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3 Reasons Why Learning Spanish Gets Me Excited

February 3, 2023 2 Comments

I was worried that learning a new language as a travel nurse would be too much for me to handle at once. The way I travel nurse requires a lot of planning, forethought, and constant commuting back and forth; when would I find time to practice an entirely new language? After deciding that this was a priority for me, I made the time for daily practice and am starting to realize how many benefits there are to learning this new skill. Here are 3 reasons why learning Spanish gets me excited to travel!

1. Convenience

Speaking the country’s native language makes it way easier to go anywhere!

I frequently think about international destinations and browse through flight costs as I dream about the trips I’ll take someday. Now that I’m beginning to understand conversational Spanish, traveling in a foreign country is already SO much easier!

My Lingoda Spanish classes are teaching me how to navigate an airport, talk to a taxi driver, find restaurant recommendations, and book tourist-y activities with ease.

Knowing that I’ll (eventually) be able to communicate effectively makes traveling to other countries far less intimidating. Spain is on our summer agenda, and Latin America isn’t far behind!

2. Immersion

Diving deep into unfamiliar cultures is the primary reason why I travel.

I want to be completely immersed in new countries. I want to eat local food, go dancing where the locals hang out, explore shops that are authentic to the country, and tour landmarks that are important to the region’s history. By speaking the native language, I will be able to relate to the history and culture of that country much better, and I hope to be more warmly welcomed by the locals!

During my online Spanish classes, sometimes jokes or sayings from a specific country come up in conversation, and I love catching my teachers using them later! That small joy gets me even more excited to immerse myself in cultures other than my own. My goal this year is to emerge from my comfort zone, and trying to speak Spanish with natives is shoving me out of it!

3. Broadening Horizons

“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.” – Aristotle

I am far from being a philosopher, but Aristotle knew what he was talking about! Starting Duolingo was easy, and speaking Spanish felt very attainable. As you might have guessed, there is a LOT that goes into learning a new language! I grow increasingly impressed by bilingual and multilingual people. Someday I would love to be a polyglot!

Bonus: A popular Czech proverb says, “A new language is a new life.”

Diving headfirst into Spanish has me thinking completely differently. People who don’t speak English used to appear less intelligent to me, which is completely unfounded. Now that I am starting to speak Spanish daily, it’s solidifying that there isn’t an intelligence difference at all. In fact, I have a rapidly growing respect for bilingual people! A white girl learning to fluently speak another language sounds impressive superficially, but countless people are learning English in our country every day but don’t gain respect for their efforts.

I firmly believe that we systematically become more compassionate towards others as we break bread with strangers and fumble through conversations in a foreign language.

A team of researchers in Chicago conducted a study in 2015 to test the theory that multilingualism increases empathy and found that early language exposure significantly increased a child’s ability to infer another person’s intentions, even when they themselves did not speak that person’s language. The researchers wrote, “To understand a speaker’s intention, one must take the speaker’s perspective. Multilingual exposure may promote effective communication by enhancing perspective taking.”

By communicating with others in their native language, we force ourselves to see ourselves and our environment from a stranger’s perspective! I think this is a beautiful thing for everyone, especially travel nurses. We are trained to be flexible, quick on our feet, and adapt to new environments on a dime; navigating a new language should be right along our skill set!

I hope these details encourage you in your language-learning journey or inspire you to try it out! To see what educational resources I use, check out the table below! To read why I started learning a new language, click here: “This Is How Travel Nursing Got Me Learning Spanish!”

Resources I Am Currently Using to Learn Spanish

Lingoda – I’m halfway through the Lingoda Sprint challenge as of this post date! Live Zoom classes five days per week.
Duolingo – Daily Spanish exercises and vocabulary drills
Pimsleur – 30 minute audio lessons for when I’m driving or need to be learning Spanish hands-free (great for commutes)
Watching Spanish TV shows on Netflix with English subtitles – Highly recommend “Cable Girls/Las Chicas del Cable”!
Reading children’s books in Spanish – Currently finishing Cuantos de la Selva by Horacio Quiroga

Boujie on a Budget, Getaways in the United States, Travel, Travel Nursing

Traveling Light: How I Vacation with a Carry-on

September 15, 2022 No Comments

When I started travel nursing, I commuted weekly from my home in Illinois to my Airbnb in Indianapolis. I got a great carry-on suitcase for Christmas from my mom, and I found that it was FANTASTIC for packing clothes for my nursing contracts!

