8-2-2010
Day 151 of 365: ...within a dream. Throw in the ideas of dream invasion and manipulation, add some Matrix, Shutter Island and any heist movie (The Italian Job and Ronin come to mind) and the result is Inception, Christopher Nolan's latest cinematic juggernaut. It may be unfair to compare movies like this, but that's often what happens when a movie generates as much buzz and critical acclaim as this one has. Already approaching $200 million at the box office in just 3 weeks, Inception to date has also tallied over 100,000 votes on IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) for an average of 9.1 stars out of 10, which is currently good enough for 3rd best movie of all time behind The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather on the IMDB Top 250 Films list. (IMDB is widely regarded as the most comprehensive website for movie trivia and info on the web. The IMDB Top 250 Films are voted on by fans.)Before I dissect this movie and upset the fans who have voted it so highly, I first want to say that I really liked it. The special effects were nice and it was mildly thought-provoking, but not "mind-blowing" as described by more than a few people I know. I loved The Matrix, which actually was mind-blowing. Any movie that uses the idea of environment manipulation (whether by dream, computer program, magic or whatever) unfortunately has a high standard to live up to, and The Matrix does "The Matrix" better than Inception. There's also the question of reality. What's real within the realm of the movie and what's fantasy? DiCaprio tackled that theme in his last film. Watching Inception almost felt like de ja vu, having just watched Shutter Island only a few short months ago. As for the plot, I don't want to say too much about the story so as not to give anything away; I hate "spoilers" as much as the next person, but it was basically a heist movie. Google the top 10 heist movies of all time and choose any of them to compare this one to. My final point is concerning Inception's current ranking as the 3rd best movie of all time. I know that hot movies often start off highly ranked and then work themselves down over time, but there is, in my opinion, an unhealthy fan obsession with director Christopher Nolan. I'm pretty sure it started with his Batman movie reboot, Batman Begins (which I loved, by the way). The Batman movie franchise had tanked in recent years and Nolan single-handedly resurrected it, to the praise of millions of comic and movie fans. While much credit was definitely due, the ferver got a little too crazy with the release of the sequel, The Dark Knight (also loved), which was actually the #1 movie of all time on IMDB for several weeks in 2008 before dropping down to it's current spot at #12, which is still not too shabby. So now Inception is #3, but for how long? I'm not saying it's not a great movie, it's just not as deep as many people think and it's definitely not as original. In the end, I know there's "nothing new under the sun", but try a little harder to fake it next time.Grade: A-
7-13-2010
Day 131 of 365: Has it been a month already? Congratulations to Spain for winning their first ever World Cup, defeating the Netherlands in a hard fought 1-0 slugfest. I guess I can get a decent night's sleep again since I won't be waking up every other morning to catch a 330am soccer match. This final was probably the most brutal for me, since the game went into extra time and didn't end until after 6am, when Andres Iniesta put in the winning goal with just minutes left on the clock. Not having enough time to go back to sleep again before work that morning, I ended up winging it on about 3 hours sleep that day. Fortunately it's the last week of school and we're just winding down the semester, and Spain winning was worth the exhaustion. Those who are keeping up know that the 2 teams I'd been cheering for were the US and South Korea, but after they both got knocked out in the round of 16, I needed to pick another team to cheer for, and I felt like Spain was too good to have never won the World Cup. I normally like a good underdog to take down Goliath, but in this case, Spain had paid their dues over the last few years and deserved the title.
Now that the World Cup is over, I'll be working my butt off for the rest of this week in preparation for my school's Summer English Camp, which begins the day after school ends next week. Unfortunately, this means that I'm going to have to break one of my own personal rules, which is to never bring your work home with you. However, I feel like this summer camp is an opportunity for me to prove myself to my co-teachers, since I'm doing all the planning and teaching. If I succeed, I think it'll make next semester go a lot smoother than this first one. If I fail, next semester will be hell. There's really no other way for me to put it.
I think I can say that I underestimated this job when I first got here. I thought it would be hard at first and get easier, but this first semester has actually been the opposite. It started off easy because my co-teachers were bearing the majority of the responsibility. For the first month I was just shooting from the hip and having a good old time. Over the following 3 months they've gradually given me more responsibility, to the point where I'm now basically doing everything and they're primarily in a support role. This is actually how it's supposed to be, I'm just gaining teaching experience by the bucket now instead of by the drop. In fact, on the morning that I only slept 3 hours, I made a student cry for the first time. This sounds negative, but it's actually not. My co-teachers have been getting on my case about being too nice, which causes problems with discipline. I didn't have any nice in me that day though. This kid had it coming all semester too, so I don't feel bad about it. I still don't know how to discipline girls though. They walk all over me.
7-4-2010
Day 121 0f 365: Happy 4th of July to everyone back home! Even though I can't eat BBQ and light fireworks with my friends and family back in Austin, I will find a way to celebrate the 4th in SK, hopefully with other American friends here. Unfortunately I haven't seen a single firework stand since I've been here, so they might not exist like they do in the states, or in Texas at least. It's a shame too since July and August are not drought months in SK like they are back home. It's quite the opposite. Korea gets more rain in these 2 summer months than the whole rest of the year combined. They actually have a name for this time of year too; it's called Jangma. The heavy rain started sometime last week. Checking the forecast for the next week, I found that everyday will be exactly the same - thunderstorms and showers. On the bright side, when it's not pouring, everything outside is green and beautiful, unlike when I first arrived in March when everything was bare and dreary. Since all the school playgrounds and soccer fields are sandlots and not grass, the kids hate the rain because it makes the ground muddy and unplayable very quickly. Over the last couple of months, I'd been stopping off on the way home from school here and there to play baseball with the boys, and more recently soccer. I even bought a soccer ball 2 weeks ago so that I can practice and not embarrass myself in front of the kids. Some of them are really, really good. The weather may put things on pause for a while though. I might need to find some different shoes to walk to school in too, since my sneakers are constantly rain-soaked now. Sandals?
In World Cup news, I was very disappointed that the SK and USA teams got knocked out in back to back games last week, but watching the remaining teams has still been exciting. There have been some major upsets, and there are now only 4 teams remaining: Uruguay, Netherlands, Germany and Spain. It's really hard to say who I think will advance to the final game, but many people are speculating that it will be Germany vs. the Netherlands, with Germany as the favorite now to win the World Cup.
On the school front, I have 2 weeks remaining until summer vacation begins. I'm really excited, but I am super busy right now with end-of-the-year stuff plus preparation for our school's 2 week English Summer Camp. The only positive thing about it is that I get to choose the lessons, activities and games for camp, so I'll finally have a chance to teach them "The Eyes of Texas" (way back in: Keep 'Em Up) among other lessons in Texas culture. Hook 'Em Horns!
Question of the week: Mel - Do a lot of people understand English in Korea?
Answer: Me - I can get by for the most part by speaking broken caveman English to people.
