost as soon as they met us we already had open invitations for Thanksgiving and Christmas (something we had specifically prayed for) and we are set to go to their house this evening for a dinner of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  We are so grateful to have met them.  They already feel like family, and have opened their home so willingly to us.

3rd Stop: Salt Lake City and Final Destination: CALIFORNIA!

Big California hello to you! We have been super duper busy these last 4 days. We are going to catch you up on our adventures...slash stressful times! 

 Sunday morning we left from Colorado Springs, saying goodbye to my good friends Robin and Ryan Campbell (such great hosts!). The GPS led us through Wyoming which we were not expecting. This was an exciting time for Nat since Wyoming is her birthplace. So of course we had to take a picture with the sign. And there was snow, which Nat just had to go and play in. It was FREEZING and she picked up the snow with her BARE hands and then threw it on top of her head. That's how excited she was...

This is me (Bela). Freezing my tush off.

This is Natalie and her snow.

We entered into Utah and the first thing we noticed were the beautiful red, rocky mountains surrounding us on both sides, right off the side of the highway. Later on during our drive in Utah we had beautiful clear skies on our right and several separated snow storms on our left (featured in the pic above).  SO FRIGGIN COOL. Never have seen anything like it. 

{Side note: We have a few theme songs that we had been singing during our road trip. Almost every few hours we would bust out "Country Roads" by John Denver. (I - Bela - am not a huge country fan but when you have someone singing it every hour on the hour on a 13h road trip up to St. Louis, it kind of catches on! Ha!) Every time we would see mountains we would bust out "America the Beautiful" in a manly southern accent. And reverted back to "Country Roads" when all else failed. Other songs, "Home" by Phillip Phillips, "This Land is Your Land" when thinking about the Redwood Forest. Over and over and over again.}

Our stop in Salt Lake City, Utah. State Capital Bldg behind us. We also stopped by to tour Temple Square. 

Massive organ where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices...I think.

The Mormon temple- a beautiful structure

Did you know that there are casinos at gas stations in Nevada? I didn't! I've been to Las Vegas so I've seen the casinos and stuff but this was Nat's first time in one. And guess what? She puts in a dollar and gets a hundred out. Yea. And had no clue what she was doing (does anyone know anyway?) just pushing buttons. Beginners luck.

Our entrance into California!! We were in the home stretch in this pic. Only 3 hours left to go to reach our destination. We came in through Lake Tahoe. Utah is a beautiful state and California has a different kind of beauty. We entered from I80, coming into mid-CA. It was just like I've seen in the movies and even more so. So many green, fir, "Christmas" trees sitting on the mountains covered with snow with a beautiful lake sitting right smack in the middle.

This pic does not do justice to the views we had! 

Towards the end of our trip into CA at the In-N-Out burger. I think Nat had about 8 burgers total on our trip. Such an American (said in an Indian accent.) Can you tell that we were tired? 

The two pictures above contradict our emotions. It's actually the complete opposite. The way I look is how Natalie was feeling and the way Natalie looks was how I was feeling (ok, maybe I was not that happy).

Next day shopping. Target. The softener sounded like maracas! It was fun. 

First day of orientation. A LOT of computer training. We were so tired. Did accomplish many things today and yesterday so now we are relaxing. Our bodies are scheduled 3 hours ahead of time. It's 8p and we are already ready for bed! 

Went for a walk (and jogged for about 30 seconds) to help us de-stress. Was going to use the hotel gym but glad we didn't. Came across the bay and had a beautiful view of SF. Able to see the Golden Gate waaaaay off in the distance. Weather was beautiful, smelled like the ocean (making us miss home), foggy, and the sun was setting. A great ending to the last couple of days. Had some stressful times but everything has worked out perfectly for us. Until next time...

Stop Number 2: Colorado Springs, CO

All right!  We hail to you from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

We drove in last night around 6:30 pm, making our trip from St. Louis to Colorado Springs in about twelve and a half hours.  We have been staying with Bela's friend, Robin, and her husband, Ryan.  Robin has been wonderful to show us around Colorado Springs!  The weather this morning was in the twenties, which was a shock to us.  Not to mention we are adjusting to a two hour time change (soon to add another two hours to that, thanks to daylight savings and another time zone change to come tomorrow).

We didn't post pictures from the first day because we were too tired to upload any, so we included a few in this post as well.

On our long road trip the first day.  Looking a little rough.

Beautiful fall colors in St. Louis

St. Louis Arch 

Driving toward Colorado Springs... catching our first glimpse of the mountains! 

Our drive through Kansas (which was LONG!) we saw a lot of windmills.

Visiting the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background 

Garden of the Gods 

Garden of the Gods

Balancing Rocks (or as Bela calls them Rock upon Rock) 

 Our "hike" around Garden of the Gods.

Bela and I came to Colorado thinking we were going to be among the select few to be resistant to the effects of the altitude changes.  Were we wrong!  Just a couple of minutes into this walk and we were OUT OF BREATH like a couple of wimps.  I felt pretty light-headed and dizzy all day long, but Bela managed quite a bit better than I did.

We visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!  It's a zoo on the mountain!  So much fun.

Taking a ride up the ski lift

Riding back down the ski lift.  I'm a lot more scared than I look here. 

The giraffes were pretty intense.  Bela and Robin enjoyed feeding them.  Bela's words: "I LOVED it.  I wanted him to wrap his tongue around my hand."  (She told me I had to write that last part) 

 Scared of the Bear!