Because this was the only suitcase I owned and I couldn’t afford the matching larger version, I started traveling with a carry-on for my vacations too. I’ve considered buying a larger suitcase for longer trips and likely will need to eventually, but a carry-on bag can be plenty of space if you pack right!

carry-on suitcases — Our suitcases are packed and ready to go!

Why bring a carry-on?

Have you ever checked a bag and waited an hour for it to arrive in baggage claim after your destination? It’s happened to me. Have you ever had an item break in your checked bag? It’s happened to me. Have you ever had your baggage get lost? To be fair, that one hasn’t happened to me, but probably because I avoid checking a bag at all costs!

I like to only use a carry-on whenever possible for multiple reasons. It prevents me from getting stuck in long baggage check lines on arrival, reducing the time I have to be in the airport. When I’m coming off a work shift and sleeping during the day before a late flight, even 15 extra minutes of sleep feels heavenly!

carry-on suitcases on airport scale — Both suitcases are small enough to fit on the airport scale together

Bringing a carry-on keeps all of your belongings near you at all times. There are no “middlemen” managing your valuables, and your risk of losing your suitcase is significantly decreased.

Smaller suitcases are easier to navigate within the airport and at your destination. Smoothly wheeling your carry-on up to a hotel is much easier than dragging a huge suitcase up to the check-in counter. Carry-ons are lighter than large suitcases, which is ideal for me because I have chronic back problems.

Plus my suitcase matches my hair, which I love!

Not checking a suitcase means more freedom when you arrive at your destination. On our recent trip to Las Vegas, we were hit by bright LED screens and slot machines as soon as we walked off the plane. We were so excited to start exploring and get to our hotel! Unfortunately, we checked both of our suitcases because they had full-size liquids, and we had to stand for over an hour in baggage claim before our bags finally showed up. Not fun.

That leads me to the con of not checking a bag: limitations with what you can pack. All liquids in a carry-on must follow the 3-1-1 rule. Liquids must be 3.4 ounces or less, fit in 1 quart-sized bag, and each passenger may only have one bag of liquids. If you check your suitcase, no matter its size, it does NOT have to follow the 3-1-1 guidelines. This rule was created in 2006 after terrorists in Britain tried to sneak liquid explosives onto an airplane. For this reason, if you expect to have a large number of liquids or cannot put your shampoo/conditioner into smaller bottles, you may have to check your baggage under the plane. Traveling with a carry-on is a great time to utilize those complimentary toiletries many hotels provide!

My tip: Walmart has cheap containers in their hygiene section that follow the 3-1-1 rule! They also have travel-sized deodorant, toothpaste, and mouthwash.

Keep reading below for my tried-and-tested suggestions for packing a carry-on!

Do you really need that extra jacket?

The answer is no; you don’t. Bring a jacket if you expect to be cold, but unless you’re visiting the middle of nowhere, you can always find a Walmart somewhere! Extra “just in case” clothing quickly adds up and can fill your suitcase with items you won’t ever use. My mama taught me to count how many pairs of socks, underwear, etc that I would need on my trip and add one of each. That rule hasn’t failed me yet!

Avoid bulky items

Light summer dresses that don’t wrinkle easily are my go-to on vacation. Leggings and soft t-shirts also roll relatively small and can fit in empty suitcase crevices. Wear your bulkiest shoes to the airport so they don’t limit your carry-on space or add weight! If you really want to bring those thigh-high boots, you better be willing to wear them on the plane. The airport is NOT the place to care about style! I usually wear sneakers on the plane and pack a pair of lightweight neutral flats to go with all of my dresses. If you pay close attention to my trip photos, you’ll see many pairs of repeated shoes! That is okay with me 😊 If you ended up bringing that extra jacket, wear it on your flight instead of using your suitcase space.

Unfortunately, avoiding bulky is difficult during winter or when visiting somewhere cold. Warm clothes are naturally larger than summer outfits, so you might need a bigger suitcase in this instance. If you still need to bring a carry-on, avoid sweaters; these take up a lot of space and you can’t discreetly wear them multiple times in one trip. That brings me to my next point!

