I actually have like two or three updates that never got written (my brother’s wedding, Atlanta, and Orlando) that would technically be published before this one, but I’ll get around to them Soon™ and then backdate them when I do get around to them.

Well, everything happened super fast, but for the uninitiated, I left my job at NC State’s veterinary hospital to be a travel lab scientist. Like travel nurses, travel techs are employed by agencies who are contracted to fill critical staff shortages at various facilities and institutions so they can get by until they fill the staffing shortage. This can be due to things like general staff shortages, sudden retirement, people going on maternity/paternity leave, and so on. The standard contract lasts 13 weeks, which is about 3 months, and you have the option to extend if you choose. My first contract is in Annapolis, Maryland with Anne Arundel Medical Center until the beginning of September. Annapolis is the sailing capital of America. But more importantly, the crab capital of America. :)

Recruitment and hiring process

I got into it because I was recruited by an agency for which I had signed up for when I was initially looking for work after returning from the ship in April 2019. After I got my full-time job at NCSU, I had informed them that I got a full-time job and wasn’t looking at travel contracts anymore, and that was that. Fast forward 3 years later and I get an email out of the blue from a different recruiter from the same agency asking if I was looking for any new job opportunities. And timing was incredible, because I was actively looking. I hadn’t considered travel work at the time because I had initially applied to another job and was waiting to hear back from them, but I didn’t want to discount the idea so I went ahead and set up an appointment to call. I felt pretty good after the call, and I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by continuing with the process (at least until I might hear back from the other application I put in). Which is good, because I never did hear back from the other job (in fact, it’s still status “under review” 4 months after applying).

The steps to applying to travel contracts was a bit out of order than a usual job. Normally with any other job, you put in an application with resume, and then if they’re interested they’ll schedule an interview. If they like you, they’ll ask for references, then once they’ve chosen you, ask for a start date. For the travel contract, I had to have resume, references, and start date chosen before referral to an interview. They kind of pushed for “as soon as possible;” in other words, basically only enough time to put in my two week notice. My recruiter gave me a list of available contracts based on my preference for microbiology only. The contract information gave me some basic information: city/state (but not the facility name), pay, shift/hours, weekend/holiday schedule, and some basic other information like general duties and expectations. Then from that list, I told her if I was interested in any, and she would refer me for interview. After that, it was super fast. I was referred, interviewed, and offered all within 48 hours. With a 24 hour deadline to accept, which was bit tight, considering I hadn’t arranged a lot of other important life things, like where I would stay. Ultimately, I applied to two locations: Atlanta and Annapolis. Annapolis was so fast, and Atlanta never responded (well, within the time it took for Annapolis to snag me).

Finding a place

Finding a place was probably the most stressful. I had about 2 weeks to decide where to live, and finding a place wasn’t easy. Places were either too far, didn’t allow pets, didn’t have availability for my contract weeks, were really expensive, didn’t have the amenities I needed to live long term (kitchen, furnished, laundry). I needed the place to be furnished since I would be driving and just didn’t have room to bring furniture and cookware. There were a few useful websites like Furnished Finder and VRBO that I browsed, but ultimately I went with a long-term Airbnb with a discount for a long stay (over 28 days). I’m pretty happy with the place and was able to save a lot of money over having my agency find housing for me.

Moving and settling

The move itself was a bit hectic also. We took a family trip to Orlando and came back the night before I planned to move, so I had to get everything packed away before then. We drove back up from Orlando (8-9 hours) then immediately turned around to drive up to Annapolis (5 hours). My parents came along with also, and they turned around and drove back to NC the next morning. That’s a lot of driving!

It was also my first time on my own in a long time, and having to think about things like meal prep all of a sudden became really overwhelming. And it all happened so fast I just felt woefully unprepared. My mom instilled a lot of confidence and has been patiently instructing me on navigating life every day which has helped a ton! (Love you, mommy!) I have been to Walmart almost every single day I’ve been here after encountering things I didn’t know I needed. Like the place had gallon plastic baggies but not sandwich baggies. Or getting an ice tray and bin. Stuff like that. I’m not super great at planning, so I just take every day as it comes. Which has worked so far. It just means more trips to the store.

