WHO CAN TAKE A SUNRISE?

Sprinkle it with dew?
Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two…
The candyman, the candyman can,
The candyman can 'cause he mixes it with love
and makes the world taste good…

No word of a lie. If you watch a movie for 3 weeks in a row you can do one of two things. You can learn to detest it, or you can realize how much you love it. I am pleased to announce that after my 3rd Monday viewing of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, I confess to loving the film. It’s not “Wizard of Oz”, but then again, nothing is.

This is the first of the 3 weeks I stay awake for the entire film and I was engrossed. A lot of the songs are lame, Charlie Bucket really isn’t very good, but that about covers the negatives. Gene Wilder was never better and that include “Young Frankenstein” which is brilliant. He conveys the wildness and hysteria he’s known for in some parts, but his sarcasm is on the mark. It is truly a great performance. He made me laugh. I remember liking it when seeing it with Elana and Leah, but not loving it. I asked my sister Elyse if her kids had seen it, and she said, “they love it”. This is not a movie for just kids. I cannot recommend enough that if you’ve never seen it, see it. If it’s been a long time, see it. If you have no kids, see it anyway. And the Oompa-Loompa’s are just too much.

I had to give blood this morning at the hospital in Ilsan. I haven’t had blood work in 6 months, so it’s time. The lab opens at 7AM and I was there shortly after as I had to be back at school before 8:30. You go to the machine which dispenses numbers and a board shows what number is up now. I like that. You sit in the hall waiting your turn and it doesn’t take long. You go in and you sit across the desk from the phlebotomist, and she checks you’re the right person. Then she swabs you, sticks you, gives you a cotton and out you go. It was quick. And, they don’t put the cotton on with tape, so if you’re like me and have hairy arms, that’s good. They also don’t use gloves which surprised me. I don’t know if that’s a danger to me, but I would think it might be a problem with them. So I was in and out in record time, and I was pleased about that. Sometimes things work properly here.

Since I was in Ilsan and it was 7:30 I thought I’d check and see if the Starbucks was open yet. I doubted it, but I was wrong. They were open and waiting for me. It was just like the old days of morning Starbucks before starting work. I was thrilled. I got coffee and a muffin and I was in heaven. If I worked in Ilsan, I could spend about $3 a coffee every day! (This is a regular coffee, not a specialty coffee). So the day was most good so far. Now I had to go and see what the gods of schoolchildren would deliver to my classroom.

My luck held. They aren’t Einstein’s, in fact, not even close. But they are mostly 3rd year students who don’t know a lot but you can talk to them. And they aren’t annoying. If they talk too much I’ll say something to the offending student like, “okay, you go up to the front and teach since you like to talk so much”. They get suitably embarrassed.

I started to read the first chapter of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and after a few paragraphs I’d stop and ask for questions. There is no way they understand all the words. The questions weren’t coming which is the one way to annoy me. I went into my standard speech about how I don’t care if they don’t know something, I care that they ask. I actually got through. As I would read more and stop, more questions were coming. Not all the kids were asking, but I’d say half asked at least one question. I love when that happens. I think I inspire them to ask questions because some words are just too hard to explain so I use my English-Korean dictionary and I’ll try and say it in Korean. Most of the time it’s a guessing game as to what I’m trying to say. Then I give up and play the speech that the dictionary does, pronouncing the word. They love that too.

After that we watched the movie. I asked if they liked it and they said yes. I don’t know if they were being polite or if they really did like it. I played it with English subtitles so they could read and listen. I hope they understood a lot of it. At least I enjoyed it. So there is hope for this week. We will do a movie because I think they have brains to come up with something so that’s good. After last week it wouldn’t take much to get me pumped up.

I went out Saturday night to Seoul to meet Robert for dinner. First we went to a bar without B-girls because I’ve been there, done that, and donated to the cause. I just had 1 drink. I’m really in the mood to go to a bar and have a few drinks. Probably 4 is my limit and they wouldn’t be Bloody Mary’s because the tomato juice is horrible here. I think I’d like either Vodka and lemonade or Vodka and cranberry juice. After our drink we went for Turkish food to a place he knows. We had these Gyro type things in something like pita bread. It was thicker than pita but quite good. The whole thing was inexpensive and good. It was a nice change from American chains and just steak or hamburgers. Kudos to Robert for suggesting that restaurant.

When I was in Seoul I saw a poster for a Metallica concert on August 15th. Now there is no way I would consider going to that, but I did give a note to Ooh-Ri’s mother today to give to Ooh-Ri mentioning the concert since she said she loves Heavy Metal. Her mother looked pleased I was sending a note to her daughter. It’s creepy in a way.

I also saw a place in Seoul where “Nunsense” is playing. I’ve never seen it but I can’t see it in Korean for my first time. I also saw a poster for “Grease”. I might go to that. I’m not a “Grease” fan, but seeing it in Korean with Korean greasers might be kind of fun.

I know I’m up and down like a yo-yo. The good thing is that at this moment in time I’m up. I have been up since yesterday afternoon and I like it. When I get like this I feel like I’ve hit a turning point, but of course it usually isn’t. But I can hope.