I've been in London, England for about 10 days now, getting acclimated to the area before the students show up. I'm the assistant leader for Earlham College's semester abroad program in England. The upside to this: I get to live in one of the best cities in the world, in an amazing part of said city, while someone else pays for almost everything. The downside: I have to play "camp counselor" for the students. As the assistant instructor, I have to make sure none of the students are having any issues with where they're living, the professors or classes they have, the people they're living with, or, heaven forbid, the city itself. I will be functioning as the first-stop buffer between them and the rest of the command chain. All things considered though, this should be a good gig.
From here, I head to Paris and the Switzerland for vacation with family until Saturday when I have 5 days until students start arriving. In order to prep for their arrival I need to play-test the commutes from their housing to our flat and to the academic buildings, organize and plan for the finances of the program (we handle the food stipends, travel stipends, "cultural allowances," and rent for all students), help plan and test assignments for the class the leader is teaching, and various other things. I'm also doing extra work on the side for the company I've been working for over the past year.
While I'm here, I want to figure out how I can stay longer than the "visitor" visa allows. In order to stay longer than 6 months at a time, you need to either be qualified enough and have made enough money in the past 15 months to be a "Tier 1" visa holder, or be hired by a company that can vouch for you, or get enrolled in a local college and get in as a fulltime student. The Tier 1 thing probably won't work for me; I didn't make nearly enough money last year. Hiring in this economic climate is still pretty tough. So that leaves coming here for more school as probably the best option. Having just submitted applications for US grad schools, I'm a little disinclined to work on more of them. I'm still young though. London will still be here in a few years, so perhaps I can get over here later. Fingers crossed.
I've never been good about keeping up a blog. Maybe this one will be different...
