Maeumi and the Magnolia Broken Hearts Club

Recently I found myself in one of those situations where you stop, look around, and wonder "how the hell did I get here?!"

It all started with Korean culture day, and the innocent idea of watching a Korean movie as a treat. I am alone on the floor with my 21 girls for 3/5 days a week, so Maggie, my amazing Korean co-worker, sat down to find us a movie for that evening. We thought to ourselves, let's find a movie that isn't so romance-centred! Let's find something with better messaging! So Maggie came across this Korean movie called Maeumi about a kid and a dog. She hadn't seen it, but it looked great. Not about boys, but doggies and family! The best!

Doesn't it look lovely?!

Even the trailer was totally heartwarming.

So we tell the girls we're going to watch something Korean, and they are AMPED. I turn it on.

A really, really important thing to remember about this story is that I do not speak Korean.
It starts and I decide to watch for fun. Initially, it was a wonderful film.

- There is a super, super cute kid with a tiny adorable little white lab puppy
- The dog's name is Maeumi
- She loves the dog and her older brother really loves her
- They do all kinds of things together and the girl grows and the lil puppy grows and everyone is really happy
This movie also had super, super intense orchestra music throughout.

Then, things take a HORRIBLE turn.

- The kids are playing on sleds on the ice having a lovely time until Maeumi falls through
- The little girl runs out to save her beloved puppy
- She falls through the ice
- SHE DIES.
- The brother is destroyed
- Maeumi lives but is also very sad

It was only 10 minutes in at this point.
I am surprised to find myself on the verge of tears.
What kind of movie is this?????? Doesn't she get saved? Nope. She dies. My girls are pretty upset, obviously. And things just spiral from there. Following her death:

- The brother hates Maeumi for killing his sister
- He leaves the dog tried up at the train tracks because he hates him and gets on the train without him. The dog gets free and runs along the train, but he can't keep up. It's very sad
- The dog walks aimlessly along the tracks forever. He carries a bowl he found at the dump so that people will give him water but he's not having much luck
- The dog sees the boy from afar but loses him
- The pound catches him. We all think it's over for Maeumi
- At the last second the boy sees Maeumi, hesitates, and then tells the pound people to let him keep the dog. We breathe a sigh of relief
- BUT, despite the reunion, the boy once again manages to lose Maeumi. The dog is apparently too much of a sad reminder of his lost sister

The girls, throughout all the scenes, gasp in horror, and cry out in sadness at the misfortune of Maeumi and this boy. The tears start to fall. I wasn't entirely sure of the plot (remember guys, no Korean), but the brother appears to now be homeless.

I won't even give a play by play. But suffice it to say, it only got worse from there. Just when Maeumi finally wins over the boy and they share moments of happiness and friendship, their fates continue to spiral into deep deep misfortune and suffering. The rest of the film included:
- Maeumi getting violent training to become a guard dog
- The dog and boy being beaten into bloody messes by a mean mean man
- The dog and boy almost starving on the streets (Maeumi at one point puts a newpaper on the boy to keep him warm, which, 1- great dog acting and 2- WOW so sad)
- The dog and boy ending up in a dog fighting ring and Maeumi has to fight a terrifying German Shepherd who is as mean as the mean mean man who owns him
- Maeumi fights to the death for the boy not once but TWICE and almost doesn't make it
- The boy finds his mother??? I think??? But she doesn't want to reunite or something????? It looked stressful
- Maeumi is blind and sick but the boy can't afford the vet bills so the poor lil beb just gets worse
- The boy is taken in a van and almost killed by the mean mean man, but Maeumi chases the van and finds the boy eventually and fights the mean mean man and the police come and everyone is rescued
- At the end of the movie, Maeumi dies in the boy's arms right before the reunion with the mom, BUT NOT BEFORE THE FILM PANS TO MAEUMI AND THE LITTLE SISTER BEING REUNITED (in heaven?) AS PINK PETALS FALL FROM THE SKY AND THE DOG AND GIRL RUN OFF TOGETHER HAPPILY AND LEAVE THE BOY BEHIND AND THE FILM ENDS WITH A BLACK SCREEN AND THE LITTLE GIRL'S VOICE LAUGHING AS SHE CALLS MAEUMI.

The credits rolled and the girls were SOBBING.
Like, SOBBING.
And here I am, a 25 year old woman WHO DOESN'T EVEN SPEAK KOREAN and I am barely keeping it together.

It. Was. Tragic. From beginning to end.
And maybe even mildly traumatizing.

A truly heart-wrenching tale with barely even a happy ending.
And there I was with 21 girls balling their friggin eyes out.

Maggie showed up, she wasn't even working, and was like WHAAAAT HAPPENEDDDDD and I was like, MAGGIE, MAEUMI IS DEADDDD!

And.

To make matters even worse, as I tried to soothe these WAILING girls (like, just sitting there, crying their eyes out and hugging each other), I find out that it was a TRUE STORY, so I can't even say that it was just a movie.

It took us probably 20-30 minutes to get them to all calm down. On the plus side, they were all asleep much earlier than usual because of all the emotional exhaustion, but ohhhhh myyyy GOD what a ridiculous time.

The next morning everything was back to normal and no long-term damage seemed to have been afflicted. There were, however, some very puffy eyes that day.

Who would have known?! Like, guys. Just watch the trailer.

Middle School Time Warp

Think back to your former self in grades six, seven, and eight. If I'm guessing correctly (I bet I am), it was probably a strange, strange time to be alive. Of course middle school is weird! You're like, literally growing into yourself, and people are starting to take you a little bit seriously, but you don't really have freedom, dating is suddenly this big confusing focus, the social scene is super touchy and mysterious, you still don't quite know what is going on in the world, and you have a lot of feelings most of the time. Teachers focus a lot on "picking the right paths", and there's this new pressure about "the future" and "going to university."

