Dear Host Family!

I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to you for being ready to receive me in your home! I hope this year will be a wonderful experience for both me and you 🙂

Let me tell you about myself and my family. My name is Daria, I’m 14 years old, I come from East Siberia, but at the moment I spend most of my time in Turkey. My family is small and we rarely meet as a whole, since we live in different countries. The oldest member of my family is my nana, she’s 69 years old, she lives in our homeland, in Siberia, she likes to cook, walk with her dog Jessica and crochet, crocheting is her favorite hobby, she taught me a little bit about it. I live with my mother and stepfather, they’re doctors by education, my mother’s main hobby is gaining new knowledge in her professional field, she also likes to read, her favorite book is “Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat”, the first of a series of books about Prostokvashino. According to her, it brings her back to her childhood and gives her pleasant emotions. My stepfather is interested in cryptocurrency, his new but definitely favorite hobby. I also have an older sister, a philologist by training, who now lives in Vietnam and is engaged in jewelry made of shells and metal. When we’re all together, we like to have family feasts, talk about life, sometimes sing and dance, as it happens on New Year’s Eve.

If we talk about my personality and temperament, I’d say that I’m a quick–adapting, calm person, but at the same time I can sometimes be very shy – this’s my disadvantage.

I consider volunteering and learning foreign languages to be my main hobbies, and I currently study three languages – Czech, English and, of course, Turkish. If we talk about sports, before moving to Turkey, I practiced tennis, it was quite a long time ago, so I almost completely lost this skill, but I want to resume classes at the first opportunity! I also really like long walks, when I lived in Anapa, my friends and I liked to walk around the city or to the sea, each time we walked an average of about 20-25 thousand steps. I think this could be the end of my story about hobbies, but I want to mention that I have a little fishing experience, it was a long time ago, but if I get the opportunity to go fishing again, then I’d love to. As for family traditions and holidays, I’d say that New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday, because most of the time it’s New Year’s Eve when the whole family gathers, and my grandmother prepares an amazing festive table that contains our favorite dishes, such as olivier salad or baked fish. It’ll be a great pleasure to share with you our family recipes and prepare traditional Russian dishes.

From this experience, I’d like to make new acquaintances, get to know American culture better, and practice my English. But I also want not only to acquire something, but also to bring it! I’ll be very happy to share with you our culture, customs, traditional cuisine, and also, if you wish, I’m ready to teach you the basics of the Russian language 🙂

Thank you again for being willing to take me in. I hope that our meeting will take place as soon as possible, I look forward to it!