Friday, October 14, 2016

Travel Physical Therapy Life FAQ's

As a traveler I get so many questions about housing, assignment length, meeting people, etc. So I thought I would address all questions in one place! If you are a PT or looking to get into the traveling life feel free to ask any questions, I'm happy to help!
This is an old picture but it was taken as I was leaving for an assignment in California. That's my travel shirt!


Q: How do you get your jobs?
A: I work with a recruiter and they honestly do all of the hard work! It is important to work with several different recruiters big and small to ensure that you increase your odds at getting a contract in the location/setting that you want.


Q: How do you decide where to go?
A: You have to have a state license in each separate state you want to work. This is the hardest part! So far I have 7 state licenses: NM, CO, TX, CA, HI, AK, NY. I get to choose where I want to go.  I decide where I want to be then my recruiter sends me a list of the possibilities and I decide where she submits my profile. After the hospital has my profile we do a phone interview and I can either accept or decline the contract. The cool part is-I'm totally in control!

Q: Do you always get to go where you want?
A: Nope, but that's OK! You usually have to be flexible on either the location or the setting. I have seriously lucked out on getting some great assignments in great cities/hospitals. Honestly, it is hard to get placements in big cities because everyone wants to work there! Patience definitely pays off so I make sure to save up so that I don't get in a hurry and accept a bad placement because of financial reasons. 


Q: How long do you work at each assignment?
A: It depends on the contract and need of the hospital. My shortest has been 8 weeks and my longest has been 6 months. I usually have a 13 week contract and extend my contract based on the hospital's request and how much I like the place ;)


Q: Where do you work when on assignment?
A: Everywhere! That's what I love about being a PT! We can work in so many different fields. I prefer hospital based PT and acute inpatient rehab. I've also worked in outpatient and home health PT.

Q: Where do you live when on assignment?
A: I live in temporary furnished housing that I find on AirBnB, VRBO, or craigslist. Renters on AirBnB and VRBO are usually very accommodating to monthly renters because it saves them cleaning time and they are guaranteed the month long rent vs gambling on weekend rentals.
I've lived in a cute condo by the beach in Santa Barbara, and a cute converted garage studio in Redding. 

Q: What do you take with you?
A: I own a Subaru Crosstrek and I pack what ever fits in my car! I also have a ski rack and bike rack so if I accept an assignment in the mountains I take my bike and skis. I'm obsessed with coffee, camping, and being outside. So I pack my french press, my camping gear, my cooler full of green chile, clothes/shoes/toiletries, and anything other gear I might need. I'm on my way to Steamboat Springs, CO so I'll pack my snowshoes and a bunch of cold weather gear. Being a single woman, I always pack a gun, better safe than sorry!



Q: How do you meet people?
A: Never say no an invitation! Seriously, prior to traveling I didn't like to go to events by myself. When I decided to travel I made myself a promise that I would go to everything I was invited to! Most hospitals have several travelers, speech pathologists, nurses, occupational therapists, and most travelers are lonely and want people to hang out with too! So exchange numbers and invite your co-workers along! To be honest I don't make a whole lot of friends outside of work but if I have it's because I got involved! I volunteered for races, kayaked at national parks, hung out with my roommates, etc. 
Kayaking with new friends/roommates!


Hiking with co-workers!

Whitewater rafting with co-workers!


Q: Where have you been for work?
A: So far, I have been to

  • Houston, Texas (twice) 
  • Meeker, Colorado
  • Boise, Idaho
  • South Lake Tahoe, California
  • Santa Barbara, California
  • Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • Redding, California
  • San Diego, California
Q: Where have been your favorite places to work?
A: This is such a hard question, I've loved different places for different reasons and there's always a positive/negative no matter where you go.
I love working in Houston, my co-workers are the best and working in the medical center is mind blowing but the commute was awful and there is nothing to do for an outdoorsy girl! I love South Lake Tahoe because it is so beautiful and my type of place, but it was really hard to make friends. Redding was so fun, super accessible to the outdoors and awesome trails but it's so hot and there's a pretty bad drug/homeless person problem :/ so I couldn't live there long term.  Santa Barbara was amazing all around, beautiful area, awesome friends, amazing location-but SO expensive!


Q: You seem to travel a lot not for work, where have you been for fun?
A: I try to experience the local area when I'm assigned somewhere, so I've been to a lot of National Parks(they're my favorite)!  Whiskey town, Redwoods, Yosemite, Mt. Lassen, Crater Lake, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, White Sands. 
I also love to travel internationally! I've been to South Africa(twice), Germany, Italy(twice), Montenegro, Vatican, Thailand, Belgium, Amsterdam, Brugge, Greece, Canada, Mexico, Bonaire, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Antigua.