I mean, I was practically a Hanson brother back then. The word on the street was that I stuffed my bra (lies!) and this photo chronicles the recovery period after THE haircut (you know, the one that was 100% too short and you couldn't style it and your mom cried?).

I think we can all agree that middle school is just a flat out weird time. 

So for me, as a newly 25 year old woman, it's a little weird to be living in such close contact with middle schoolers. A few things happen:

- I'm constantly reminded of all the weird things that happen in middle school that my brain had evidently sealed off
- I feel HUGELY compassionate for my girls, especially when they have major emotional moments and unexpectedly mature existential crises
- I realize that no matter how many affirming/soothing things I tell their stressed hearts and minds, a lot of it might not really ring true for a while (things like: be yourself, it will be okay, this test won't matter in the grand scheme, and this is probably not who you are going to marry)

The thing is, they just need to get a few more years of life under their belts so they can do what I'm doing now, which is look back and laugh and maybe give a sigh of relief that middle school is in the past.

This job certainly stays interesting though! In some ways my position is slack compared to a full blown teaching job. We get to hang out and eat with the kids, our programming is fun, and we don't have to deal with curriculum and planning. On the other hand though, we are dealing with the kids when they are OUT of the classroom, which means that they are probably slightly more relaxed. I have a suspicion that when that 3:55 bell goes off, their best behaviour goes with it.

Anywayyyyyy.
In other news, I turned 25 on 09/09 and it feels great to reach a quarter of a century. I am pretty on board with aging since I feel like I'm becoming more myself all the time. I have a tiny section of grey hairs starting (no joke) and I think they look badass. My birthday was a great day!

The girls decorated the board and sang for me.

This AMAZING thing was given to me by Maggie, my colleague. You just add water and the Jeju moss grows! 

Cutting out the cupcakes for our birthday wall.

I have also been exploring quite a bit so here are some lovely photos:

Two seconds from our campus.

The right side is the middle school and the left is high school

Some fun shells I found at the beach

When you touch the sand here, it never ever leaves you.
 The little shell pieces vacuum seal to your skin and
you find sand in weird places like, a week after you swam

SO gorgeous

SO scary

ONE OF MY GIRLS DREW THIS OMG

Moseulpo, the closest little town to campus. I go there once in a while to mail stuff

Sanbangsan

GOD so beautiful. The gold things are buddhist prayer scrolls

A random historical boat that at one point held Dutch explorers who were captured and kept prisoner on Jeju

Mango shake deliciousness

Being a tourist

I should clearly be on a pamphlet.

I finally tried the McD's here. They even deliver! 

This amazing balcony in our dorms. The girls and I come out here for yoga.

Boy bands are HUGE here. This shopping bag is ON POINT! A post about K pop will be written in time.

Another day, another squid surprise.

OHHHH and our staff page came out! Feel free to creep my colleagues and I. 

The KIS dormies are a great looking crew. I nailed my staff photo, obviously:

Also, zillions of gold stars for sending me mail! I have received some wonderful letters (even one from a long-lost cousin) and it has been lovely.

In case you were desperately searching for my address:

Shila LeBlanc

Korea International School (L214) 34 Global Edu-ro 260beon-gil, 

Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, 699-931

Sending you love from South Korea! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I'd do unspeakable things for a turkey dinner. 

Also, for the record, I was (mostly) an adorable child:

Covers with Ms. Shila

On the weekends we run programs with the kids all day long. Our supervisor suggested that we organize clubs about things we were personally interested in, so naturally I decided to continue my newfound hobby of doing covers of pop songs.

We met on a Saturday afternoon, and in those first 30 minutes of our first session together, this was exactly how I felt:

Here I was, my typical enthusiastic self, and the kids were completely silent. There must have been some kind of mix up... these kids SIGNED UP for this club, so surely they wanted to make music!!! 

I asked if they liked to sing, and they replied that they did not. [false]

I asked if any of them could play instruments, and they replied that they did not. [false] 

I asked if any of them had artists they liked to listen to, and they said no one. [also false]

The attempt to break the ice was unsuccessful, so after a quick run down of some great cover groups, I set them to work to find a song they wanted to cover while I sat in a corner scheming about all the different ways I could disappear into the wallpaper. 

I was sweating.

BUT. 

By the end of that first session, the kids had chosen a song they liked. By the next one, the kids were slowly sorting out the arrangement and it was actually fun. We learned to do beat boxing. When I saw my kids in the hall they'd say hi with a beat box snare sound. We learned how to hear the different parts of a song. We started putting it all together. And slowly but surely, I discovered that these sneaky kids were actually very talented.

As it turns out, Korean kids are simply more concerned with humility than "standing out". The key was to discover their talents in less upfront ways. For example, while peeing, I heard a girl singing beautifully while she washed her hands. I came out of the stall and AHA! SHE WAS IN MY COVERS CLUB. From then on she was put on melody and totally nailed it. Another method was putting the song on REALLY LOUD and asking everyone to just sing with it. Once the shyness factor was mitigated, the kids flourished. And I was discovering all the individual strengths of these dumplings. Which were many!

I felt more and more excited. This was actually a great idea!

Finally, we were ready. We recorded it in only two takes, and for our very first attempt I'm super, super proud of these guys. They chose the song, they figured out the parts and learned them, and even overcame their intense self-consciousness of being recorded. Considering the initial level of reticence, it was a big win. Give it a listen, ideally with headphones since it's a tad on the quiet side.

I'm excited for our next session!!