More on South GA / North FL Fires

Smoke Closes Roads, Hampers Firefighters (Possibly the only time ever that Lake City has been featured on NPR)

Fire Closes Highways in Georgia, Florida

Evacuees Deal With Smoke, Stress as Fire Near Lake City Grows

Wildfire Smoke Closes Interstates in Florida

Rest of Florida Smolders Too

State of Emergency in Columbia County

As I mentioned in this post, I grew up in Florida. I lived for the first 18 years of my life ten miles south of Lake City in Columbia County, and it wasn't until 2003 that I left the LC for good. Nonetheless, I still have friends in Columbia County. I just checked my friend Stephanie's blog to discover that she's been asked to evacuate as a result of the fires. Then I checked the news... Things are scary down there right now.

Fire Causes State of Emergency in Columbia County: Columbia County was under a state of emergency late Friday after a massive fire prompted officials to notify about 500 families to evacuate their homes.Thousands of children were sent home from school early, and state troopers kept close tabs on area roads as visibility fell to a quarter mile Friday.

Crews Attack Massive Fire from Air, Ground: Calling the blaze moving through Baker and Columbia counties the largest and most dangerous fire in the state, firefighters said Friday they have managed to protect homes from a fire that advanced nine to 10 miles in 24 hours.
Driven by winds, fire sparked by lightning in the Okefenokee Swamp on Sunday has spread out of Ware County, Ga., through Baker County to threaten homes on the outskirts of Lake City. It has burned 180,000 acres in three or four days.

Lake City Brush Fire Named One of the Biggest: One of the biggest brush fires is near the Georgia border in Lake City, where people have been evacuated from their homes. On all of the roads, smoke is making visibility difficult for driving. Over Thursday night, nearly 600 homes were evacuated in Columbia County.

179,000 Acre Fire Threatens 1-10 and Homes Near Lake City: Firefighters said today that a wildfire that has raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into northern Florida has charred at least 179,000 acres -- or 281 square miles -- since a lightning strike ignited it a week ago.The fire, which started last Saturday in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, took just six days to grow larger than a wildfire that has burned 116,000 acres ofGeorgia forest and swampland over more than three weeks.The fast-growing fire more than doubled in size, from 88,250 acres Thursday as wind from the northeast fanned it across dry swamp grasses.Its movement slowed today, but firefighters expect the blaze to keep growing.Schools closed early in Columbia County Friday as the fire that started in Georgia crossed the Florida border.About 570 homes in northern Columbia County were evacuated overnight. Heavy smoke blanketed the area and visibility along Interstate 10 was down to about a quarter of a mile.The leading edge of the fire is four miles east of US 441 and seven miles north of Interstate 10.

Calm Winds Aid Firefighters: Wildfires scorched the wooded northern area of Columbia County Thursday at an alarming rate, but began to slow Friday as calm winds assisted firefighters in their task of slowing down one of the most dangerous fires in the county's history.The blaze remained in the Deep Creek area Friday night, located approximately two miles east of U.S. 441 and six miles north of Interstate 10.With wildfires having burned more than 82,588 acres in Columbia and Baker counties by late Friday, the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners and Lake City City Council both declared a state of emergency for the area. The city also declared a water shortage because of the firefighting emergencies.

Evacuees Reluctantly Retreat to Shelters: People took shelter at Winfield Community Center as wildfires raged in northern Columbia County beginning at about 10:30 p.m. on Thursday. By 8:30 a.m., Friday, about 30 people had evacuated to the temporary Red Cross shelter, volunteer Sylvia DeLoach said.

Nothing like news linking two of my favorite countries.

Sigh.

