Allons-y!

The inaugural post!

Well, at long last, it's official: nine days from today, I will be on a plane to Heathrow, finally embarking upon this adventure towards which I've been working since January. Since so many wonderful people have asked to be kept updated on my comings and goings (I'm flattered!), I figured that a blog-type outlet would be useful. So that everyone is on the same page, here's the nitty-gritty of what's happening:

What: I'm going to the UK! (duh) I'll be working as a NICU nurse - as it happens, one of the few specialities that is in very short supply over there - via an agency that places foreign RNs throughout the UK. Although it's a London-based company, the setup is essentially the same as US travel nursing, with 13-week assignments and the option to extend or go staff if the arrangement is mutually agreeable to me and the hospital.

Where: Most of the NICU openings, I've been told, are in the south (London, Oxford, etc.), although I could theoretically go anywhere there's a large enough facility to sustain a NICU.

When: THIS month! (And I wasn't sure I was going to be able to say that until about five days ago.) Well, all right, technically speaking I'm flying over this month, but I'm not actually starting anything work-related until November 2 (or 2 November, as I'll have to get used to calling it). There is a mandatory orientation to UK nursing that I'll be taking in November, with three on-campus days at Bournemouth University spread over the course of the month (the 2nd and 17th and the first of December). In between those, I'll be completing other mandatory training, spending a week in London - I've already made plans for Thanksgiving dinner at a pub in the city - and generally exploring. Then it's back home for the holidays, and come January I should be back there to start my first assignment somewhere.

Why: Ah. The million-dollar question. If I'm honest, the best answer I really have is - why not? My Anglophilia isn't a terribly well-kept secret, and I've always been interested in the idea of travel nursing. Combine those in one fortuitous Google search that connected me to the agency I've been talking to, and you have this ambitious, possibly harebrained, plan of mine.

Also, they speak English over there. Or so they claim.

So that's that, in a nutshell. I promise - okay, I hope - to keep this blog updated better than my last one (if that one is to be believed, my road trip to LA ended somewhere in Wisconsin, I think). I'd love to hear from anyone who's reading along out there: comments, questions, complaints about the blog format, anything. Please do feel free to pass along the link, too, especially to anyone who's not on Facebook. And if you happen to find yourself headed to England anytime after next January, let me know!