As my last blog post was entitled 'The End' it only seems appropriate that my return to the world of blogging be entitled 'The Beginning'! I have not written anything for a while, which makes me sad, but is due to the crazy crazy life I have had in my fourth year. My next post will be a short summary of everything I did and should give an example of the life that can be lead by a fourth year linguist at Durham... not a fourth year wanting a first, but a fourth year wanting to enjoy life and organise a million and one things!
I have started this blog up again as this summer I am going to be a volunteer at the Olympics in London and I would like to write about it on here. Whilst there are lots of restrictions on what we can/can't write and upload, I would like to share my experience. I am going to be an NOC Assistant. An NOC is a National Olympic Committee and is made up of all of the athletes and officials from a country competing in the games. Next month I will find out which country I am attached to and then for the five weeks they are in London I will be working 6 days on and one day off and will be looking after them. The number of assistants depends on the size of the delegation, for example a small African nation which only has 10 athletes may just have 2 or 3 NOC assistants whereas the USA which is a delegation of about 600 will have the maximum 12 assistants.
So far I have had four training sessions and one general session. They have all been in London which has involved a lot of early morning trains from Durham but have been worth it. The excitement after every session is inexplicable and especially yesterday as there are now only 100 days to go until the games.
