Dear host family, I live together with my parents and siblings in a house with a garden. I have two brothers and one sister. My big brother, Johann, is five years older than me and I admire him. He is a calm and balanced guy and studies technical physics at university. My sister, her name is Jolanda, is three years younger than me and we were inseparable when we were little. Now she sometimes annoys me but I still love her. My cute little brother, named Franz, is my favorite. He is funny and very cute. He is 4 years old and I like to play with him. Besides, in my family there are my grandparents. My grandpa used to be a teacher and he is the mayor of a village community. My grandma is great at cooking and knitting. My other grandmother was a doctor and grandfather was psychotherapist. Now all are retired and we have close contact. I love and respect them very much. There is always something going on with us and it’s never boring. At the moment, I am in 10th grade and I’m especially interested in natural sciences and sports. In the future, I want to graduate high school (which is called Abitur in Germany) and after that I want to study at a university. In my free time, I have a lot of hobbies: I meet a lot with friends or I play videogames. My hobbies also include rescue swimming, boxing and playing chess. Two times a week I go boxing. I love boxing because it challenges and trains my fitness and strength. I am happy when I can improve my boxing skills. I like to swim too, it is fun and I also learn how I can save people from drowning. So, I have a lot of knowledge about first aid. At competitions, I especially like the community between me and the other team members. On competitions and training camps we have fun together. Also, I am a big NBA fan and like to play chess. For me it’s important to have good friends with who I can meet to play Volleyball in my free time. Usually, we play in a park, go out or meet at home. In my opinion I am a very interested, friendly and open-minded guy. I like to meet new people or learn something about your culture. That’s the reason why I decided to do a year abroad. The main goal for the gap year is to improve my English skills. With my family, I only visited countries of the EU in the past. We especially like going to Italy or Croatia. I love the sea, but also the mountains in Austria for skiing. With my dad I also did many canoeing tours. I’m very excited to meet you all and am of course a little bit nervous to know if it all turns out okay. I hope that we will get along and have a great time together. I will give my best. I am not a man of big words, but I want to thank you already for taking me in and supporting me. This is really great. With kind regards Gustav