Dear host family, I’m E. and I’m 16 years old and I come from Italy. I live with my family, which is composed by my mum R., my dad V. and my 2 older brothers E. and F. We also have a dog, she’s an Australian Shepherd. Despite having a dog, I don’t really like animals like cats or little birds and I’m afraid of reptiles. I love hot summers and snowy winters! I live in a small village in the north of my Country, with 3000 inhabitants. I commute to a larger’s town school where I study a lots of subjects, but mostly foreign languages such as English, Spanish and French. I also do History in French. It’s very important to me that the school has a lot of school spirit, especially during sports events (especially football), because although in single it’s a big and stimulating, it doesn’t offer a lot of afternoon activities and once I’ll be in the U.S. I’d like to meet new people and live like an American teenager. In America there are a lot of different subjects from the Italian ones and I’m looking forward to taking those classes! English is my favourite subject and that’s one of the many reasons why I’ve chosen to come to the U.S. for my exchange program: American culture is really different from the italian one and I’d like to discover it. With my new family I’d like to experience a different way to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and others celebrations, but also your everyday life, like your favourite restaurant, where you go do the groceries, what you do in the evenings... Here in Italy I’ve tried many different sports, like rhythmic gymnastics, horse riding and swimming, but now I do modern dance. In winter I also go skiing with my dad and my brothers. Once I’ll be America I’d like to try different sports to get out of my comfort zone; I really hope to try cheerleading but also many others(like cross country)! I’d love to experience “Fridays nights” when school team plays, so I’d love to go to a school with a big students section. As I said before I live with my family and we are all really close. When I was younger I used to spend the majority of my time with my brothers, but now they both go to the university. I love my brothers, they’re really important to me because we have spent ours lives together and now, since they are in university, we don’t spend much time together. In general, I spend a lot of time with my family; we like going to the cinema, visiting museums or new cities and going out for a walk wit our dog. Although I prefer stay with them than being alone, sometimes I do need alone time. Now I do modern dance, but I have many others hobbies, for example I volunteer in my parish when there are festivals in my village or during summer, but mostly during summer because I’m a counselor for kids between 6 an 10 years old. I also like travelling, it helps become more open minded and to learn new things; in fact, I’m also really interested in history because I like learning new things. With my friends we like doing quite activities, such as going to the cinema or hanging at somebody’s house. I mostly meet my friends at school or during summer camps, that’s because at first I’m a little bit shy with people who I don’t know, but after a while I become very extroverted and I just can be myself. Here in Italy my days are (almost) always the same: I go to school from Monday to Saturday, from 8am to 1pm, then I return home and eat my lunch, sometimes with my mum, sometimes alone. In the afternoon I always study and twice a week I go to practice. On Sundays I go to a church with my family, (sometimes in the morning but when I’m tired I go at 6pm), then we have lunch together and when I don’t have to study I usually go with my parents somewhere new, because we like discovering new places. I really hope to end up in a family that shares the same ideas and belifs as me, with an open mentality and ideas. I’m really grateful for this experience and I’m looking forward to starting this adventure with you! Bye E.