Sooo, jetzt komm ich echt langsam zum Ende meiner ganzen Bewerbungsunterlagen. Heute hab ichs endlich geschafft meinen Gastfamilienbrief zu schreiben! Ich hab ganze 6 Stunden gebraucht, hab aber auch irgendwie richtig viel geschrieben :O Ich dachte ich kopier den jetzt mal hier rein, falls jemand das liest kann er mir gern schreiben, was er davon hält bzw. was ich noch verbessern kann, ich würde mich freuen! (:
Dear
host family,
First
of all I would like to thank you for giving me the amazing
opportunity to spend a year in the United States, be part of your
family and experience many new things! In this letter I try to give
you an impression of who I am and how I live by introducing my
family, friends, hobbies and home.
My
name is Kathrin (my friends often call me Caty) and I'm a 15-year-old
girl from Bavaria, Germany.
I
was born in xxx, which is a small town in xxx, when I
was 4 years old my family and me moved to a town called xxx.
It's located about 30 miles south of xxx and has about 70.000
inhabitants.
I
go to 10th grade of a „Gymnasium“ (German secondary
school) with 700 students in my town, about 2.5 miles away from my
home. My favorite subjects are English, French and Geography because
I really enjoy learning and speaking different languages (It opens up
the world to me and makes it possible to connect with people from all
around the planet!) and because I find it very interesting to get to
know other parts/countries of the world and get an impression of how
people there live. I like my school a lot: It's not big, it seems
like everyone knows everyone, the students in my class are great, the
teachers are nice and we have a good school community.
Now
I would like to introduce my family to you: My dad Stefan is 44 years
old and works as a doctor in his own doctor's office, my mum Claudia
is 44 years old as well, she has also studied medicine, but currently
she is a housewife. I have two younger sisters, one of them is called
Johanna, she is 13 years old and goes to 8th grade in my
school, the other one is called Clara, she is 9 years old and goes to
4th grade of a primary school, I love having siblings! We
have a cat called „Flecki“ (I like having pets) and live in a
house at the edge of our town. My family is very important to me, we
try to do a lot together and we are always there for each other. We
love doing excursions together, for example to the „Fichtelgebirge“,
which are beautiful mountains near our hometown. A big part of my
family is definitely music, everyone of us loves listening to
different kinds and plays at least one instrument and sometimes we
manage to play together. Furthermore we love traveling together and I
have seen many places in Europe with them, unfortunately I have neven
been out of Europe before. Our favorite trips together are probably
the ones to Amrum, which is a small island in the North Sea (in
Northern Germany), I have been there 6 times by now. I also love the
rest of my family (grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin) a lot and
although we live quite apart I try to see them as often as possible.
I
would describe myself as a pretty much open-minded, friendly,
positive and caring person, I enjoy living life and I love laughing
and being together with people. When I hardly know people I can be
quite shy and insecure but as soon as I get to know them better I
open up a lot and sometimes act a bit crazily. I am kind of a dreamer
and I think anybody can reach anything – just like I made my dream
of doing an exchange year come true. It is very important to me to
talk to people, listen to them, spend time with them and have good
connections to them, I am sometimes a bit too emotional and I
sometimes probably think a little too much but I manage to get out of
that quite well. I'm very interested in other cultures, other
languages and seeing new places, just getting to know the world! But
still I like my home, my town (although it's not big) and the
surrounding country.
My
other passion is definitely music. I have been playing the violin for
11 years now and I am teaching myself how to play the guitar – at
least I try my best, but I would still love to take real lessons.
Also I love to just listen to music, I have to admit I like Justin
Bieber and I also really enjoy Simple Plan, Taylor Swift, British
music (for example Ed Sheeran and Olly Murs) and some German bands.
Another hobby of mine is acting in my school's drama group, we are
praticing once a week and have one big play at the end of the school
year, it is always a lot of fun and one of the things I enjoy doing
most! As a sports I play tennis, I definitely like it, but to be
honest, it's not one of my very favorite hobbies. Furthermore I enjoy
watching my hometown's basketball team play, they are playing in the
first German league and at every game there is a lovely atmosphere
and it seems like the whole town is cheering for them. I am about to
learn how to cook so maybe I can cook any German food for you! I also
love watching movies and meeting friends, and I am a Christian, I
believe in god! I don't like going to church in Germany too much,
because it is always quite strict and sorted, but I would really love
going to church in the USA, no matter what kind of religion. A weak
point of mine is that I am sometimes a bit forgettable and I am
sometimes not very motivated to do things I don't love doing, but if
I make myself notes and find a starting point it turns out alright.
Finally
I would like to explain my motivations and reasons for my decision
of spending an exchange year in the U.S.: As I explained I have
always been very interested in other cultures and how people all
around the world are living and I think spending an exchange year
during your school years is the best opportunity to be part of a
whole different way of life! Furthermore you learn to accept and
appreciate new things that you didn't know at all before, you become
more independent and grown up because you need to make decisions on
your own, you get to know other people's point of views, perfectly
improve speaking a foreign language, make new friends and find a
second home and a second family, in my opinion it just opens up the
world to you!
I
wanted to go out of Europe and I picked the U.S. because I have
wanted to go there since I was a little child and I love the English
language, I would love to experience the American way of life, go to
an American high school, choose different classes that don't exist in
Germany, experience the „high school spirit“ and see beautiful
new places. I am very interested in finding out what it is like to go
to church in America, maybe be part of a youth group and try out
doing any volunteer work. What I would enjoy doing as well is try out
a new sports, get to know typical sports like Football and Baseball
and maybe even join a drama club or take some guitar lessons! Of
course I am also willing to help in your household and take over
special tasks! Last but not least I would like to bring the German
culture closer to you and give you an impression of what it's like to
be German and live in Germany.
Of
course being away from home for so long will not be easy, I will miss
my famil and friends and maybe I will get a little homesick, but I am
sure I will get over that soon!
I
am very excited that you let me be part of your family and I can't
wait to start my exchange year, I am sure we will have a great time
together!
With
the best wishes from Germany,
Kathrin
