Quick hello!

Hi Family and Friends,

Not much going on here in Napoli, just back to the grind.  I've been working at the clinic for 13 months now and am waiting on HIPPA training and other required certificates before starting my volunteer position at the hospital.  I'm so anxious to get started, and very excited.  I'll at some point be working on Thursdays with a coworker of mine who is a Physician's Assistant, and I'm hoping to go on rounds with her through OB/GYN and family practice.  She'll be going on maternity leave soon so I need to get in there!  :) 

D and I have been doing a lot of talking, and it looks like we're going to try and shoot for jobs in the Washington, D.C. area when we leave Europe.  My husband will have a very high likelihood of finding a good, research-based position there where he can thrive and I will have a chance to establish residency so that I can complete my prerequisites and apply for Georgetown University's Accelerated BSN program.  The program is a 16-month nursing program that will allow me to sit for the NCLEX exam and achieve my RN.  Once that is complete, D can begin school full-time and use his GI Bill while I support us on my income (because I certainly can't support us with a vet. tech. income!).  That's the tentative plan, anyway.  I know it is far-off, but we're excited about this opportunity to live in a new region of the country and explore before we decide to settle down and possibly start a family.  We love San Diego and our family and friends who live there and see ourselves moving back eventually, but we are not ready.  I know I speak for both of us when I say that we're both happy with our future plans.  As plans are always malleable depending on life circumstances, things may change, but for now that's our goal.

Other than that big news, like I mentioned, life is pretty routine.  The weather here is getting hotter but is still nowhere near as hot as it was last year.  We've got the garden planted and we're just waiting on our trip to Athens, Greece for Memorial Day weekend.  I'll obviously post pictures of that once we come home next week!  Our tickets are booked to visit our friend Chris in Vienna, Austria in June and I'm taking a trip to Pisa to see a concert featuring Andrea Bocelli in July (D is going to Rome for a concert the same weekend, I think).  We're eagerly anticipating D's parent's visit in September and in October I'm looking into taking a 10-14 day trip to Poland.  We haven't planned anything yet for November or December but for the holidays we've considered going to Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Barcelona, London, or Turkey.  Ultimately it is what we can afford!  As I mentioned in prior entries, this is definitely our big travel year! 

That's it, and I just wanted to update since this blog has been pretty quiet lately.  Things are going well, no complaints.  I hope you all are happy, healthy, and thriving and enjoying Spring.  We miss you all!