ALSO. GAS IS OVER $5 A GALLON HERE. I can’t wait to get my Tesla. That is, if it ever does get delivered… I totaled my car in February in a fender bender and decided to go EV for my next car. I ordered the car in April, but at this rate I might not even get the car this year.

Tobi has also had a period of adjustment. He went from being at home with my parents and I and everything smelled familiar to a unknown place with just me. My parents work from home, so he’s used to having someone around pretty much 24/7. He spent a lot of the first week hiding under the beds and couches, and crying this mournful cry at night. I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Luckily, I think he’s slowly gotten used to it. He still cries a little, but a lot less now. Poor baby. I’ve actually gotten to sleep through most of the night now. Makes me wonder if maybe having kids and being woken up every night for years isn’t something I can handle.

On my second day, the hosts of the Airbnb had to come into my apartment to do some work on the cameras outside the house (the hub was in a closet in my apartment). When I came home, Tobi was no where to be found. Queue a panicked search for about an hour. Even the hosts came to help look for him. They said that there was no way, since they hadn’t left the door open. We checked the security cameras and luckily no sign of him leaving. But I had turned the whole place upside down. I flipped both beds, both couches, went into all the cabinets and closets, the bathroom… where was he??

LO. WHAT LIGHT FROM YONDER WINDOW BREAKS?

IT’S THIS GUY SILENTLY IGNORING MY PLEAS TO FIND HIM.

He somehow managed to get into the window sill from the couch by crawling under the blinds. And since he didn’t cast a shadow I didn’t know he was there. Sigh.

I could tell from that he wasn’t adjusting well. I bought him a sushi house to hide in and some catnip toys and I think slowly he’s gotten better and felt a little safer and secure since.

First week of work

Work has actually been the least stressful part of it. It was pretty typical with doing training and regulatory modules on the first day and just training on the bench the rest of the week. Although I was hired for evening shift, I did my first week on day shift. It was pretty strugglesome, because I had to wake up at like 05:45 to get to work on time for shift. I’m really glad I’m starting evenings this week (15:00-23:30). I think it’ll be a lot more manageable with my sleep schedule and less anxiety about getting up in time. I’ll be working every 3rd weekend.

The lab is a “timed read” lab. They have four designated two-hour time slots per shift for reading plates at the optimal plating time (approximately 18 hours after plating). Kind of like the Kiestra TLA system, except it’s all done manually. Plates are sorted into racks based on plate time (including subculture time). It feels like a fairly complicated system (especially not being automated) since things that get subcultured go into a rack for read 18 hours later (two racks prior), but cultures being re-incubated go into racks 24 hours later (same rack). Then there’s separate racks for anaerobes, AST set ups, and so on. There are lots of places plates could be. It’s hard for me to keep up with something like that, but everyone else seems to be able to keep track. Perhaps with time it’ll make more sense.

They use VITEK MS for identification and VITEK 2 for AST and back up IDs. They also have BIOFIRE, Cepheid GeneXpert, and Panther, but I have just been culture reading this week.

Making new friends

I’ve made a couple new friends! I basically got adopted by a Korean mom at work named Sue. She seemed really happy to finally see another Asian in the lab (“there aren’t many of us around,” she says.) and I got all the typical ABC questions: Are you Chinese? Do you understand it? Do you speak it at home? My kids don’t speak Korean at home. I even send them to Korean school. What’s your Chinese name? Can you write it? How do you say it? I like to think my answers were satisfactory and she felt that I was a worthy person to adopt!

Sue was really nice and hospitable. She told me that I really picked a great time to come to Maryland (“Maryland summer is so good. If you came in the winter, I wouldn’t know what to tell you.”) She showed me amazing photos of her riverfront home that sits on the Severn River (see above), and that her family has a boat and they catch crabs to eat from their boat dock all the time to eat. “Come to my house Saturday. We have crab feast.”