A 20-year-old Kazakhstan native turned himself over to police Friday, ending a three-hour standoff and safely releasing a man he had been holding at the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica, authorities said. Roman Bogdanyants covered his face as he was escorted by police from the building, followed by a Russian man that police spokesman Francisco Ruiz identified as a former hostage. Officials originally reported an armed man had seized eight hostages, quickly releasing five. But Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolayenko told Channel 7 Telenoticias in a phone interview during the standoff that he and three other officials had remained in the building to help negotiate a peaceful end to the situation. Immigration spokeswoman Heidi Bonilla told The Associated Press that Bogdanyants arrived in Costa Rica in 2005. Police earlier had described him as an Uzbek. A family friend, Artur Mitiniani, told Channel 7 that the family had lost $54,000 because of problems with a Russian citizen whom Bogdanyants met at the embassy. [from here]

Fire in GA/FL

Well, the Georgia wildfire has shifted enough that at this point in time it is no longer a direct threat to Waycross. However, the fire spread to the Okefenokee Swamp, made its way southward, and hopped the St. Mary's River into Florida. Additionally, there are apparently hundreds of fires currently burning throughout the state of Florida. Now, I am currently a resident of Georgia, but I grew up in Florida, and many of my friends still live there. Below are some images taken by friends in Lake City, FL.

Taken at 3:45pm, Thursday, May 10 by Stephanie Tyson
(Yes, that photo was taken in the middle of the afternoon)


Photo by Caitlin St. John - flakes of ash on her dad's truck

The Broken Doll is Sad

Turns out Youngmee won't be able to come to Korea after all :-(

Random Festivals Downtown

This afternoon I met up with my friend and former coworker Donna who's in town for a while. We planned to spend the afternoon walking around downtown, window shopping and hunting down a place to dine on some tasty Korean foods. In addition to a yummy stop at a Korean barbecue buffet, and the accidental purchase of a ridiculous lime green konglish t-shirt, we discovered that there were apparently TWO festivals going on in the pedestrian areas of downtown Daegu. One, in the main shopping drag featured free samples of soju and rice wine, in addition to free samples of various make-up products and face-painting for kids. I sampled the free booze and passed on the make-up.

Free booze in the main downtown pedestrian drag.

We wandered down to the Gukchaebosang Park (or in English, the National Debt Repayment Movement Park) took some photos.

Approaching Gukchaebosang Park

Gukchaebosang Park Bell Pavilion


Gukchaebosang Park Bell Pavilion

We then made our way to the Herbal Medicine Market, where the Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Festival was underway, celebrating the 350 year anniversiary of the market. Herb gardens had been literally transplanted into the middle of the street, and they were hopping with rabbits! There were booths of people displaying various traditional herbal medicines and medical procedures and such... and more free samples. I was coaxed into drinking some very strange herbal tea, as all the ajushis and ajummas cheered and clapped. Absurdity!

Traditional herbal medicine demonstration


Donna in front of one of the temporary herb gardens


Rabbit in the herb garden!


They weren't penned in; I can't imagine why they didn't escape!


This was the fellow who insisted I drink the strange herbal tea,
and who led the clapping while I drank.


Me, at the gate to the Herbal Medicine Market

In memory of Tommy

Tommy, one of the cats that my mom and I share, died yesterday from diabetic complications. I found Tommy in a convenience store parking lot in 2002; he had narrowly missed being runover by a pickup truck. After a few weeks at our house, we could tell that something was wrong. The vet diagnosed him as diabetic, and said that with proper care (insulin twice a day), he could probably live for eighteen months. That was five years ago. He lived a long, happy life for those five years, and we will miss him.

Children's Day, etc

Today was Children's Day, which is a national holiday here in Korea. Unfortunately, this year Children's Day fell on a Saturday; had it fallen on a weekday, I would've gotten a day off. Also falling under the category of "unfortunately" - I didn't realize that the park located a couple of blocks from my house was having a Children's Day Festival until the thing was all but over. I got there just in time to see various booths and stands and costumed groups packing up and heading for home. Additionally, since I got there right as the entertainments were shutting down, I - as the random foreign chick - became the entertainment for innumerable children who wanted to practice their English. Hello! How are you! Nice to meet you! What's your name! Where are you from! Ahh well.

The park, as Children's Day festivities were winding down.


My neighbor's villa has roses hanging over the wall.


Another of my neighbor's roses.


A scooter with a side car!

This past week several of the elementary schools had field days, which meant that a lot of the kids showed up for my classes in very 1980s-esque headbands.


(River, second grade)


Betty (first grade)
Remember her from this shot? :-)

She's just so darn cute!

Also, I now have black and white striped knee socks.
And you know how Mia loves dirty socks.