Bring clothing that you can wear more than once

A good pair of jeans or a pair of black leggings are your friend here. No one will notice or care that you wore the same pair of jeans 2-3 days or layered a hoodie over the tank top that you wore yesterday. However, if you wear a patterned dress or brightly-colored heels in pictures, people on social media will definitely notice! Within reason, try to bring clothing pieces that are neutral or can become multiple outfits. You’ll thank yourself later for the extra souvenir space you saved in your suitcase!

packing carry-ons — How I organize everything to roll and pack

Utilize the outside pockets of your suitcase

Yes, those are there for a reason! My husband and I usually store socks, underwear, and other soft items in the exterior pockets or interior “tops” of our suitcases. They serve as a cushion for the rest of our items, and we harmlessly squish them into tight places. If our suitcases get thrown into the trunk of our car or underneath the airplane, none of our belongings will be affected.

My tip: Once you arrive at your destination, use the exterior pockets for dirty clothes. Doing this will keep your dirty clothes separate, and you won’t have to worry about them getting wrinkled! Once we get home, I just unzip the pockets and dump our clothes straight into the washer.

Last but not least: Roll your clothing!

Most travelers know this by now, but you should not fold your clothes. Folding causes creases and does not maximize your suitcase space. Roll your clothing! It doesn’t have to be perfect; good rolling skills come with practice. If you don’t know how, click here for a great YouTube demonstration.

For more travel tips, check out my article on Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines!

Nursing, Travel Nursing

3 Practical Ways to Care for Yourself as a Travel Nurse

August 30, 2022 No Comments

I love getting my nails done as much as any woman, but nursing demands a new set of self-care skills! Since hospitals won’t let us have our nails painted, we have to look outside the box to care for ourselves and support our mental health. The physical, mental, and emotional strain of being a nurse combined with the unique challenges of living miles (or states) away from your family can be hard to handle. I believe self-care and self-love are essential for success as a travel nurse, so read my best suggestions for travel nursing self-care below!

1. Your Health Comes First (get it? It’s #1!)

Eat enough food

It’s easy to find yourself not eating enough food when you start a new travel contract. Driving back and forth between cities on very little sleep, taking quick naps before shifts or required social gatherings, and having limited time to go to the store can lead to terrible diet choices. I used to eat like a kindergartener when I first started traveling because I had only a microwave and minimal fridge space. If your goal is to survive off mini microwavable mac-n-cheese cups or Lunchables, you do you! However, ensuring that you actually eat home-cooked food can make or break your traveling experience.

My tip: Never rent somewhere without a stove or electric cooking top. You can eat a reasonably healthy diet and cook various meals if you have a functional kitchen area. Right now, I am blessed to be staying in an apartment with a beautifully stocked kitchen, which is THE BEST. If you can find a good kitchen in a rental, I highly encourage you to utilize it!

I started eating healthier and saving significant money by packing hot lunches to take to work. Some of my favorites are pasta with grilled chicken, rice with cooked diced vegetables and grilled chicken, and high-protein veggie burgers. I get pre-cooked grilled chicken from ALDI, which is lean meat, high protein, and easy to add to my pasta or stir fry when I warm it up at the hospital. The burgers that I eat are also from ALDI, and while they get pretty soft when you microwave them, they have still proven themselves to be a solid option at 2am!

Something about cold lunches never feels satisfying in the middle of my shift, so I typically avoid them. I save tuna salad or chicken salad sandwiches, refrigerated fruit cups, and salty snacks for when I get home!

If you already have an exercise routine, stick with it if possible. Many popular gyms, including the YMCA and Planet Fitness, are national memberships that will grant you access to any location. My membership to the YMCA lets me in the door and allows me to sign up for classes at my home gym and the gym in my contracted city. If you don’t have an exercise routine, now could be the perfect time to start one! You probably have more free time than you did at home, and it’s a scientifically proven way to prevent depression, normalize your hormones, and keep yourself energized. If you’re homesick, a little forced exercise definitely couldn’t hurt.

2. Make Sure You Follow Your “Why”

Why did you decide to travel? Was it for the increased pay? Did you want to travel for adventure and sightseeing? Were you looking for new experiences? Was it because you wanted to live in a specific area or be closer to other family/friends? There are endless reasons we decide to travel nurse, but I’d like to encourage you not to lose sight of your “why.”

If you’re trying to make as much money as possible, ensure you don’t neglect your health as you chase that (very reachable) goal. If you choose to travel for the actual travel experiences, use that reason to prioritize your free time. By following your “why,” you will end your contract feeling much more satisfied and fulfilled than if you just plodded through your assignment.