National Parks!

Q: What are your favorites?
A: Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Amsterdam, Mykonos, Thailand, Montenegro. 

Q: How do you get so much time off to travel?
A: Schedule! When I'm on assignment I pre-schedule time off with the hospital(it's in my contract before I start). I usually don't take any time off during my assignments and I usually take a few weeks/month off between contracts. Since I do contract work and I only scheduled for 3-6 months at a time and plan my personal travel between contracts. 

Q: How much do you work?
A: When I'm on an assignment I work full time and usually don't take any time off during a contract. But I only accept contracts 8-9 months a year, and usually take 3 months off a year spread out throughout the year. 

Q: Where do you stay when you're not working?
A: Everywhere! I'm usually traveling when I'm not working but when I'm not traveling I go visit people and stay with them. Also, my parents have graciously stored all of my stuff the last three years so I go "visit"(read stay) with them and re-pack my car for the new season! Seriously, if you ever offer me a spot on your couch or a spare bedroom I will come visit. 



Thursday, October 13, 2016

When in Rome, or Naples, or Montenegro, or Greece


Years ago, I promised my niece and nephew that I would take them anywhere in the world for high school graduation. My nephew is easy, and happily reported that he wanted to go to Fenway Park in Boston. My niece had a difficult time choosing and wanted to go to either Italy, Greece, or Australia. She finally decided to go to Italy, and when I booked the trip I realize how easy it would be to see Greece also.

For her first time in Europe I wanted her to see as much as possible with as little planning as possible! I hate planning and while trying to plan our trip I randomly googled Mediterranean cruises and found a Cruise that went from Rome>Naples>Kusadasi>Istanbul>Crete>Mykonos>Athens. So you're telling me we get to see all these places and I don't have to plan or pack my bag or worry about our safety on trains? SOLD!

While on a trip to NYC news broke that Turkey was in the middle of a Military Coup and was unsafe. The cruise line immediately rebooked our trip and instead we went to Montenegro and Corfu,Greece.


WE MADE IT TO ROME!!!!

We flew into Rome and out of Athens and I booked two days in both cities so that we could fully see those two cities too!


The cutest tourist in the world! We were so Jet lagged but so excited!!
Rome, what can I say? It's literally one of my favorite places in the world! The pizza, coffee, people, tiramisu, sights, history, and gelato are indescribable! In Rome we stayed in a B&B called Domus Alberti, ran by a man named Federico, he was so kind and said Cíao with 11 O's so it was more like Ciaoooooooooooooo! He also put 15 parentheses on smiley faces so they were like really smiley, so Caylei and I write these things to each other often! :-))))))))))))))))
Legend has it that if you throw 2 coins into the Trevi fountain you'll return to Rome and fall in love with a Roman, we obviously threw two!


The Colliseum

Inside the Colliseum, luckily we purchased tickets ahead of time, I would highly suggest it!

This door is in the Roman Forum and dates back to BC, its so beautiful!

Roman Forum

Trevi Fountain, eat at the Gelateria in the plaza by the fountain!

The Pantheon, such a cool building!

Tourists!
 The Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel are hands down the most amazing thing in Europe!

The staircase up to the museum.

Just a pretty cross

The stairs leaving the Chapel, I dream about taking a picture of this sans people. 

I like this photo because pictures aren't allowed in the chapel, so Caylei secretly took this one! Her Forehead is the evidence!

I tried explaining how good the Tiramisu was in Italy, she finally understands!




Tiramisu HIGH!!


Next we went to Naples! We were so excited about Hiking Mt. Vesuvius and eating Napoli pizza.  Naples was quite the adventure, we left the boat and found a shuttle to Pompei that would let us look around for an hour then drive us up to Mt. Vesuvius, we could hike up to the top then it would drive us back to the ship. Once at Pompei we realized that the drive to Mt. Vesuvius was so long that we would likely miss Naples Pizza, we were so sad but not for long because we were so excited to hike a Volcano!!

Pompei was really cool but there was this bizarre art installation of really modern bronze statues amist the ruins. It was pretty but weird and out of place. 

