A quick trip to Florida

Mochi I spent Monday through Friday this past week down in Florida. Viktor (the ginormous pit bull) stayed at my mom’s house, and mom popped over to my house regularly to feed Charlie.

The first part of my trip was to Orlando (the reason I was in need of a pet friendly Orlando hotel room). No, I wasn’t there to go to any of the amusement parks (yuck!) – instead, my trip was pure business. My first goal was to meet with my advisor (for grad school, starting in August), to discuss my program of study, my assistantship, what I’m looking to get out of the program, and what will be expected of me. That part of the trip went without a hitch.

The second part of my trip was really frustrating. My goal was to find an apartment that I could start renting some time this summer, so that I could be all settled in by the time classes began. I wanted to make sure well in advance that I’d secured a place to live – and while I was successful, it was a very frustrating process. Trust me, you don’t want to hear the details. The last time I rented an apartment in the US was back in 2004, and it was MUCH simpler. However, despite all the frustration, I did manage to secure a fairly large one bedroom apartment, which I will be able to take possession of in early June.

This is the floorplan of my new apartment.
My entire Seoul apartment could fit in the living room of this place.

While in Orlando, I did do a little exploring (mainly for the purposes of walking Mochi), who quite enjoyed walking around lakes and looking at wild birds, although he always seemed quite disappointed when they didn’t want to play with him.

Taking Mochi for a walk.

Mallards

Immature Ibis

After two nights in Orlando, I headed over to Tampa to visit my father and his family. It was a pretty relaxing time, and we didn’t do much but visit… although poor Mochi had to stay out on the porch, which made him very unhappy. He even stopped eating :-( We did, however, go on some nice walks while in Tampa, discovering more birds and some beautiful flowers.

Mochi in his room on the porch.

Red passionflower?? I thought they only came in purple.

There are a bunch of ducklings at the lake near my dad's house.
My dad rescued an injured duckling last year... and as a result, he now has a pet duck.

Poor Charlie, meanwhile, was very stressed out to have been left behind. Granted, she would have absolutely HATED the trip, but she was apparently quite unhappy to be home alone. Mom said that whenever she arrived to feed her, Charlie would run to the door meowing when she arrived, only to run and hide in a panic as soon as she realized that it wasn’t me at the door.

Viktor, in contrast, had a pretty good time. I had taken him over to mom’s before I left. The idea was that he would stay in the 10x10 dog pen at her place while I was gone. Now, mom has eight other dogs, two of which are pit bulls (like Viktor). We had worried about what might happen, were we to let Viktor out in the yard with the others, and initially, mom hadn’t planned to do so…. But, she felt bad, seeing him cooped up in the pen, and let him out – and he got along great with everyone. Except Brin, but he's a house dog. It seems that Viktor will be staying at mom’s and enjoying the backyard doggy paradise.

Mochi, too, is thrilled to be home – and he and Charlie were incredibly excited to see one another. And last night I slept tightly sandwiched in between a loudly purring Charlie and a contentedly sound asleep Mochi :-)