Dear Host Family,

Let me introduce myself and, first of all, let me thank you for taking the time to read my letter. My name is Nicolas, I am 15 years old, and I live in a town in the province of Seville (Spain).

Given that I intend to spend a school year as part of your family I think you should know a bit about mine. My family has five members: my father who works selling solar panels, my mother who used to work as a lawyer but now works at my house taking care of me and my siblings, my sister who is 11 years old is in sixth grade, my brother who is 9 years old and is in fourth grade, and last but not least me, Nicolas.

I love my family and I think they are very kind, and we have a lot of fun together, even if my siblings can be quite annoying sometimes, but I guess that is part of being a family and living under the same roof. What I like most about my parents is that they are very patient and always keep their promises and what I like most about my siblings is that they admire and respect me a lot.

I don’t have hobbies as such, but I am in a scout group, with which we meet every Friday and we’ve been a few times camping in different places in Andalusia. Last summer I went, together with a group of 47 scouts for almost 2 weeks to Matalascañas and to El Ronquillo, and over there we did plenty of activities such as surfing, camel riding, hikes and we made time to paint the church of the town we were at as part of the community work which comes together with being a scout.

I also do some sports like swimming and soccer, which I specially enjoy because I have been playing this sport since I was five years old. Currently I am in my school’s soccer team with my friends, I train twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. I am not currently competing, but I will in a couple of weeks. Right now, we are ten players in the team that is why we play indoor soccer, but I would really like to play like the professionals with eleven players on the field and on grass, but we don’t have enough players for that. I currently play as center forward; I would also like to start going to the gym next year because I would like to bulk up. In my free time in the weekdays, I like to watch TV but if I must study or do homework I do them before because, as my parents say: first the obligation then the fun.

And on weekends I like to play video games, although my parents always have plans with their friends, so we usually go for lunch with their friends and kids. Many weekends during wintertime, we go to my uncle and my Aunt’s country house with my little cousins of 9, 7, and 3 years old. Usually most of my mom’s family come over as well, my grandparents and the rest of my uncles, aunts and cousins

In Winter we usually go to my grandmother’s house in Madrid, where my other cousins and uncle and aunt live. All those cousins are over 18 years old. We also hang out with some friends, one of whom currently plays for Real Madrid FC.

I am sure you would like to know a little bit more about me before you make up your mind. My personal strengths are sports, responsibility, I’m a good student and fast learner, and I can help with the little children. And what I am working at to improve is to express my feelings better and be patient when performing certain tasks. We experienced during COVID-19 a total lockdown for 5 months which was very challenging to live through and I overcame it by having family fun such as playing board games all together, making video chats with our families, and also had my fun by playing video games online with my friends. I think I am a good candidate because I can add responsibility and help with the house chores. I also integrate very quickly with groups and with people and I have a great motivation for this program because although I have been living in the US before, it was with my family, with the Spanish traditions and culture, and I would really like to live there and live and learn the true American traditions and culture because I think it is a very interesting culture and all the “phases” the Americans have gone through.

I would be very grateful to you for letting me be part of your family because family for me is a very important part of my life and I look forward to sharing this awesome experience with you!

Sincerely,

Nicolas