March 15 - 9:45 pm

No more private room, but tonight I'm just sharing with Lois, a Chinese girl. And I still have the big bed.
Today was good, stressful at times, but everything worked out. I woke up around 8 and called the temple to get an appointment to come do baptisms for the dead. They said it would be best if I could get there by 10. So that meant I had to hurry.. I got dresses, ate breakfast, and started walking toward the bus station. It seemed to be taking a lot longer than it did the day before! My bus was leaving at 9:22, and I left the hostel at 8:43, but still, I was late to the bus stop. And miraculously, my bus was still there. So I caught it just in time. Out to Templeview we went. From where I got off I had to hurry to be on time for my appointment. Again, just in time, I arrived at 10. There was one other boy and girl doing baptisms with me - brother and sister. Very nice kiwis, the girl was so jealous that I lived in salt lake. She said it was on her bucket list to come to salt lake, and her dream to go to the salt lake temple. I told her that New Zealand was my dream! Funny how Mormons from other parts of the world dream of coming to salt lake. Like they have to make the pilgrimage. The temple was really pretty and quite small. It was me of the first temples in the world! Number 11 I think?
I caught the bus back to town around 1 pm. I had lunch at a little place called The River Kitchen. Looked at an art gallery. Headed back to he hostel, walking along the river. Quick check in before I headed to the Hamilton Gardens. Vast gardens with some pretty cool features. An area with different international gardens - Japanese, Chinese, Italian, English, Indian, American.. Really beautiful! They had Maori gardens, herb and backyard gardens, rose gardens.. Pretty much anything you could think of. Definitely worth seeing if you're in Hamilton.
Spent the evening chatting with my roommate, and other hostel guests (Germans) about politics and religion. So enlightening being somewhere out of Utah, and out of the country! I'm amazed how much other nationalities know about the US, and our politics, and our culture. Makes me feel pretty ignorant. I guess I just need to travel more! I've been thinking about a few places I want to go now: India, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Central America, Greece, Scandinavia, Spain, Africa. That's good for now.