What I wasn’t expecting was that the crab feast was a fundraiser for a Maryland gubernatorial candidate in the Republican primary named Dan Cox. (“Don’t worry. He’ll only be here for a little bit and then after it will be our party.”) It was a little awkward to say the least. He is a politician that is endorsed by former president Donald Trump, and I think that says enough. I don’t really have a hat in the race, so I tried to remind myself that these people just have different opinions of what’s important and different ideas to solve the problems that plague America. I just don’t necessarily share the same opinions. He spoke for two hours. I drank a little bit of wine to hold me over. Luckily at the beginning I had another coworker friend Jodie and her husband there to mingle and chat with but they left after about an hour because they only had the babysitter until 8pm.

Afterwards, Sue showed me how to eat the crab. It was so good. So fresh! I watched her husband Curt (Kurt? Kirk?) pull the crabs out of the crab pot in the river and take them inside to boil. There’s rules about which crabs you can eat (males only), and how large they have to be before you can eat them. Otherwise you have to release them to help ensure the blue crab population continues to thrive. I think they just steamed them with some Old Bay spices over them. The meat really pulled up the spice flavor! It was absolutely delicious.

You separate the carapace from the body with your hands (there’s a little flap thingy on the stomach of the crab that lets you peel it more easily), then break the body in half. Clean out some of the gunk/innards, and you can break the little pieces of meat off in sections to get to the meat in the body. Then you can use a small wooden mallet to smash the claw and leg pieces to get to those pieces. It’s kind of hard to explain, but maybe I can take a video of it sometime. It’s hard to take one when I’m eating the crab since my hands are full. :) I’m looking forward to more crab. I love crab.

I also met her niece, Kathryn, who is in the Marine Corps (there is a naval academy in Annapolis, and Fort Meade is also nearby), as well as Kathryn’s friend Jordan (aka JJ). Kathryn was showing JJ around since she also had not yet had “the typical Maryland experience.” Turns out JJ lives near where I am in Glen Burnie, so we exchanged numbers and maybe we’ll try out a Korean place that Sue recommended sometime this week or next.

Sue also recommended this ramen place called RamenYa. It’s a fairly new place, but you know it’s legit because it has black garlic tonkotsu ramen. It was delicious. And only 10 minutes away from my apartment. I immediately said I would only go there once a week at most. We’ll see if I can stick to that.

Seeing old friends

I got to see two old friends in my first week! Akash came by to help me set up a table I was borrowing for a computer desk since the place doesn’t have one, and then we went to eat at a place called Pappa’s which has award-winning crab cakes! They were super yummy.

I also had lunch with a friend from university, Angela (aka Mama Ju). She heard I was going to be in Maryland and she happened to be there this week visiting her parents who live a little over 30 mins out from where I am (she lives in Atlanta) and asked if I wanted to get some grub. We went to a place called Willy’s Kitchen and I got a Maryland special, some “Chesapeake Benedict” which is poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce over petite crab cakes and some Old Bay sprinkled on top. Noticing a trend?

Decompressing

I was super tense after this week from carrying all the stress of moving, settling, and not getting any sleep thanks to the sad furbaby. My shoulders and neck hurt so bad from just being super tight and I just felt like I needed some help relaxing. I’d never gotten a professional massage before, but something told me that this was a good time to get one. I last-minute on a whim booked a one-hour deep-tissue massage with a place called Massage Crystal. And wow, it hurt so good. Not just getting some of those knots out but just the general being smushed feeling. Like a weighted blanket but way better! I went home and pretty much involuntarily passed out for a few hours from exhaustion. This morning I felt a lot looser, but boy, I am in so much pain. Everything is so sore! I took some Aleve and am trying to remember to stretch and move so it doesn’t get too cramped up.

Good news is also that I started to get back into Ring Fit! I am not fit at all. I think I’ll also check out the aquatic center nearby to see if I can get back into swimming and have a good variety of activity. I’ve been recommended to go visit downtown Annapolis which I think I’ll try to do this weekend or on a day off sometime. Sue says we can go there by boat. They just drive their boat up the river and park it at the pier! Crazy.

Until next week!
Jasmin