Hello! My name is Maksym, I am Ukrainian, a 9th grade student. My family consists of 6 people - parents, a younger brother and two younger sisters. There are 3 more members of our family - dogs Jack and Benny, and a guinea pig Nimble) Our large and friendly family lives in Ukraine. My parents are entrepreneurs and work in the field of water purification equipment. In this letter, my task is to tell about myself. Together with my father, I applied for participation in cultural exchange program from Ayusa to visit USA, spend 1 year of study at an American high school and live for this year with an American family. I want to share my experience of living in our country, Ukrainian culture and national traditions and really learn about your country, American families and American people. I am a good student at Ukrainian Lyceum - my average score is 9 on a 12-point scale. Together with my brother and sisters - we perform household duties, helping our parents in everyday life. I am a cheerful and positive person, I like sports. My hobbies are mathematics (I have been attending a mathematics and logic club for more than 5 years); learning English (additional extracurricular activities); swimming (before the war in Ukraine, I was a professional swimmer - I repeatedly won 1st place among young men at the national championship, I have 1st adult category); basketball section at present. I dream of getting to know USA - country, people, culture and traditions, making new friends. I have read and watched a lot about your big and wonderful country. Perhaps, in future, I will apply for study at an American university. I am currently taking career guidance courses to better understand myself and identify area in which I can work and develop. Please consider possibility of accepting me to live with your family for one academic year. I hope we can become friends and this experience will be positive and interesting for you. I hope this will be an amazing adventure with many discoveries that we will live with you together. I promise to be very diligent in studies and show a high result. Thank you very much for your time! Sincerely, Maksym.