Well, I am finally back from my big Missouri trip! I have a lot to post about, so I hope I can remember everything. I had a great time and I'm really glad that my mom could come out and experience it with me.
We left Friday morning for the airport, only about an hour drive. Our plane was delayed, of course, about an hour. We finally got off the ground and into New York, where we had a layover. Thankfully, I booked enough time in between flights just in case we were delayed. We had plenty of time in New York to board our next plane to St. Louis. I am pretty sure I could see Manhattan, The Empire State Building, and Central Park when we were in the air, which is a first for me. It was pretty cool to see such a huge city from the sky. Once in St. Louis (about 7pm their time), we went to get our rental car and drove to Columbia, about an hour and half drive or so. It went very smooth and we got to our hotel about 9:30 and we were wiped. We ended up grabbing something pretty quick for dinner and then going to our hotel to pass out.
Saturday was the big day full of things to do. We got up early and headed to the open house Mizzou's vet school at about 9am. We checked out the club booths first and I met some new people and learned about some clubs. I will definitely be joining the PALS club at my school-which is basically like a therapy dog kind of club. Your dog just has to have a CGC, which Beamer already has, so we are all set (they just have to be evaluated by one person just to be sure they are fine). Not sure what else it entails, but we get free Frontline/Heartguard! Perfect for a poor vet student. There weren't any other club booths (that were there) that interested me, though.
Next, we went to the vet school book store. I bought a ton of Mizzou vet school stuff there! A few shirts, a hoodie, a jacket, a few stickers, I bought my dad a hat, and a few other little things. Mom bought a few little things and some clothes, too! I also met up with my one roomie who was coming to the open house, Kristin! Meeting her for the first time 'officially,' it felt like I had known her for years. She is super and I can't wait to room with her! It is too bad our other roomie couldn't make it, but I'm sure she is great, too, and I'll meet her in July.
After spending a lot of money at the bookstore, we went on a tour of the small animal hospital, which was great (though less informative for students who will be starting in the fall than my previous tour). Still, it was awesome for mom to see everything. After the tour, I went to go meet who my 'Big' is going to be for the next year, her name is Chris! She was super nice and sounds great! Then we went to go tour the large animal hospital/mostly equine section where we saw a horse demonstrate the equine treadmill and lameness indicator.
The last thing we did was go to the last lecture, which was on Toxicology with Dr. Evans... let me just say I am so looking forward to that class. He was dressed up with a cap, bike helmet, and ski goggles, to say the least, and in his presentation he referenced Star Wars. He was hilarious and entertaining. That should be a fantastic class when I get to it!
Kristin and I finally met up with Sarah, who has been super awesome at helping both of us with any questions or concerns we have. She is currently a first year! After we left, my mom commented on how super nice EVERYONE in Missouri is... and I got the same impression when I went out for my interview. We did not meet anyone who wasn't helpful or nice in some way.
After the open house, my roomie and I had to go meet the property owner to get a showing of the place we will be renting next year. It is about 10 minutes driving from the school (and less than 5 miles total). The first thing pulling in that we noticed, the road was TERRIBLE!! Potholes EVERYWHERE. Both Kristin and I were having our doubts just based on the road. The actual place looked really great and I'm really looking forward to living there. It is a 4 bedroom duplex that has a fenced in backyard. Not huge, but large enough for dogs to play and do their business. It does look like it can get a bit muddy after it rains, so I'll have to watch Beamer carefully. But, mainly I wanted a fence so that if I am super busy studying, I can just let him out to go potty really quick.
As you walk in, it has a split level. Upstairs, there is a decent size kitchen, a small dining area, and then the living room. There is also a deck (no stairs to go down, though) that Beamer is going to LOVE to lay out on when it is nice. The master bedroom and one of the full baths is also upstairs, which Kristin is going to live in. The place also has a 1 car garage. Going downstairs, there are the remaining 3 rooms. One has a door to the backyard, so that room will be our office/guest room for people who visit to sleep in. I have already claimed my room, which faces the backyard. It is slightly larger, but has a small closet (which I could care less about). There is a full bath down there as well. The place seems perfect for us and the rental company has been amazing to work with. No pet limits (on number of pets, weights, size... anything). The dogs just have to not be aggressive, of course, since there are families and children in the neighborhood. I'll be the only one bringing a pet of any kind at this point, but my other roomies plan to get dogs somewhere down the line, as do I plan to get another golden at some point when the perfect litter comes along. The place is just $800 plus utilities, so you can't beat that price (which is split between 3 people!)
So the showing went great and the rental company should be emailing us a lease to sign anytime! I did have to say goodbye to Kristin at that point (she had a long drive home) but it was fantastic to meet her (and her mom).
Mom and I then went back to the main campus to have a look around and to go to the main campus bookstore. We saw a few buildings there, one that looks VERY similar to Burruss Hall at Virginia Tech. We also looked at the columns, that are pretty infamous on this campus! After that, we spent quite a bit of time at the bookstore where mom says that she got all my birthday shopping done. I also bought another hoodie here, a shirt, and a new bottle (mine was broken and I had to toss it at the airport).
Since we hadn't eaten hardly at all that day, we went to a place that was recommended, a Thai place called Bangkok Gardens. It was delicious and we had a super nice waitress! I also had to drink some sake. Mom and I walked around the downtown area just a little and then we drove around town a bit to go and see what was near where I live. We ran into a cute custard place and I got some good ice cream!
Finally, at that point, we were worn out so we just went back to the hotel for the evening and sorted through our things as well as prepared for the return trip back on Sunday. Once we got going Sunday morning, we returned the rental car after driving to St. Louis and then had a direct flight back to Dulles. We finally got back home about 6pm that evening. Today, I am still feeling pretty tired from the trip, but we had a fantastic time! Mom says she can see why I fell in love with the place when I went out there from how similar it feels to Tech and by how nice everyone is. Going out there again just wiped away any doubts about being nervous about going so far away (though of course I will miss my friends and family at home). I'll just add to my family when I'm out there. I know that this is the right place for me to be!
