So the million dollar question since our return to Baltimore has been....are you moving to Abu Dhabi (abbreviated as AD from here on out) or not?!??! The answer is still...not entirely sure, really hopeful, but pretty pessimistic at this point.
It turns out that since the AD medical system is still so new, they do not recognize nurse practitioners...yet. There is apparently a lot of work going into this right now, since many of their hospitals are run by American hospitals (think Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic), and they want to maximize medical staffing. So where does that leave me, because lord know I cannot go two years without working...in limbo. So luckily, my Masters is a dual one, I am also a Clinical Nurse Specialist...which AD does recognize. So now it is a matter of finding a position. This sounds easy right? Just look on the internet right? Google is an amazing place. Well, it turns out AD is not nearly as internet open as the US. If the hospital there even has a website, and it has been updated since 2002, they don't have jobs listed, or the jobs listed are from 2002. Not deterred by this, I have emailed almost every email address I can find on these websites trying to find someone to help me...we are talking over 100 emails. How many replies did I get? ONE. And about 50 failed receipts for various reasons.
But I am one to be grateful for the single reply, and this person forwarded me to another person, who forwarded me onto another person, who has been great! She was able to explain and clarify A LOT, and pass my resume (after helping me re-write it to be more AD friendly) to a few other people. Now, I haven't heard anything yet...but fingers are crossed.
Alas, this is me, Ms. Type-A Control Freak, and this is SO not good enough, and not at all on the time line that we had planned, and I am freaking out about not having a job at the beginning of 2012...so I am applying for jobs here as well. I have multiple interviews next week. Adam has stated that where ever I get a job first is where we are going to be...Baltimore or AD.
So we may up staying here in Baltimore, much to the happiness of all of our friends and family (especially the parents)...and it wouldn't be a bad thing. As noted in previous blog entries, we are perfectly happy and content here, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. We just really want to move to AD for the opportunity to live abroad, the ability to have Europe, Asia, and Africa be within a 3-5 hour flight plan (rather than 8-16).
I must admit...staying in Baltimore would be hard, because there is no plan from there. We have been moving around since leaving home for college...and there was always a plan to keep going. Adam's job at the agency meant to opportunity to move and travel, thus how we ended up in Hawaii (it could have easily been Germany, Japan, or England). Well we knew we wouldn't always be there, so there was always a plan for later, and the same with coming here...we were moving to AD for a few years, and then coming back. But if AD doesn't work out, we are here. There is no plan from that. I don't know how to sit with that I guess, it's a very weird feeling. We have never been settled, and it feels like we are facing that... We don't know what it means to be settled, for us. We know what it means for the rest of the world (for the most part).
Adam and I have been figuring out what we want traversing the trials and tribulations of life. When we first met it was easy, we both wanted to get married, secure awesome jobs that we love, buy the new house and cars, get a dog, have some kids...you know, the typical "settled" lifestyle. Well the marriage thing has been AWESOME, and love our career fields, but the first bump in the road came with home ownership....we hated it. The time spent cleaning and maintaining and the responsibility for EVERYTHING, ugh, we hated missing the beach and kayaking and traveling to cut the grass and clean the floors. Cars, that was cool, but not having two of them... Pets: we found a cat to be the perfect amount of responsibility, you don't have to board them or pawn them off on friends/family when you are out of town (haha, funny statement, because out cat currently resides in NH with my parents), and doesn't require walks and such. So we started to realize if we can't handle a house or a dog, there was no way that we could handle kids.
This is where my struggle is if we stay here...is it settling down? What does that mean for us? I just feel with our current lifestyle here in Baltimore, I am constantly waiting for the "what's next" stage...
So the answer to "what is up with us?"....WHO KNOWS :)
But now you are as up-to-date and clueless as we are.
It turns out that since the AD medical system is still so new, they do not recognize nurse practitioners...yet. There is apparently a lot of work going into this right now, since many of their hospitals are run by American hospitals (think Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic), and they want to maximize medical staffing. So where does that leave me, because lord know I cannot go two years without working...in limbo. So luckily, my Masters is a dual one, I am also a Clinical Nurse Specialist...which AD does recognize. So now it is a matter of finding a position. This sounds easy right? Just look on the internet right? Google is an amazing place. Well, it turns out AD is not nearly as internet open as the US. If the hospital there even has a website, and it has been updated since 2002, they don't have jobs listed, or the jobs listed are from 2002. Not deterred by this, I have emailed almost every email address I can find on these websites trying to find someone to help me...we are talking over 100 emails. How many replies did I get? ONE. And about 50 failed receipts for various reasons.
But I am one to be grateful for the single reply, and this person forwarded me to another person, who forwarded me onto another person, who has been great! She was able to explain and clarify A LOT, and pass my resume (after helping me re-write it to be more AD friendly) to a few other people. Now, I haven't heard anything yet...but fingers are crossed.
Alas, this is me, Ms. Type-A Control Freak, and this is SO not good enough, and not at all on the time line that we had planned, and I am freaking out about not having a job at the beginning of 2012...so I am applying for jobs here as well. I have multiple interviews next week. Adam has stated that where ever I get a job first is where we are going to be...Baltimore or AD.
So we may up staying here in Baltimore, much to the happiness of all of our friends and family (especially the parents)...and it wouldn't be a bad thing. As noted in previous blog entries, we are perfectly happy and content here, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. We just really want to move to AD for the opportunity to live abroad, the ability to have Europe, Asia, and Africa be within a 3-5 hour flight plan (rather than 8-16).
I must admit...staying in Baltimore would be hard, because there is no plan from there. We have been moving around since leaving home for college...and there was always a plan to keep going. Adam's job at the agency meant to opportunity to move and travel, thus how we ended up in Hawaii (it could have easily been Germany, Japan, or England). Well we knew we wouldn't always be there, so there was always a plan for later, and the same with coming here...we were moving to AD for a few years, and then coming back. But if AD doesn't work out, we are here. There is no plan from that. I don't know how to sit with that I guess, it's a very weird feeling. We have never been settled, and it feels like we are facing that... We don't know what it means to be settled, for us. We know what it means for the rest of the world (for the most part).
Adam and I have been figuring out what we want traversing the trials and tribulations of life. When we first met it was easy, we both wanted to get married, secure awesome jobs that we love, buy the new house and cars, get a dog, have some kids...you know, the typical "settled" lifestyle. Well the marriage thing has been AWESOME, and love our career fields, but the first bump in the road came with home ownership....we hated it. The time spent cleaning and maintaining and the responsibility for EVERYTHING, ugh, we hated missing the beach and kayaking and traveling to cut the grass and clean the floors. Cars, that was cool, but not having two of them... Pets: we found a cat to be the perfect amount of responsibility, you don't have to board them or pawn them off on friends/family when you are out of town (haha, funny statement, because out cat currently resides in NH with my parents), and doesn't require walks and such. So we started to realize if we can't handle a house or a dog, there was no way that we could handle kids.
This is where my struggle is if we stay here...is it settling down? What does that mean for us? I just feel with our current lifestyle here in Baltimore, I am constantly waiting for the "what's next" stage...
So the answer to "what is up with us?"....WHO KNOWS :)
But now you are as up-to-date and clueless as we are.