Reunion
10 years is a long time, and that’s how long I haven’t met the host family since 2013 when they visited Korea. As I was waiting at the airport (and oh it is a small airport), I was wondering what it would be like to meet them again! And soon I spotted Grant (host brother), who had mustaches! And after Tara (host mom), who had more grey hair than before, but still the same smile and vibes!
It was kind of surreal to meet them again, and it reminded me of a moment we met for the first time in 2010 (13 years ago!!), when I arrived in the US not knowing how that would change my life forever. We got into the car, where I met Greg (host dad), who seemed almost the same (but looking back at the photos from 2013, definitely looks a bit different) in a new car, and headed towards the house.
Pizza night
Perhaps not surprisingly, they have moved the house, so we were passing by a nearby highschool’s football field as we drove. Then we pulled into a garage that had the exact same, damp, iconic smell that I remember, full of various tools and devices (just like it was 13 years ago!).
We were planning on making some Pizzass, and Mikayla (host sister) and Zach (husband of Mikayla) were coming! After a short discussion, I met Peach, a cute 8-year old (?) dog they had, learned about Mel (cat that was hiding at that time). Then, we went downstairs to meet the grandparents of Tara.
So apparently they were the ones who brought the electric scooter that we rode at our front yard, but I didn’t have exact memory of meeting them. I met the parents of Tara, as well as the aunt (sister of Grandma), who, although was a bit healthier, was apparently older than the grandma!
It was cool to reunite with them and it seemed like they for sure remembered meeting me couple of times before, which was amazing, and oh is the grandma so friendly & fun to talk with! We then headed upstairs to greet Mikayla and Zach.
As Mikayla walked in, Tig, which is a huge dog they have suddenly jumped on me, which surprised me quite a bit. Then, as I was saying hi to Mikayla, I w
as surprised by how familiar she looked, and then Zach, who I’ve seen from facebook photos from their wedding, gave a welcoming hug.
We then started making the pizza, by putting the tomato sauce on the prepared pizza dough (which I assumed to be an unathentic ‘american’ dough, from Italian cuisine perspective, but later was surprised by how crusty & delicious it was!), and we made in total around 5 different pizzas.
We found a burning oat bread (?) in the oven which was causing so much smoke, and then was able to finish up cooking the pizzas. We then set around the couch (just like we used to in the old house too!) and had dinner together, and we prayed before, which gave me a lot of nostalgia of the old days.
The time flew by and we discussed about various memorable moments from 2010 like Mikayla and Tara arguing in the Kitchen, Mikayla’s cakes, Playing Skippo game, etc. And it was so fun to re-connect & remember all the details that I forgot about (Wearing mis-matching socks to mimic Mikayla, doing fake coughs to mimic Greg, etc.)!
Vala’s Pumpkin Patch
This may sound crazy but Pumpkin patch is a traditional thing from pumpkin farms around the US they do after the harvesting season, to have extra income & provide fun activities to the guests from the farmers. BUT, in Omaha, they have the “Vala’s” Pumpkin Patch, which is basically one of the biggest ones in the US, where they have literally a full amusement-park scale farm with various attractions that you can try.
So naturally, we decided to visit there, and man was it fun! It sounds like a fairy-tale, but we shot apples with a machine-gun looking compressor guns, played a piano triggering robot chickens singing a note, saw a singing tractor, pumped water with a pump for fun, pulled up haystacks to test our strengths, saw a pig race and cheered for the purple pig and got a pig nose as a reward, visited a pumpkin field by getting pulled by a tractor!
It was genuinely so cool how the farmers could provide such amazing activities and utilize their farm after harvesting season, just like how Swiss cable-cars are used for hikers in summer and skiers in winter. Who would’ve thought of opening such farmer’s amusement park, and create a culture around it! And the fact that Omaha had this was so cool, as I could tell my friends something amazing other than a lot of cornfields about Omaha, Nebraska (other than just being a special place for me as I grew up here).
We had so much fun in the park, and we got out and headed over to the chinese take-out place (that we visited a LOT in 2010), then took out some dishes and headed back home, where we had a dinner with the grandparents. We actually had a prayer at the end together to finish the day, and I also did one! (rusty but still got it!), and as being at Grant’s made more sense for the Church the next day (Sunday), we headed out soon afterwards.
Church on Sundays
Going to Church on Sundays was definitely one of the most consistent things we did as a family back then, and they still did, so we (Grant, Mikayla, and me) decided to join the 9 am Serving where actually Zach was playing the electrical guitar for the band!
As we entered (later I was surprised to learn that Warren Buffet’s high-school is right across this Church!), we were greeted and got some coffee and donuts, and after a quick song the pastor came on-stage and started to preach.
Since we used to go to a HUGE church, and this one was much smaller (~100 people in the audience), it was really a different experience to be there, and I was really amazed by the singers who definitely could have been on America’s got talent, in my perspective.
The preach itself was quite interesting, as the pastor was really making a lot of funny jokes and talking about love and care by referencing his experience of going to a Subway store and feeling like the sandwich wasn’t made with love, etc. He was literally half-comedian and half-pastor.
I also learned that few rows in front, there were 2 chinese boys who were doing the similar exchange program that I did as 9 year old, and it really felt like a scene in the film Interstellar, of looking my own past from a distance. I really hope that those boys have a good & profound experience living with an American family!
Dog park & Lunch
We brought Tic to the park and walked around the area and discussed about what Mikayla was upto, helping the homeless in the area and organizing events at the community center. I was genuinely surprised & impacted by how much she was actually at the forefront of helping the homeless, and it made a lot of sense as she was always a very kind person & was willing to help others!
We discussed about other organizations doing similar services, how the government funded ones weren’t effective & treated the homeless badly and got shut down, etc. It was really inspiring and I was very happy that she was doing that!
We then headed for a lunch at a mall (oh and do these big malls really remind me of just how big US is!) with the grandparents, and then headed out.
Carbonara dinner
I really wanted to cook something for the family, so I proposed making a Carbonara, a classic Italian dish from Rome, since that was my signature dish that I would always cook for my girlfriend / friends. Grant amazingly was able to find all the ingredients (we didn’t have Guanciale nor Pecorino, so we used diced Pancetta and Parmesan) while I was having a meeting with my co-founder team member.
We then headed over to the parent’s house and Tara was cooking the pistachio-nut loaf, and I started cooking Carbonara (Vegeterian, Gluten-free, and Normal variations!). It was fun to watch Grant helping out making an Italian Carbonara, and it was quite cool that we were now grown-ups and was able to serve the family, instead of being small boys who needed the care.
Overview
Omaha was my hometown back in 2010, and it always will be. During this trip I realized just how special our time together back then was, and got to really appreciate the companionship we built together that lasted this long!!
What more can I say, I hope to meet them again in the future, and to come back to Omaha!
Junwoo Hwang 