It's the Final Countdown

I love Arrested Development.

I'm heading to Devon shortly for the weekend to go camping with some friends. The weather should be terrible. Awesome.

I can't believe this is my last weekend in the UK. It's sad, exciting, and panic-inducing all at the same time. I'm pretty much packed, I've got my vaccines and my malaria meds, I'm harassing the dentist to try and get him to drill my teeth before I leave, and I've arranged my leaving drinks. Surely I must be forgetting something...? Oh well, hopefully nothing I can't live without.

In other news: I got my millionth case of pink eye the other day and picked up some drops over the counter for the first time. Whenever I put them in, about 10 minutes later I can taste them in the back of my throat. It tastes like I walked through the mist of bug spray, except that it lasts for about 15 minutes. It's disgusting. Should I be worried about this? Martina?

Five days to go.

Departure Date

Ok, I am officially flying out of London on August 4th and arrive in Haiti on August 5th. How exciting!

I heart the NHS

Now it sounds like I might not leave for Haiti until next week, due to flights being "shockingly" expensive over the weekend. I'm hoping to find out more by the end of the day, but I hope to find out more by the end of every day. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

I need to preface this post by saying that I really do love the NHS, and that I would still take it over the US healthcare system (or lack thereof) any day. But because I love it so much I can say mean things about it.

I went to see the travel nurse this morning at my GP's office. It took us a while to even agree on where I'm going. She said, "Tahiti?" and I said, "No, Haiti." She said, "Where is that, Asia?" And I said, "No, the Caribbean." She then asked how to spell it and when I spelled it out she said, "Oh! Hy-EE-ti!" Brits are so weird sometimes. She then tried to tell me I didn't need malaria meds to go to Haiti, which was somewhat disturbing since I'm going there to work on malaria prevention. She also tried to tell me I didn't need one of the vaccines that my project told me I needed, until I made her look it up and she said, "Oh! You're right! Sorry!" I'm so glad the NHS lets you be your own doctor sometimes.

Because my GP practice is so small (and awful) they don't actually stock the vaccines I need. So she gave me a prescription to get my own vaccines. I went to the local pharmacy and had the same exact conversation regarding what country I was going to with the pharmacist and was forced to pronounce it "Hy-EE-ti" so she would understand me. They also don't carry the vaccines, so they order it from somewhere, I go back at 4 to pick them up, and then back to the nurse at 5 to have her give them to me. Man. No one ever said the NHS was efficient, I guess.

So that's the latest. I'm hoping to pack some stuff up today and ship it back to the US (winter sweaters, dresses, etc) so that I can actually get my life down to two bags to bring to Haiti. I've done it multiple times before, but it's still a painful process.

OK, possibly more later!

I have an appointment for vaccinations tomorrow morning. The HR woman is checking with the travel agent to see if it makes most sense for me to fly out Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Things are moving quickly!

Logistics

I flew back from Edinburgh last night on Easyjet, the devil's spawn. My flight was delayed by over 1.5 hours. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but since my flight was supposed to be at 9:20pm, and because I flew into Gatwick, an airport for which you need to buy a train ticket into central London ahead of time in order to get cheap train tickets, I also missed the train I had already paid for. So I paid more money for a more expensive train to get into central London, but by the time my "express" train (which took double the time advertised) arrived, the tube had already closed. And, of course, there were no night buses that go to my house and I was essentially forced to take a taxi. £25 later, I finally was home, close to 3am. Did I mention I hate Easyjet?

When I woke up today I had a message from the HR woman at this project, asking me to call her sometime this morning. It was noon her time when I got the message. Oops! So I called her and she officially said they want to offer me the position! Yaaaay! So now we're looking into logistics, such as what vaccinations I have versus which ones I need, whether or not I need to go see a travel doctor, malaria meds, when I could leave, etc. It sounds like she would like to get me to Haiti by this weekend, at the latest, so depending on how smoothly things go with the signing of the contract, etc, it looks like this is probably my last week in the UK! It's sad, scary, and exciting all at the same time. Will update as I learn more.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane (?)

After almost two years in London, it looks like I may be on my way to a new adventure. On Thursday and Friday of last week I interviewed for a Prevention Coordinator position working on malaria and dengue fever prevention in Haiti. Haiti! The director of the organisation invited me to join the team on Friday. They're currently contacting my references, and if none of them say I'm crazy (these are the director's words, not mine) then I should be good to go! I still haven't seen a contact or anything like that, so nothing is definite, but since I'm not anticipating any of my references saying I'm crazy, I'm crossing my fingers that it will all work out. This has been a really hectic last two weeks, what with finishing my four month temp job, packing all of my stuff up and moving out of my flat (technically rendering me homeless), travelling to Amsterdam and Edinburgh to visit friends, and flying back to London tonight with a sort-of-clearer vision of my future than when I left London, but still without a plane ticket booked anywhere in the world. So cross your fingers for me and stay tuned! Will update when I know anything more.