We took the shuttle up to Mt. Vesuvius and hiked the 4 mile hike. It was so cool and one of the most beautiful views of the trip! On our way back down the shuttle brakes started to smoke, so we were stuck on the side of the road for quite sometime while the driver figured out what was going on. We quickly realized that due to the time delay we weren't going to make it back to the ship on time!  The shuttle coordinated a drop off with another trolley that took us back to the ship, we just had to risk a road side shuffle between shuttles. Once on the trolley we made a friend that said that he was planning on getting a pizza before boarding the ship, What?! We thought we were out of time and were going to miss the ship! We were 1/2 an hour early and we were able to find a trattoria that was closing up for siesta. They were kind enough to reheat the pizza oven and make us pizzas! We made it back to the ship with time to spare!! And... The pizza in Naples is devine!!


The bronze sculptures in Pompei

Perfectly preserved human body


Just letting some other tourists walk by on a narrow street. 

On top of Mt. Vesuvius!!


We made it!! (This is where the jumping series began!)

Caylei spotted a vent that was steaming!


Check out that view!!



The best pizza man alive!!


Carrying our pizzas back to the ship!

Next on the itinerary was Kofor Montenegro.  We LOVED Montenegro, the bay was gorgeous and these massive granite mountains seemed to explode out of the ocean. 

A small island in the bay of Kotor.


Caylei got an "iced coffee" and it was a coffee and ice cream float! We went back for seconds on our way back to the boat.
The jumping continues! We laughed so hard trying to take this with my iPhone timer!

We found a 10Euro boat ride around the bay, money well spent. 


Our bay tour dropped us off near this restaurant, it was unreal delicious! I dream of the food there!

Caylei is SO content!

So then...we went to Corfu Greece, an we didn't take a single picture. It was a small, dirty, stinky, hot, dry island. We were so disappointed #firstworldproblems #disappointedbyagreekisland

Crete sure did make up for what Corfu lacked. Beautiful island, amazing people, more delicious food!
Island hopping series, this is me realizing that my niece could go buy me a beer! :)

On the bus to a public beach

This adorable man on the bus showed us this beach, coffee, beer, food 2.50$ And... they serve the most amazing chips with every beer.  "I know the guy"

Oh these Greeks and their mixed grill, mmmmmm. And the tzaziki! 
Mykonos was unreal, one of my favorite places ever! We ate some decent food, got attacked by a Pelican, and got called sisters more than once!
My beautiful model. 

Just.So.Pretty

The wind was out of control!

All that jumping made us hungry! The server at this restaurant said we looked so much alike is was like I was copied and pasted onto KK's face! #copypaste

This is MY bread and pasta! Apparently he was the restaurant pet :)

Athens, so hot right now. No really, Athens was 500 million degrees. We tried to tourist early in the AM  or late in the PM and nap during the heat of the day. We saw all of the old relics and ate sooooo many Greek salads... mmmm We thought we didn't like Feta or Greek olives, we were wrong.

FYI-The ground is called the Acropolis and there are many old relics on it, the one structure is called the Parthenon. My only complaint is that there was too much modern lighting, handrails, and boundary fence. You could hardly get a photo without a modern chunk of metal in your pictures. I wish they had consulted a historic architect(does that exist?) or used more natural materials.

On our last night in Greece we went to this square close to our hotel because, well... Pinterest said we couldn't miss it! So we went there and it was weird. Lots of people just hanging out. Well KK and I got the creeps so we were standing by a fountain, right next to a few american men. We stood there for a minute before deciding to leave. Right before we left this creeper walked up to me and told me how beautiful I am, then fist bumped me and said bye bye. Not sure why foreigners love the phrase bye bye??But they do so...now KK and I say it all the time! This was one of our favorite quotes of the trip.

The Parthenon(there was a crane inside of it for restoration)

The amphitheater at the Acropolis


Jump at the Parthenon

I jumped off of the first place podium obviously.

The original Olympic Stadium

Caylei's face every time

What's that in the background? Just the Parthenon NBD.

Our last Greek snack: Baklava, homemade lemonade, and a "greek" coffee. Our seats and table were build into an old ancient staircase. 

This was THE cutest restaurant in the Plaka(old part of Athens). You have to stay here if you visit Athens-everything was within walking distance.
All of the restaurants build their seating into this staircase, it was SOO cute!

Can we talk about KK's face(that's how we felt about ALL the food) and how delicious that salad looks?

There was a rooftop deck on out hotel and they lit up the Acropolis at night! What a view!

I frequently think about this trip, and I want to go back sooooooo badly. If I were to go back I would definitely go during a cooler time, and now that we know we love Montenegro/Mykonos I would go back there and explore locally! Feel free to comment and ask questions about the trip, I have too many suggestions to write!