First Off: GO BRUINS!!!!! December 3rd, BABY, December 3rd!!
The season started and I believed...mphhh, ha ha ha. Sorry, no. I didn't give a crap. Honestly. I didn't give a single darn about UCLA and their returning .500 squad. I just didn't care. Maybe I had a glimmer of hope for the basketball team (tee hee), but the football team was a write-off. I may have decided to pay attention to the other American's alma mater, Georgia, so I could mock him if they ever lost, or sympathize with him if they ran the table and got screwed by the BCS on their way to a third place finish in the polls (Now that's just kind of sad. What with their quarterback down and all. I really hope their defense can beat Florida next week. I really do.), but I kind of figured we'd always be mocking UCLA more.
NOT ANYMORE BABY!!! USC's going DOWN!!!
I can't really watch the games, though, that's not great. And, granted, there are still three more games on the schedule, and a team with UCLA's history of late season flops can't afford to look past Stanford and the two Arizonas. But now, now that they've finally had a good, solid PAC-10 win over Oregon St. I'm beginning to believe. All the way from Bulgaria, I'm beginning to believe. They had my full and undivided attention after the Cal win two weeks ago, and I was glad to see them survive Washington St on the road. But now we have something. And we could have the NEW Greatest Game Ever if everything works out okay for three more weekends. Just three more weekends and weeks of practices. After that, UCLA could have a championship game, Maurice Drew could win the Heisman, and USC could have humiliations galore. But that's looking really far ahead, isn't it? Let's focus on the present.
On Friday, it occured to me that most Bulgarians probably haven't seen "The Princess Bride." I've never seen it on television here, and no student has ever mentioned it as their favorite movie. I don't know how things are now, but when I was in high school, I'll bet that out of 200 odd students, one would have said that the "Princess Bride" is their favorite flick. So I thought it might be fun to show my more advanced class one of my favorite films. I brought in my DVD player, and I got a student to lug the TV to the classroom and we sat down to watch.
The great thing about "The Princess Bride" is that you're experiencing the story with Fred Savage as it's being told. His proto-Wonder Years kid complains about all the slow bits you want to complain about and celebrates when you want to celebrate. So you always get to see the film with someone seeing it for the first time, but I'd never watched it with 25 teenagers who'd never seen it, and that was an amazing experience.
I used the English subtitles on the DVD so they could understand the English that much better (After all, I finally figured out what Andre the Giant was saying in one line watching the movie with subtitles. That guy really had a muffled voice). They payed attention the through the whole movie and really, really got into it. Some were sold after the greatest swordfight ever between Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes. And everyone was sold after Wallace Shawn's laughing fit/sudden death. They all made fun of the special effects in the fire swamp, and I could certainly see what they were saying, but we have to suspend disbelief don't we? They learned new grammar when I pointed out my favorite line in the movie: "We are men of action. Lies do not become us." They didn't know what "become" meant in that context. I'll admit I've probably never used "become" that way myself, but some people may find it useful.
Oh, and they also learned a new word: "Inconceivable!" "Unimaginable," I told them, and they got that.
Near the end of the movie, the class bell rang and I got up to get everything ready. When I made a move for the DVD player, they all yelled "NO!!" and we sat through the rest of the movie. They cheered when Westley got up off the bed, and when Inigo finally got his revenge. They actually cheered and clapped. I don't think I've seen a crowd get into a movie like that here in Bulgaria. It was a lot of fun. Easily the best movie day I've done in class.
Until I find the next great movie in my collection I've forgotten about, I'll just have to get my kicks from paying attention to the Bruins and their run to the title. GO BRUINS!!!!!
Posted by Rob at October 23, 2005 02:25 PM