Spang said:
Can anyone tell me just how far the NS San Diego BOQ is from Balboa and if or how I can get back and forth without a rental car. On the map it's only a couple of miles and it must be easily doable because my orders specifically do not authorize a rental car. (that was sarcasm)
spang
As a former HPSPer who did two rotations at Balboa let me give you the scoop on transportation. Before you get there, everyone's orders say no rental car. Once you show up they'll figure how many students they have, what kind of hours each has, and where they are staying (Admiral Kid, 32nd Street, North Island, etc.) If you didn't change your lodging assignment you'll probably be at 32nd street (next to the ghetto). On Monday, Robert and the folks at GME office at Balboa will try to figure out carpooling in groups of 2 or 3 people. They'll contact Bethesda, and change your orders, or someone in your group, so a car will be authorized. That could take until Wednesday or Thursday for your orders to be changed. While that's going on you have two options to get to work each day.
1. The safe option, take a cab each day you don't have a car, save the receipts, they'll reimburse them. This is what I did.
2. Rent a car on your own, when you get one authorized get
your orders changed, keep the car for the duration of the rotation and they'll reimburse it. Stick with something on the cheap side, they probably won't pay for the Mustang Convertible.
3. Find the guy/gal who did option 2. and hitch a ride
Even if you do option 1., you pay the bill for the car and file for reimubrsement with your travel claim. Don't worry, they reimburse travel claims quicker than school stuff. In theory you could probably use public transit to get to the hospital, but it would be a pain. You'll get a car, it just might take a few days and your likely to share it.
If you have weekends off, I suggest you get a car with your own money so you can go play around. It's pretty cheap.
Anyway, any questions drop me a line. Good luck.
