Hey, Well today is my last full day in NZ, and tomorrow evening i fly to LA, which i'm quite looking forward to because hopefully there it wont rain so much and i might be able to wear shorts again. Auckland seems okay, but my hostel isnt very nice, very clean, or very friendly, so hence i'm hiding out in this cheap internet place for as long as i can! Unfortunately it's completely the wrong time of day for anyone on BST to be awake, sooo it's pretty boring for me, but im going to look at sights in america and things, cos i dont really know what there is to do in these places.

Getting rather bored of waiting for the visa people to get back to me officially with a letter to say i dont have a visa, but i guess i do really need to wait just in case they magically decide to give me one anyway. Although everyday it feels like im putting off booking a flight home, which it would be very nice to have at the moment as I really dont know what i'm doing beyond monday otherwise. I have enjoyed my time in new zealand and ive definitely learned that there are better ways to see the country and given the choice a little campervan would win everytime, cos although the bus routes are good and they do run frequently it doesnt realy give you a chance to explore in the same way.

Ive come to realise that being in other countries is pretty much the same as long as your in a hostel, becos it's really the hostel travel lifestyle that you're experiencing and nothing about the place you're in whatsoever. It gets pretty annoying having no place to put your stuff, not being able to do things when you want, having no control over most of your life and being at the mercy of other people and when they want to get up, go to sleep, snore etc. I think i would call a hard concrete floor luxury as long as i didnt have to share it with anyone else. Although i met someone today, not out of choice, who really seemed to have more of a problem with other people that i do, which made me feel better; but he is right in saying that ALOT of people have no consideration for others at all, and it's these little things, which although you might only be in the place for one night, they happen in all the places and it's rare to actually sleep from the time you go to bed to the time you set your alarm. I think im having abit of a rant there, so i'll stop, but it will be nice... no, WONDERFUL to have my own place in cardiff and have some choice about what i do again. I have made so many lists of all the things i want to do when i get back that i'm impatient to start work on them, and i also really am looking forward to learning things again, going back to uni, after 13years in education, taking 6months out has been very strange and i guess the good thing is that i know im doing the right thing by going back to study, not that i was ever worried i wouldnt want to go back..well maybe there were afew doubts but my sensible side quelled them easily, especially to think of the funding :)

Yeah so although ive begun mentioning to people that i could be home in a week or so, it doesnt really feel like it, lately im having trouble remembering whats a dream and what's not anyway so I might get to a fortnights time and have forgotten that i was gunna go home or something. The conference in canada would be nice to go to, but at the end of the day i knew the conference was happening from last July, and if i had wanted to go then i could have just asked about that, but instead i wanted to work there, and now that's fallen through (basically) i dont think going to a conference will be much of a concellation prize, especially as i'll be going to conferences in the future for the PhD and then i'll belong there, with other postgrads, and at the moment I'm not sure i would! But i'll wait and see. despite being bored of waiting.

Well i guess i should research what sights i can see in USA, does the Central Perc really exist?