Career Expo ???'s

Hi... for a summer career expo/"reality check" type class i have to take through my school we are required to do an in-depth career research type project, throughoughly investigating various areas of the job and projectinghow we will survive one year on the job. I have chosen to do the project on travel nursing, which i hope to pursue after getting 2 yrs. of general experience under my specialty. My question is this, hypothetically speaking, how much can a person expect to make weekly as a L&D travel nurse in SoCal? I've heard $35/hr, is this accurate and how is OT usually paid? also, I have read on various agency websites that "private or upgraded housing is available for a modest fee" How modest should i estimate this fee to be to upgrade to a private unit or just to take the cash stipend, rather than accept assigned housing? I might be asking a lot of stupid questions but i'm taking this assignment rather seriously as I assume it could be useful to my future plans... any other advice would be so appreciated!!

Thanks...
Kristina
p.s. can anyone explain the process of specializing to me... like the steps from passing the test and getting your RN license to becoming specialized as a L&D (or whatever other specialty nurse) is there a special license or is it more just based on areas of experience?? I'm still learning how this field works! THanks!