So, I am now London-based and have been for two weeks exactly. The summer of summer school funtimes has begun and I am officially nestled within the role of Activity Leader for around 600 international students - nationalities ranging from Italian to Spanish to Israeli to Russian. It's brilliantly exhausting but I am loving every minute. One of the perks of the job is getting to embrace London as a tourist, so far trips have included A walk around Westminster, taking in Big Ben, Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace and all that lies between, walking tours of Greenwich and visits to Trafalgar Square, St Pauls Cathedral, The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, The British Museum, Tate Modern, Covent Garden, The Hard Rock Cafe (and store, 3 times now the kids are obsessed with this pinnacle of birtish culture) and Westfield (they ALL want to go) as well as some memorable excursions to both Brighton and Oxford. Have also managed to see The Lion King at the Lyceum by being in the right place at the right time when a spare ticket materialised. Within the next six weeks the schedule is set to include a million more things including Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon, The London Eye and The Globe as well as potential trips to Musicals such as We Will Rock You and Hairspray ( I am rather hoping atleast one group will want to see Dirty Dancing however I am not sure Patrick has the same appeal to 14 year old greek kids as it does to me!!) Its busy, i bareley sleep, i have four blisters and swollen feet. The food is totally revolting, its carb heaven with the main bulk of food being pasta and bread which is working wonders with my wheat and dairy intolerance! However there is a brilliant chinese takeaway a stones throw from my residence, the fabulously names 'Uncle Wrinkle' which sells hot and sour soup for £1.60, an obsession which i can now bring back to its surface. During a mind numbingly 4 hour trip to Westfield (which is good, but not when your skint) I also killed time by splurging £4 on Hot and Sour soup from Bamboo Basket, where the extra £2.40 gives you a much bigger bowl and was exactly the lift i needed. As well as the million daytrips around London, one of my key roles is to organise evening entertainment, thus far being themed disco's (the Great British Welcome Disco, and the Hawaiian disco), Karaoke, and The Fashion Show competition where we had around 150 kids cretaing some amazing outfits out of newspapers and Binbags.... All in all its giving me great prep for Korea and being with kids fulltime and the money is pretty nice as well!.

Korea Visa update.

After a horrific morning running around getting a Solicitor to sign my CRB check (something I didn't realise i needed) The foreign office finally gave me my Apostile stamp I sent all my paperwork off to my contact last week. He is now in the 'processing stage' and in a few weeks I will get an email with a reference and then get to start my undoubtedly complicated and bureaucratic liaisons with the embassy. Goodtimes. I called a travel hotline to check if i need any vaccinations and they told me I need to spend £600 quid on various different combinations. I then checked the embassy webpage and foreign office advice and was relieved to discover the travel clinic are a bunch of money grabbing b******s and I don't actually need any extra ones at all. yay!