Continuing education from abroad

I'd appreciate any opinions:

I'm graduating from an RN certificate program in December of 2011. I currently have a BA anthropology. Immediately after graduating, I have plans to move to Europe for 6-8 months. It looks as though it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to get experience in nursing during this time.

I don't want to be idle though. I'm concerned that I'll forget things and/or have a difficult time finding work when I return to the US, as a new grad who took a chunk of time off before applying for jobs.

Ultimately, I'd like to progress to an NP. While I was hoping to work for a while before heading back to school, I've been considering starting some kind of RN-MSN program online, while I'm overseas. This way, at least I'd be productive in my education!

Any suggestions? I was also thinking that I could enroll in an online RN-BSN program instead, then do the MSN after I have more experience. Is it useless to get a BSN before an MSN, since there are so many RN-MSN programs??

Thanks for any advice!
You could look in to the RN-MSN programs to learn what is feasible for you. Some require BSN and others do not. While looking, you might find out if experience is REQUIRED for NP. Sounds like a good plan. Otherwise, there are continuing education sites available.