Anyway. We went back to London on Sunday, to sort our apostilles. What's an apostille I hear you ask? It's when you pay a faceless bureaucrat an awful lot of money to pretend he's done some work. And all he does is get a minion to stick a photocopied sheet onto the back of your police check. Hohum. But if thats what it takes to get to Korea... So, we drove (Becky drove) to London and stayed with Becky's uncle and family, which was cool. Then Becky made me get up early to head to the Foreign Office legalisation department near Trafalgar Square. Which, despite my whinging, was a very good idea, as it took a good couple of hours to sort out the aforementioned paper pushing, and probably would've taken much longer if we'd got there much later. We did get semi-lost, not helped by the 'helpful' chap who directed us in completely the wrong direction before demanding money from us. To lying beggar man - I'm glad I didn't pay you for your directions, you're rubbish.
Uh, so yes. Once we'd got the seal of approval on our police checks (I don't mean to go on about this stuff, but I do find it very annoying that we had to pay for a police check when we've never committed - or at least never been caught - a crime, then to have to pay further to get it officially recognised. What did we pay for in the first place? Can't the police get the money they need by fining people for dropping litter or something?) it meant we could finally send off all our documents to Korea. This includes degree certificates, passport photos, signed contracts, the police checks and a self certificated health form ('Do you have, or have you ever had Aids or HIV?' um... yes, yes, I had Aids but now I'm all better...). So hopefully that means all we have to do now is do an interview at the Korean Embassy and we're all set! Exciting. And scary.
We then went for a little wander about in London, accidentally ending up back at the little Korean shop that scared us so much last time. This time we were more brave and decided to buy some kimchi to try. We were nearly put off when we saw the strange snacks on sale... But we stuck to our guns and found a jar of kimchi in the fridge. More of that later.
On the drive home we had 2 life threatening experiences - firstly Becky was so sleepy she thought she was gonna fall asleep at the wheel until we managed to find some services and get some coke and something for me to read to her to keep us both awake. Secondly, and frankly more scary, we nearly ran out of fuel while driving through Nechells past Stab City and other such friendly areas. Car doors locked. Luckily we're still alive. Yay!
Today we decided to try the kimchi. It's not as vile tasting as people have suggested, luckily. But it was very hot. I think I may have enjoyed it slightly more than Becky did...
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