Visas, people and problems

People in visa limbo don't seem to be that uncommon around here.

There is Matthew an event organizer from Wales who thought he was here for only one day, as he is planning to live permanently in Australia and had been living there for 2 1/2 years already. However the next step of his permanent visa is taking unexpectedly long and now he's been here for almost a week and is running out of money. Yesterday he had 10$ left and you could see his growing anxiety while he was chain smoking his last pack of cigarettes away.

Then there was this Italian/German guy who wanted to buy a car with me because I am 'chill', but he doesn't have a driving licence which is also why he didn't get the whv visa yet, he will have to do an interview on the 16th and is stuck here until then.

Not everyone has visa issues though, some people have more mundane issues. There was a Brazilian girl who was left behind by her friends who didn't show up when they were supposed to, so I left her my phone for the day, so that she could contact her friends.

A Texan project manager told me he didn't think the job situation in the states was bad, however with almost everything he said it was evident that he was worried about losing his job and he mostly talked about job security related issues.

A German politician from Munich pissed off other Germans by talking to them about politics and was worried that there would be re-elections in Germany.

I also had the short opportunity to practice some Spanish with a girl from Chile and a Mexican couple.

As for me I am waiting, still no news on the xray I found out the post office screwed me over though. I had told them I need to send the fastest way possible they just decided to send it by regular mail. So because of some clerk I'm sitting here and waiting and losing money on that and might possibly end up not getting the visa. Further of course the hostel didn't pay up for the cost they caused me. They basically admitted it was their fault but yeah.. then this morning when I had to change rooms they had forgotten to note that I had paid. At least they didn't try to charge me again...they just wanted to investigate.
I booked another night, but it really is time to leave Christchurch.

Hostel horrors

Yesterday morning I left my hostel on a not so long trip to...the next hostel. When I finally arrived I was told that my booking had been cancelled because they couldn't charge my card and that I had received a mail which said I should have contacted them. Now of course the already expensive dorm room wasn't available anymore and my only option was to book a private room... which I did since at that point I had no internet connection to check for something else. So now I had to pay almost twice as much of what was already insanely expensive for a hostel. 

The room wasn't ready yet, so I went for the mall to buy a SIM card. I also used the opportunity to eat kebab(and was seriously disappointed). I got lucky  in a place called warehouse after being sent there by a cashier in a supermarket which heavily advertised that I could buy the SIM there but which didn't actually sell it anymore...

Finally I had internet access. I returned to the hostel, went to the room and checked my mails(first trying WiFi but that just didn't work at all and the quota is ridiculous being just a fourth of what I had in the haka lodge and more data would be way more expensive than on the phone...). The mail said that my booking shouldn't have been cancelled before 6pm on the day of arrival...  So I went to the reception and the receptionist said after some discussion that she would talk to her boss. 

Today I'll find out what the result of that was I presume. They should refund me, because this was completely not an error on my side, the account is fine and they shouldn't have cancelled the booking. It's also quite unfair that they didn't even bother to call and just immediately cancelled the booking. So from this experience I'd warn people to stay away from "The old country backpackers" in Christchurch. They have a very customer unfriendly attitude  and WiFi is unusable. 

After all that mess, i called immigration for news, but again nothing, i was told to ask the officer who worked directly on my case which i did only to get an automated reply saying that he was on holidays until the 16th. Great, time to book another hostel and wait.

I think I will probably buy a cheap car. That way I will have a cheap place to sleep and a means to get around. That would be much nicer if i wasn't traveling around alone, but oh well better than going broke.