My “why” was not originally money-focused. Of course, it was exciting to see my pay package offers for my first assignment, but I ultimately decided to try it because I wanted to get out of town. I wanted to travel the world, so I was thrilled to start traveling the country! The extra income has helped fuel the leisurely side of traveling, but the adventure of it is still where my heart lies.

My tip: Carefully choose between 36-48 hours. Remember, you can always pick up overtime, but you can’t usually decrease your hours after you’ve started! Those 48-hour contract price points might seem tempting, and that might match your personal goals, but remember to take care of yourself first.

3. Don’t JUST Work.

I know it can be tempting to pick up those extra shifts when you know you’re making travel pay. Fridays are my favorite day of the week (thank you, weekly paychecks)! However, you need days off during the week even if your goal is to make tons of money. Those three months will fly by faster than you expect, even as an experienced traveler. My favorite memories from contracts are always time with friends and having new experiences, and I’ve made some really incredible friendships while traveling!

Make friends with other travelers. Nurses love to eat, and some breakfast mimosas after a long shift are a multi-purpose way to unwind! I love a good mimosa flight and pancake brunch! Bonding with other nurses can build connections for switching shifts, give you people to chat with at night to stay awake, and can be convenient when you need a new reference at the end of your contract.

Don’t be afraid to be a tourist! A quick Google search will pop up plenty of bucket list activities in most cities/areas, and there are usually options advertised on the city’s official website too. Experiencing the local attractions together can be a smooth entry into befriending other travel nurses too!

VACATION! If you’ve read this blog at all, you know this is my FAVORITE topic! I try to take 1-2 weeks off between each contract or contract extension for some R&R. I’ve never had a problem getting a few weeks of vacation time off during my contracts.

My tip: Arrange your time off to start on a Wednesday and end on the following Wednesday. This lets you work your three shifts each week and allows you to have a vacation without compromising your budget. Managers appreciate this format too! 😊

On vacation in San Francisco, CA between contract extensions

For tips on finding restaurants to visit with your new travel nurse friends, click here to read my article, “How I Find Great Restaurants in New Cities!”

Getaways in the United States, Travel

Skip The Line: The Magic of TSA PreCheck

August 10, 2022 No Comments

Have you ever heard of TSA Precheck? Neither had I until my mother discovered that I didn’t have it and decided to nag me about it! Luckily, I listened to my mother and realized that being prechecked by the TSA saves me hours of waiting in security lines at airports. For those of you who have never heard of this but hate lugging your baggage through lines like cattle, this one is for you! (No, this isn’t sponsored, but ways to save time should always be shared with others!)

If you’ve ever flown, you’ve been through exactly what I’m talking about. You get to the airport, luggage in tow, and you find the security check only to see an endless line weaving between ropes as far as the eye can see. According to the MyTSA app (Transportation Security Administration), security line wait times can take anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on the airport location and size. Add a toddler or two and your exciting vacation isn’t off to a great start. However, have you ever noticed that extra line to the left that rarely has anyone waiting? You can join that random businessman in a suit who gets to skip the line by making an appointment online with the TSA to complete a background check.

According to the TSA website, in July 2022, 95% of TSA PreCheck passengers waited less than 5 min.

To make a background check appointment, you will need to input your full name, contact information, mailing address, and social security number. Click here to jump straight to the appointment page! Most appointments are held at an actual airport, and multiple smaller airports in central Illinois provide this service. I made my husband and I appointments online two weeks in advance and didn’t have to provide any payment information online. The website did request that we both bring our driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and a copy of our marriage certificate to support my last name change. I used a debit card to pay $85 per person and we both got electronically fingerprinted on a machine in their office. They snapped a quick picture of each of us and we were done within 20 minutes!

For $85 per person, both of us now have unique “Known Traveler” identification numbers that are valid for the next 5 years to allow us to jump into the TSA PreCheck line at any airport in the country!

Obviously, I was excited to try this out, and I was lucky to have a short trip coming up the week after. I trotted into the TSA PreCheck line with my backpack and was gestured straight to the front of the long line of travelers. Skipping over 50 people made me nervous, but the security guard smiled and took my boarding pass like nothing was amiss. After verifying my ticket, he sent me through the security gate with a cute piece of paper that said “TSA PRECHECKED”. I had no clue what to do with it, so I started to take my shoes off like normal before the guard stopped me.