Jane’s Guide to Teaching English in South Korea: Part 2

Part 2: How to Find a Job Teaching English in South Korea

The most important thing to do when looking for a job in Korea is RESEARCH. I came to South Korea for the first time in 2001. I took my recruiter’s words at face value and did not do any research prior to signing the contract. What a mistake! The job I landed was a nightmare (you can read all about it here if you’re interested). Many people do like I did, and come to Korea without doing a lot of research. Please, do yourself a favor and don’t make that mistake!

First of all, where do you want to live? Some people find that even though they enjoy living in foreign countries, they really need regular contact with English speaking expatriates in order to maintain sanity. Others want to go for full immersion in a foreign culture, limiting contact to as few people from their homeland as possible. Many people are in the middle. Where do you fall on this spectrum? Large cities such as Seoul, Daegu and Busan have large expat populations. This means that these cities have plenty of “foreigner bars” and plenty of opportunities to meet people from home, if you so desire. Even in large cities, school components differ. Some schools have large foreign staffs, while other schools only employ one foreigner. Additionally, smaller cities have fewer foreigners. Keep in mind what sort of experience you’re looking for when you consider school size and location.

The majority of ESL/EFL jobs available to foreigners here in this country are at hogwans – private academies which students attend after public school. (That being said, there are certainly other ESL/EFL job opportunities available over here. I am going to discuss hogwans, as they make up the bulk of the jobs available, and as I have personal experience in the hogwan industry.) There are many, many hogwan franchises here in Korea. This means that many schools share the same name, even though they are owned and operated by different people. Some hogwan chains have bad reputations overall, while some chains have excellent reputations. That being said, the quality of the school will vary by school.

It is important to get the full name and location of any school you are considering. For example: the hogwan I work for is part of the Oedae Language Institute chain of schools. Googling Oedae Language Institute gets you a lot of information, but scrolling through the first few pages of search results gets you nothing on my particular branch. However, Googling Ansim Oedae Language Institute East Daegu gets you information about my school in particular.

If you are using a recruiting service to help you find a position, you should also Google the name of your recruiter and his/her organization. Recruiters get paid a finders fee for every person they place. While there are certainly many reputable recruiters, there are also those who will tell you whatever they think you want to hear in order to get you to sign with a school. There are plenty of blacklists out there, so if your recruiter has been up to no good, it’s probably been documented online.

In addition to simply using Google, there are several online forums, such as Dave’s ESL Café, which are great places to pose questions about a specific school, recruiter, city, etc.

Once you’ve found a school or schools for which you are interesting in working, and once you’ve vetted the school/s on Google and Dave’s ESL Café, it’s time to get actual live references. Ask the school to provide contact information for both current and former teachers. If you are replacing someone, try to get in contact with that person. Find out why he/she is leaving. Is it because his/her contract is over, or is it because he/she is unhappy? Ask as many questions as you can think of. Here are some examples:

How many classes do you teach per day?
How many hours are you at school per day?
How many students are in each class? What are their ages?
How does the school deal with disciplinary problems?
What teaching materials/supplementals are available?
How much time do you spend preparing for classes?
Do you work on weekends?
What administrative/non-teaching duties are you expected to perform? How much time do they take?
Do you receive your pay on time?
Do you have health insurance and a health card?
What is your apartment like?

The last step before agreeing to work for a school is signing the contract. Read the contract carefully. Make sure that you understand everything in the contract. If you have ANY questions about the contract, ask to have them clarified before signing. If there are any segments of your contract which seem vague, rewrite those sections in specific language and ask that you be allowed to sign the amended contract. If you think anything about the contract seems suspicious, check with others on Dave’s ESL Café. (Also, one thing to remember – contracts are based on teaching hours. Teaching hours and working hours are different. I teach approximately 24 hours a week, but I’m at work about 37 or so hours a week. That gives me perfect time to plan lessons, take lunch/dinner breaks, etc. Take a close look at required duties other than teaching as listed in your contract – some schools will require many hours of administrative duties. As these are not “teaching hours” they are unpaid and do not count towards overtime!)

Stay tuned for Part 3: Getting to Korea

Current/former English teachers in Korea – do you have any other suggestions for how to go about finding a reputable school?