Dear future host family,

My name is Thorben but you do not pronounce the “h”. So it is basically just pronounced Torben. I am 15 years old and live in a single-family house with a beautiful garden in the countryside near Hamburg in Germany. My family has three cute cats whose names are Charlie, Lucky and Maxi. There is also my younger brother called Marten. My parent’s names are Marion and Tim and they both work in the insurance field. Together as a family we love to travel. We already visited Thailand, Bali, the US and many more places in Europe. It is always a wonderful experience to get away from home and visit places sometimes on the other side of the globe. I am always looking forward to the next adventure abroad, even though I enjoy being at home as well. I think of myself as an open-minded person. I love experiencing new impressions and other things especially of other culture. I would say that I am much more of an extroverted person and it is easy for me to talk to people I do not know. I am also energetic when it comes to doing the things I am passionate about. So all in all I love new things and experiences and I am open to every single one of them.

In my free time I play tennis with my friends at my local tennis club or with my dad or younger brother. It is so much fun and one of my favourite things to do. That is also why I sometimes give a few tennis lessons to beginners to earn some money. Furthermore I play the piano, which I really enjoy as well. Another thing I love is languages. In school I am learning English and Spanish but at home I am trying to teach myself Japanese because I just find this language so fascinating. While I play tennis on a serious level such as in tournaments and for my club in a league I also like table tennis and badminton. But I only play these for fun with my brother. I like sports in general and cannot think of even one, I do not really like. In school my favourite subjects are English, Mathematics and P.E. and even here I can only think of one subject I do not like as much as all the other ones and that is art because I am just not that talented at it. At home I am responsible for keeping my room clean and tidy, cleaning the children’s bathroom and for everything IT-related.

The reason why I want to spend a whole year in the US is because of my family’s trip to the US in 2022. I was so fascinated by this great country, the mind-blowing landscapes and the megacities. The US is just so completely different from what we have here in Europe, which I enjoy a lot. And then there is the people. Americans are just more open and very friendly. I loved the completely different way of life. I would love to be part of this and I can hardly wait to experience it all. And as a side effect I would be able improve my English, which I also love as a language.

Thank you so much in advance for making this dream come true and letting me experience this and thank you for letting me be a part of your family. I hope we will share many wonderful memories together.

I cannot wait to finally get to know you, hopefully very, very soon.

Warm regards,
Thorben