Gastfamilienbrief!

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 10^th 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 8^th grade in my school, the other one is called Clara, she is 9 years old and goes to 4^th 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