Dear Host Family, first of all thanks for participating in the program and choosing me for living with your family!:) I'm from germany and I'm currently in the middle of my junior year. I love traveling more than anything, wich made me grew my interest about different cultures. I love spending time with my friends/family being social, but I also sometimes need time for myself to kind of "recharge" my batteries. To do that, I love reading books. They get me into a world where there aren't any of my problems, fears or worries. But not only novels or poetry books are what interests me, psychology books do too. After I started annotating books, it lead me to psychology books. The ones I read now are basically a collection of what I marked when I annotated. Other than reading, journaling is probably my favorite thing to do when i feel stressed or overwhealmed, it helps me a lot with organizing my thoughts. What also helps me, is working out/ being active. I started doing Kyokushin, a special kind of karate, when I was I believe 7 years of age. It may not seem like that at first, but it really makes me calm down and reclaim perspective on everything. I do not plan to keep on doing it in the USA (if there was a chance to), because I also connect a lot with the place and the people I'm doing it with, so I think it wouldn't fullfill me as much as in my hometown. I am totally open to do another sport though, I love athletic's in general. When I'm meeting with my friends, we usually go downtown, get food or just chill around each other's houses. My favorite thing to do with my best friend is simply getting coffee, searching for new books since we both like reading, or just go to a park and talk. I spend a lot of time with her, I'd say she's my comfort person. Me and my parents also have a very close connection. We're a very great team, probably because we communicate very well about everything. There isn't a thing my parents don't know about me I'd say. No matter how much I messed up, they know and helped me out of it. I'm really looking foreward to see how you guys are celebrating different occasions like christmas, thank's givng and so on compared to our traditions in Germany. Of course I'd love to tell you how we celebrate, maybe bake or cook something typical german that would be fun. Overall, I'd say I'm a very open, creative, interested, caring, and motivated person. Also independent in a way, because I really settle most of the stuff with myself. School is something I got really passionate about recently after I got my motivation back. All of the work I'm doing for school, I'm doing for my goals. After I finish high-school and get my diploma, I want to study journalism in english. My exchange year will help me a lot with getting to that goal, I think. I may seem like an introverted person at first, but once I get a little more comfortable, I'm very open and interested. I am also a very optimistic person, I got that from my mother I'd say. She always told me to see the good in people and in situations that might not seem too pleasing or comfortable at first. That's probably the reason why I'm so excited about my exchange year. Of course, everyone gets excited when they get the chance to go abroad for a year, but I get excited about the struggles and challenges, too. I am aware of how hard it may get at some points, but I see the effect it will have on me later. I think the exchange year will not only give me the chance to get to know a new culture, but also to get to know myself a lot more and work on myself. I'm very very excited to share that journey with you guys!:) Kind regards, Jette