Our New Job

So we started our new job at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital or JFL for short.

 

Last week we were in hospital orientation all week. As many of you know that is a very long and boring week. There were about thirteen new hires and out of those ten had moved here from "the states" to work at JFL. They all had pretty much the same story, which helped us feel like we weren't so crazy for doing this. Of course I guess it could mean the opposite and we're all nuts. Anyway, everyone was super nice and was very happy to have us there. They keep warning us that it would probably be different that what we were use to and after yesterday I can see what they mean.

 

So yesterday was our first day on the floor and I started off by working day shift and then Terry came in on evenings. We are just on this schedule for our orientation to the NICU, then we'll go to 12 hour shift.  Obviously for HIPPA reasons and just because we know how hospitals can be I didn't take any picture of the inside of the hospital, but it was very different and disorienting. I'm not saying it was bad, it's just weird after working in the same place for so long how hard it is to even focus in such a different environment. Everyone was really nice and they are all caring for the babies and the goals are the same as it was when we worked at Lutheran but it's so different. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, it's not bad different, just different. The Neonatologist is great. I went to a C-section with her. Just her and I so she explained to me what the nurses do.... ;)  

 

 

St Patricks Day

So St. Patricks Day is a big deal around here. It's such a big deal that they had to celebrate it on Saturday because if they didn't people just wouldn't go to work. We went to Christiansted and watched the parade. They had the whole town blocked off. The parade just kept going around the streets and there were venders, food, and music.

The kids the mad but they're not

Beaches

There are so many things to do on this island. We have meet some great people and everyone always has suggestions on what to do. The second night we were here we went to the Divi Carina Bay resort to the crab races. So how this works is you pick out a hermit crab for $2 each ( the kids had 3 each and Terry and I had 2), then you name them. Tito ( the guy running the races) puts the name on a piece of tape on the shell. After everyone has picked out their carbs, they are put in a bucket in the center of a chalk circle. Next the bucket is turned over and the crabs are released. The first couple of crabs over the line wins. Guess who won... Kaleb and I both. Kaleb won a two miniature gulf games and a jeep excursion and I won a kayak tour. It was really fun. It was by the beach, music was playing and everyone was cheering their crab on. Unfortunately I forgot my phone so no pictures, but when we go again I'll take some.

The next day we went beach exploring. We went to the resorts by our condo to see what they were like. Every beach on the island is a public beach, so you can just go to a resort, walk through their lobby and get on the beach. The first one we went to was Chenay Bay.

 

It was a small little beach where they do a lot of kite surfing and paddle surfing.

 

Next we went to the Tamarind Reef Resort. This resort was by a marina, so there was a lot of boats there. It was a very rocky beach but they had hammocks and that was good enough for Kaleb and Terry

 

After the Tamarind is the beach at The Buccaneer. It is one of the biggest and most popular resorts on the island. It is a beautiful beach. We actually went back the other night to listen to some music. We were going to eat but it was way to expensive.

There were also fire dancers

There is also a beach that we can walk to that is very secluded and very rocky but it would be nice if we just want to go sit on the beach and not have to drive anywhere.

So these are just the beaches down the road from us. There other awesome beaches but I'll talk about those in other posts.

 

 

Welcome to our St Croix Home

Welcome to our condo in St. Croix. After a long day of traveling, we were ready to get to our condo and relax. When we got there and opened the door this is the view we got...



 



Wow! We couldn't believe that we were going to get to enjoy that everyday. The condo is three bedrooms and two baths. The balcony runs all the way across the front, so we get the same view from the master bedroom. The complex has an Italian restaurant called the Cultured Pelican overlooking the pool. We got pizza there the first night and it was wonderful.

Speaking of the pool. It is gorgeous. It has palms trees and looks over Buck Island ( a nature preserve).

 

 

Here are some shots of the inside of the condo

Lets see what else can I tell you about our new little island. St Croix is 22 miles long and 7 miles wide. It is rainforest on one side and more dry and desert like on the other.

Also they drive on the left side of the road here which is a little disorienting at first but just within a few days we've gotten the hang of it.

We Made It

We made it to the island! The day started at 4am. We arrived at the Fort Wayne airport with all of our belongings stuffed into ten suitcases. Everything else we left behind to possible be shipped at a later date. Our flight left at 6am and we flew to Chicago where we changed planes for the flight to Miami. We got to Miami in just enough time to start boarding for our final destination..St Croix. It all went very smooth really. The flights were good with little turbulence. The last leg of the trip over the Caribbean is really cool because you can see all the different islands below.

When we arrived in St Croix at about 3pm. It was sunny and 82 degrees, much different than the winter we have been in.  It was hectic getting all of our bags and waiting for the rental car but Liberty and Kaleb were very helpful. Once we were loaded up we headed out. They drive on the left side of the road so that is a little scary, but we finally made it to the condo at about 5:30.  I'm having troubles posting pictures with this post so I'll try to just post them on Facebook.

Our Big Adventure

Hey everyone! For those of you that don't know me, my name is Katie. I am a mother of two, step mother of 4 and Terry is fun, loving husband.

I have decided to write a blog because we are about to start on a big adventure. We are moving to beautiful St. Croix, USVI. Terry and I are both NICU nurses and have accepted jobs at the hospital there. We are very excited and very scared but feel this is a chance of a lifetime. I hope that through this blog we can share our adventure with you. Wish us luck.