Back to Busan

A group of us traveled to Busan on Wednesday for an overnight stay before we visited our "meaningful places" on Thursday. Meaningful places could be whatever we wanted. Some took the day to spend time with their newfound families. Others went to where they were found, dropped off, abandoned, or cared for (foster homes or orphanages). And myself? I went to Jinhae-gu to see the building where I was born... which is now a dental clinic. But more on that later.

We stayed near the "Street of Youth." I roomed with Kim (from Germany). 

We ate pork and beef BBQ. Don't get me started on why we went to a MEAT restaurant when we were in Busan where fresh, raw seafood is plentiful and delicious. But it happened. Anyways...

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We wandered into a selfie studio. These un-manned "studios" are all over Seoul and Busan. You can go into little rooms where they have a photo booth machine and you pay depending on how many copies you want. Or you do what we did and use the props and take photos. These places would smell like urine, have homeless people sleeping in them, and trash everywhere in the US... but not here. 

From left: Seattle Kim, Christine (staff), me, Lisa, Pat (in the back, volunteer), Lindsey, Jonathan

Christine & I

The next day we ventured onto our "meaningful places." Funny enough, my original partner on this day was Jonathan (an adoptee from Dallas) but he got covid before he even left America. We ended up spending this day together anyways. We traveled to Changwon which is a city about 45 minutes to the west of Busan. In 2010, Changwon absorbed Masan (where Jonathan was dropped off at a children's home) and Jinhae (where I was born). 

We were picked up by the loveliest couple 박은경 (Park Eungyeong or "Joanna") and 안승태 (Ahn Seungtae or "Tom"). 

From left: Jonathan, me, Joanna, and Tom

But get this. I mentioned that the maternity clinic is now a dentist office, right? Tom went to school with the dentist! Such a small world. So we went inside and had tea with the dentist. He's been practicing here since 1995, but he took over the space after it had already been a dental office for 8 years. That means the maternity clinic only operated for a maximum of 4 years after I was born. He also said that this building was one of the only buildings that hasn't been torn down and rebuilt since that time period. I was literally standing in an office where I was born, put next to my 엄마 (mother), and stayed for a few days before being taken to Seoul. The dentist invited me back to get dental work done LOL. 

I don't quite remember how old I was when my baby teeth were all falling out and needing pulled, but I'd like to pretend that it was around the time the maternity clinic turned into a dental clinic. 😆

부민치과 (Bumin Dental Clinic)

Me & the Dentist!