Dear host family , My name is Marie. I'm very excited and happy to be living with you. I am a very pleasant person in everyday life. I'm quite sociable and like to chat with people. My parents say that I bring a lot of cheerfulness into the house and that I'm fun to be around. I may seem shy at first, but once you get to know me I'm quite outgoing. I love meeting new people and discovering new things. My favorite pastime is listening to music. Music is really important to me. It helps me concentrate, even if sometimes I get a bit too into the music and start singing very loudly all over my house (even though I don't sing very well). I taught myself to play the ukulele. I think I'm doing pretty well. It's funny when all my friends sing along to music we all like After that, I love to go skiing with my friends or my parents; it's an activity I really enjoy. Then I love going to the beach to sunbathe or snorkel. I also go scuba diving. I can go up to 20 meters deep. However, I can't dive abroad because you need a diploma which I don't have. I also think one thing I love is spending time with my family. We like to go on holiday together or go on little outings at the weekend like going to restaurants or the cinema. I live with my parents, Guillaume and Claire.I also live with Olivia, a Swedish exchange student who's been staying with me for a year, and my cat Carly. I also have a brother,Gabriel, but he left home to study, but we like to call each other and chat when he comes home. My grandparents live near me, so I often go to visit them at weekends or on Wednesdays after school. This school year is a bit complicated but I'm getting used to it. I work from 8am to 6pm with a 1h break for lunch. All these hours give me a lot of extra work at home. When I get home I work until around 10pm, but I take a break to eat with my parents because I think family time is important. Even though I work a lot, I don't mind learning new things. However, on weekends we like to do things together as a family, like go to the cinema, go to restaurants, go for walks, stay at home and play a game or watch a film while drinking gallons of tea. (What motivated me to come and live in the USA for 1 year was, first of all, that it's the best way to learn the language, but also because I love American culture and find it an incredible experience. ) I chose to spend a year living and studying in the USA because, first and foremost, I wanted to improve my command of English. Going to an English-speaking country seems to me to be the best way of achieving this. I'm also very interested in discovering American culture and meeting new people. Finally, studying for a year in the United States will perhaps enable me to broaden my horizons for my future career. But the main reason why I've always wanted to spend a year abroad is that when my mother was young, she used to go to the same family in the USA every summer. She's been able to maintain great ties with this family and is always telling us great anecdotes. What reinforced my decision is that I'm hosting a Swedish student thanks to wep. I'd like to find a similar bond with her in your family. For me, studying for a year in a foreign country would be a unique life experience and an incredible personal adventure. Thank you for reading my letter. Marie