The Views

This afternoon & evening were busy spending time with the group. We went on a bus ride to Yongdusan Park, where you can ride up 120 meters to the top of Busan Tower to have 360 degree views of the city. It puts into perspective how sprawling Busan is (the second largest city in the country), but to be honest, the whole time I was looking out over it I just thought about how I was born somewhere out there, and my birth mother was out there too. It's a crazy thing to wrap your mind around, coming back to a place you never really thought about only to realize there's such a huge chunk of your personal history left to be discovered here.

We took an elevator up to the top

Other notable areas around the park...

Young lovers leave hearts and lockets to proclaim their everlasting love on the archways and fences around the tower

This huge bell is rung on New Years

I love those trees in the background

We hopped back on the bus to drive to Gwangalli, a part of the city that claims to be one of the most popular and romantic destinations anywhere in Korea. 

Gwangalli Beach

Starting to get darker

Terrible picture, but you can see the strip of neon-lit restaurants and hotels that make this area light up at night. For a Sunday, it was hopping!

Another bad shot, but this is Gwangan Bridge, one of the most striking features of Busan due to the 100,000 LEDs that light up at night and create a variety of multi-colored effects

Dinner was an experience. First, we went to a small fish market where all these Korean women were hawking their wares.

She was quite animated

They shout at you to look at what they have (they all essentially have the same things) and go kinda crazy showing off all their fish. There were also squid, octopus, prawns, eels, sea cucumbers and urchins, and endless other iffy looking things. 

Once you've picked out what you want to eat for dinner, they literally wrangle them into a basket, pound on the fish or cut their heads off, and give them to a guy with a bucket, who will take them up to the restaurant. We followed him up to the 5th floor and they turned all that yucky looking stuff into some pretty yummy looking stuff. I have to admit..I played it safe with prawns. This is not a time for me to be adventurous with eating.

Getting the group's fish

Cutting off heads

Mmm..nothing like some sharp teeth with your fish stew

My prawns

Michael eating "live" octopus. The tentacles are still moving around and squirming as you put them in your mouth, and you have to chew really well, or else they will stick to your throat on the way down.

Jenni, Noelia and Trina; I forgot to mention that the fish freak out in their tanks when you walk by. Noelia and I got soaked by one of them. I vowed to take a shower the moment I got back.

The night quickly turned into a soju fest, and it is actually two of the staff member's birthdays today and tomorrow, so we left dinner to head to another venue, called The Party Room. 

Quite literally, it was a party room, complete with an indoor pool if things really get rowdy

Weird

At this point in the night, I was completely sober from my lack of soju, and feeling a bit faint from the dinner adventure, so I actually headed out. I heard that not long after I left, the karaoke started. They were also supposed to have a group discussion and watch a movie about adoptees, but I have doubts that will happen. I took a cab back to the guest house and took a nice long shower - alone. It feels so nice to have this place to myself for once. No one else is here, since they are all still at the Party Room so I can actually blog in peace and quiet, and get mentally prepared for tomorrow.

I couldn't really think about it too much this weekend or I would literally feel nauseous. I don't know how my nerves will hold up tomorrow, let alone how much sleep I will be able to get tonight, but I'm pretty tired so I'm hoping my body beats my brain. It's difficult to comprehend how monumental it is to meet a complete stranger who brought you into this world, only to give you up the day you were born and then be reunited with 30 years later. From the adoptee point of view, we have tons of conversations and discussions around the crazy feelings and emotions we have, post-reunion services like mental health talks and support systems, and it's an ongoing process to understand and grow from all of it. One adoptee told me that when he met his birth family, the thing that stuck out to him most of all was that they did not understand or comprehend anything he was going through internally. To them, we are simply members of their family that were sent away and have now returned - a joyous, if not guilt-inducing, event. But there is so much more to it than that for us.

I went into this journey thinking that the reunion would answer my questions of the past and give me some kind of closure - but what I have been told is that the reunion is only the very beginning. What happens afterwards can sometimes be the hardest part. I have no idea what to expect tomorrow. I am still trying to go into it with an open mind, although I do have a lot of answers  I want to get out of all of this. It may take awhile for me to get my head wrapped around everything that happens in the morning, but I will update as soon as I can sort things out. Tomorrow will surely be life-changing, good or bad, I have no idea. For now, I just need sleep.