You may have heard of Busan, well known for its vibrant beaches, sky scrapers, and big city life Busan is Korea’s 2nd largest city, following Seoul. If you’re like me, you may not have heard of Yangsan, which is still thought of as a remote farming village by many.
However, Yangsan has gone through an incredible transformation in the past decade or so. Yangsan is now home to plenty of apartments, malls, other infrastructure, and new cafes, restaurants, and 술집 (drinking houses) pop up seemingly overnight.
How did I find myself here, of all places?
While I ask myself this on a regular basis, I do have the short version for you, lovely reader.
After participating in a language program in Busan at Pusan National University, I got connected with someone from a biotech start up, which specializes in cancer therapeutics. The main lab and research offices were located at Pusan National University Yangsan Campus Hospital. When I got the job offer, I was surprised to hear “Yangsan”, as I had visited once before during the language program. My roommate had family there, and I remember visiting a lovely park with a garden of LED roses. Fast forward a couple months, and I was living smack in the middle of my office, that park, and my roommate’s parents’ apartment. It seemed like fate!
While it’s easy to miss home or think about the exciting life of Busanites, I do appreciate this town and the place I’ve found in it. Walking to work, on my right is a gorgeous mountain, Obongsan, where I’ve hiked and soul searched, and met some interesting characters. I can even see my favorite spot along the ridge, where a single tree stands out against the sky. To my left, is a slightly less flattering sea of apartment buildings. And just out of sight are a series of rivers and streams that boast fantastic bike paths that can take you to Busan, or even Seoul! Yangsan is a wonderful place to be outdoors.
If you ever find yourself in Yangsan, you may even see the town mascots, Yangi and Sani promoting the Active Yangsan initiative.
Yangsan is lovely, and more lively than its preceding reputation as a rural farming village, but since it is built around young families and apartment living, I am glad that it’s attached to the subway line. If I want to go shopping, see some new sights, or meet friends at the beach, I can hop on at a station near me, pay less than $2 and arrive in roughly an hour. One of my favorite areas in all of Busan is Amnam park, where fishermen and tour boats can be seen on any pleasant day. There are even dinosaurs! In addition to the views and photo ops, there is a peaceful rock climbing crag where the rocky cliffs meet the sea, introduced to me by my rock-climbing dad, Dong-Il.
Apart from my climbing dad, birth parents, and Kiwi soul sister, I’ve found even more family here in the Busan KADs group. I was introduced by another Korean American Adoptee named Meghan before the COVID 19 pandemic. She has since gone back to the US to continue her story, but the Busan KADs are doing well. We’re a small group, but adding members slowly. We don’t meet nearly often enough, nor regularly, for that matter, but I have found good friends and supporters in this group. We’re mostly American, and some have lived here a few years, like me, while others have been in Korea for over a decade or two.
We are currently 12 people total, with a few honorary members who’ve since moved away. Being a small group, I’ve really gotten to know the folks here, and I feel like I know a very intimate side of their lives and vise versa. We share a unique understanding of the challenges of adoptees living in Korea, and it was even at the apartment of one of these KADs that my mom first met my birthdad.
I actually just met up with some adoptees the weekend before I was asked to write for IAM. My friend, who I met on a Facebook Asian Adoptee group, lives in Incheon and came down to visit. After a message to the Busan KADs group, we we’re good to go. We met a photographer from Gimhae, who was just added to the Busan KADs group, and we talked about everything under the sun, including the shootings in Atlanta. Under normal circumstances, especially in Korea, I don’t know if I could jump into a conversation like that with someone I was just meeting, but the shared struggle of the Korean-American adoptees at this time completely dissipated those social barriers. It’s a unique privilege of being an adoptee.
It wasn’t until this last year through GOAL’s Jeju trip that I realized how many Adoptees are living in Seoul, and by then, I had already built quite a circle of friends here. While the temptation to go up to Seoul and work with GOAL and the large adoptee community will persist, for now, my time and place in the world is here.
I had a lot of surprises coming to Korea, some good and some not so good. I never expected to meet so many adoptees from around the world, nor did I ever dream of meeting so many adult adoptees going through such similar experiences and making similar decisions. Being adopted has presented its challenges, but the reward has been great. I am part of a unique community that is connected through shared understanding, experience, and a predisposition to listen to each other. I’ve never felt more heard, or should I say, read?
