Dear Host Family,

My name is Zoe, I am 15 years old. I live with my family in a small village near a big city in Germany.

I live together with my parents and my brother in a house. We have 2 dogs which make our family life very entertaining.

My brother is 22 years old and is currently only at home on weekends. He is a soldier and lives in another town. My mum is a travel agent and works in a home office and is therefore always at home. My dad works as a train driver. As he drives freight trains, he travels a lot in Germany and is only at home when his block is over, usually 10 days.

Now I would like to tell you more about me. I am currently in the 10th grade of secondary school. My favourite subjects are chemistry, sport and maths. But I also enjoy the other subjects, I really like being at school. After school we all go home together. At least I go home with our school bus, because the school is a bit far away from our small village. Then I do my homework at home. Here in Germany, there is less activity at school in the afternoon. There are various clubs where you can join. In my free time, I do a lot with my friends. We meet up, go shopping together, go to the cinema or even go out for burgers. I love reading books, it’s very nice to dive into other worlds while reading. I also love listening to music, which relaxes me and helps me concentrate on my homework. There is always something going on in our little village. Tradition is still very important here. I am involved in the local carnival club and dance in our guard group. Our funfair association organises a funfair in the village every year, and I am always actively involved as a “funfair girl”. Our tasks consist of helping to organise, set up and run the funfair. It’s a lot of work but it’s so much fun for me and my friends to be there. At the weekend I work in a hotel. I clean the rooms and help out in the kitchen. That’s how I earn a little extra money. It’s great fun and my colleagues are nice and helpful. But my biggest passion is our two dogs. Yoshy is an English bulldog and Lotte is our French bulldog. They are such funny and loving dogs, I love them more than anything. I do a lot of things with them. They love to go for big walks in the woods or romp around in the field. Otherwise, I also love to just lie on the couch with my family in the evening and watch TV. While doing so, we rest or have nice conversations. At home, each member of the family has his or her own household chores to do. We as a family always support each other. If I see that the rubbish is full, I take it out. If the dishwasher is clean, I clean it out. Here, everyone helps each other. The only real task is to keep my room clean and tidy, otherwise I love to support my parents. We love to cook or bake together at the weekend. We like to play board games or cards together. We have so much fun doing it and laugh a lot together. We are a great team together.

We travel a lot during the holidays. My parents, my brother and I all have a diving licence and love to dive. It’s fantastic to explore the underwater world and observe the many sea creatures. We love travelling to other countries, we just love the different culture and hospitality. We are very versatile and curious, we love camping, hiking, visiting other cities here in Germany or in our neighbouring countries. My favourite thing is to be on the beach, by the sea. It’s so nice to listen to the sound of the waves. This brings us to another hobby of mine, I love photography. Sunrises and sunsets are simply beautiful and have to be captured. Actually, it doesn’t matter where I watch the play of colours, whether in the forest, on the beach or in the city. It is simply too beautiful.

Everyone around me asks me why I want to go to the USA for a year. My answer is that I’m very interested in what it’s like to cope with the “new” everyday life without my beloved family. To speak, read and understand English all day. I am a shy girl at the beginning, I would like to get rid of this shyness and become much more confident through my year abroad. I hope to make new friends, friends for life.

Above all, I would like to experience the high school spirit for myself. I am very interested in how Americans spend their everyday lives. Is it like in the movies or series? I think less so, I’m that realistic. Nevertheless, I am very excited to have this new experience. I’m looking forward to new cultures, traditions and especially the food. I love to cook and bake, so maybe I can prepare my favourite German food for my new host family and you can cook or bake your favourite dishes with me. That would give me a lot of pleasure. How does an American family spend their holidays? Halloween? Thanksgiving? Christmas? New Year’s Eve? I would like to experience all of this together with my new family. As you can probably tell, I’m an absolute family person and love harmony, and a warm home where people feel comfortable, accept and respect each other.

So dear host family, I would now like to say goodbye in this letter. And maybe I have inspired you a little and I may accompany your family for a little while.

I would be very happy if we could write to each other or talk on the phone soon.

See you soon!

Yours,

Zoe