Dear host family, thank you so much for taking part in the exchange program and giving an exchange student the chance to live with a host family. My name is Paula and I’m from Germany. I’m planning on doing an exchange year in the spring semester 2023/2024 and I hope that you can get to know me roughly through this letter. The reason I chose the US to visit is because I was born in Louisiana and I lived there for half a year when I was four years old. My father had the chance to work there for a few months. We lived in Florida at that time and my older siblings went to school while I went to kindergarten. Now, I’m very interested in getting to know the American school system and how it’s different from the German one. I want to experience the everyday life of an American student and how it feels to live on a different continent and in a different family as a teenager. In my free time I play volleyball. I first started playing volleyball together with a close friend when I was eleven and we still play together. I met a lot of new friends there who I have lots of fun with during practice and have become really close to. I love doing sports, especially after a long day of school which is why I like going to practice or jogging. On weekends we have matches sometimes. I would love to play volleyball in America too, but if it’s not possible I’m also interested in joining other school clubs and trying new things. I'm going skiing with my family every winter since I was three years old. When I was little I was in a ski course with other children. We learned skiing together and it was fun to ski with other kids my age. We're still going to Austria for skiing every year and I love it very much there. I'm always looking forward to these holidays because it's a hobby of mine that I definitely want to keep doing. I also like to play the piano since fourth grade. In the beginning I took piano lessons together with a friend for a long time and now I take lessons alone once a week. I play different kinds of songs. Sometimes old ones which my teacher recommends and sometimes newer songs. I appreciate reading too. Mostly I read on vacation because then I have the most time. I love talking about books or series with my friends when they have also read or watched it. Luckily, all my closest friends are in my class which is one reason why I like going to school. We see each other every day but we also meet in the afternoon or on weekends sometimes. I like cooking or baking with them, going shopping or just hanging out. In school I have four main subjects: maths, German, English and French. My other current subjects are sports, religion, music, history, politics, biology, chemistry and physics but the minor subjects vary per semester. Last year I had geography and art instead of biology and music for example. I have bilingual classes since sixth grade which means I have geography and history class in English instead of German. My favorite subjects are math and English. I like about math that you don’t have to learn things by heart and that it’s easy as soon as you understand what you must do. I enjoy the math lessons and I have much fun learning new things and trying difficult exercises. English was my favorite subject since primary school. Writing own texts and expressing myself in a different language in what I like the most about it. I also like just talking in English during lesson which is also why I chose bilingual classes. It helps me to practice English and learn new vocabulary. Of course, I hope my English will get better during my exchange year. I’m living together with my mom, my dad and my sister. My dad works as a law professor and my mom works as an official at the tax administration. My brother already moved out and studied machine construction. My sister is graduating this summer and plans on studying architecture. I’m very interested in psychological topics and plan on studying psychology. I consider myself a "flexitarian" what means that I don´t eat much meat. I can eat everything but might rely more on side dishes (carbs and vegetables). I hope that this will be okay for you! I am also able to prepare simple meals for myself and I would happily cook for you as well! I’m so excited to go to America and learn about your culture! Thank you for reading my letter! Best regards, Paula