Dear host family,

My name is Jan, I am 16 years old and I come from the south of Germany. Together with my family, I live in a small town with about ten thousand inhabitants. We own a house where I live with my parents and my brother Ben. As my brother is only slightly younger than me, we share many hobbies like playing handball or playing an instrument in an orchestra. We always have fun together and can laugh about everything. As we like to travel a lot as a family, we have already seen a lot of the world, which I personally love very much. My favorite trip was to the USA. In 2016, we travelled by car from New York via Toronto and Green Bay to Minneapolis. This was really a great adventure for me, as I was only 8 years old.

I’m currently in the 10th grade at the high school. My favorite subjects are sports and geography. I have had to do two internships at school. During the ninth grade, I did a mandatory internship at a social institution where I helped children with their homework in the afternoon. In tenth grade, however, we were free to decide where we wanted to do our internship. At the end, I chose an architect’s office, because I am very interested in this profession. I really liked it there.

I like to do a lot of sports. I play Handball through the whole year, three times a week in a club. During wintertime, me and my friends like to ski. I love to play soccer and basketball with my friends, where we always have a lot of fun. Another major hobby is playing the trumpet in an orchestra, where we practice once a week. In general, I am very interested in sports and looking forward to new sports in the US, as this is totally different compared to Germany. I also go to church regularly as I am also a server and involved in the Catholic church.

I really enjoy meeting up with friends to do sports, but also just to hang out and have fun. My family tries to meet up with other families as often as possible. Sometimes we go away for the weekend or even to vacation. This is always a lot of fun, and we have a good time together. As I like being together with my family, I would say that I am a real family person. I do think it’s great that we always celebrate festivities like Christmas and birthdays together.

I would like to do a high school year in the USA because I am very interested in the country itself, as it has many different regions, landscapes and people. I think it’s great to get to know a new culture and make new friends. Of course, one major reason is improving my English. My goal would be to become more fluently after 10 months. and becoming more independent. I also want to be more self-confident, as I tend to be a bit quiet, when environments are new or I don´t know the people quite well. But when I feel comfortable after a while, I also get on very well with all kinds of people and I can adapt well. My strength definitely includes the ability to work in a team, as I love doing sport as part of a team. On top I am reliable and responsible in tasks I have to do or in activities I do with my friends.

Ultimately I would like to thank you very much for welcoming me into your family for ten months and giving me the opportunity to live together with you. I am really looking forward to it as this experience will be a huge adventure in my life.