On that note, here are the perks of being TSA PreChecked!

You don’t have to take off your shoes, belt, or jacket. Leave ‘em on and walk right through the scanner with your cute piece of paper.
Your electronics can stay in your bag! They advertise that you can leave your laptop in your bag as it goes through the rolling x-ray scanner, but I also left my Nintendo Switch and cellphone in my bag with no issues.
3-1-1 liquids don’t have to be removed either. As long as they meet TSA’s liquid rules, they can stay packed away.
Kids age 12 and under can go through the TSA Precheck line with a parent/guardian with no extra fees. Anyone over the age of 12 is eligible to be Prechecked, but it’s difficult to complete if they don’t have a driver’s license yet. For more details on qualifications for minors, click here!

Note: Yes, they still x-ray your belongings, and you still have to walk through the scanner to make sure you’re not carrying deadly weapons or peanut butter.

I got through security in less than 3 minutes, which was lucky because I was running short on time. If I would have had to wait in the general line, I would’ve been significantly more likely to miss my flight. On the return home from my visit with family, my dad decided to fly back to Illinois with me. Not only did we accidentally end up in the wrong terminal, we went through the entire security check process before we realized that we were on the wrong side of the airport! (Orlando Airport is big, okay?) However, we could still laugh at the situation because our TSA PreCheck sped us through both security lines and got us to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Without skipping the 100+ person lines, we undoubtedly would have missed our flight home. This is an awesome way for travel nurses to minimize commute time when they fly home to visit family, and I am thrilled to skip through the line on every trip in the future!

If you fly regularly, have kids in tow, or just don’t want the extra stress of waiting in long lines at an airport, we highly recommend getting you and your family TSA PreChecked! For more tips on picking flights, check out my article, “Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines”!

Boujie on a Budget, Travel

Easy Ways to Fly Like a Pro With Southwest Airlines

July 12, 2022 1 Comment

My absolute favorite way to fly is on Southwest Airlines using my flight points. Southwest has more comfortable seats than my preferred budget airline, Spirit. Both airlines have good customer service and pristine plane interiors. However, Southwest has more leg space than budget flights, and the seats even recline slightly! Each passenger also gets one carry-on and one checked bag included with their flight cost, saving you from surprise extra fees at checkout. If I’m taking a flight longer than two hours, I skip Spirit and book with Southwest. Here are a couple of my tips for flying Southwest!

CHASE Southwest Credit Card

When I started travel nursing, a friend introduced me to Chase’s Southwest Airlines credit card. No, this is not sponsored; this card is worth the hype! You can use it on any purchases in your daily life to earn 1 Southwest flight point per dollar spent. Certain purchase types, like partnered hotels, rental cars, and Southwest flight tickets, earn you double the points! I put all my monthly bills or large purchases onto this card and immediately pay them off. This practice keeps my credit usage in my ideal range, yet it wins me MANY free flight points. We usually fly for free using these points once every 3-6 months round-trip. When I first applied for the card, I got 50,000 flight points translated into two round-trip tickets just for signing up. Unlike Spirit’s point program, Southwest Rapid Rewards points never expire.

Tips for Getting Better Seats

The only aspect of flying Southwest that I don’t like is that you can’t pick your own seat. Southwest requires you to check into your flight 24 hours in advance to be sorted into groups A, B, and C. You can check in online or via the Southwest app. How high you rank depends on how fast you check in! On gate arrival, you board in order of the group and ticket number. It’s essentially an open seating policy; once it’s your turn to get on the plane, it’s a free-for-all to pick a seat! This unique boarding process can baffle infrequent fliers, and it is easy to end up in group C if you don’t know what you’re doing. Finding nearby seats for companions or small children can be difficult if you board last.

You can pay a high premium for A-list boarding as a business professional, or anyone can pay an extra $20 per ticket for automatic check-in. We have ended up scrambling for seats in group C, so we always purchase the automatic check-in! We’re usually placed in the middle of group A, giving us plenty of seat options. If you get stuck in group C, keep in mind that they will let you check your carry-on for free because space is tight by the time you finally get on the plane! We love flying Southwest when we can pick great seats without stress. I would highly recommend trying the $20 automatic check-in upgrade.

For tips on minimizing costs and traveling “cheap,” check out my article “Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines.”

Which airline do you usually fly through? Should we try Delta or American Airlines? What cost-saving tips do you have for flying? Leave a comment below!

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