DEAR FAMILY, My name is C., I am sixteen years old and I am from Italy. I am open-minded, laid back, and very curious. I love meeting new people and getting to know different cultures and trying different food. Being Italian my diet is always pizza and pasta. Physically, I am quite tall and I believe that is and advantage, as I love basketball. I have been playing for seven years now, and I love it very much. I am a post, so I am the player who fights for rebounds along the basket. My other passion is swimming in the sea. This love comes from the fact that my father is Australian, a nation where the sea is in every part of your body, and my mother is from Sardinia, a beautiful island country in the south of Italy surrounded by blue sea. Also my uncle owns a catamaran in Sardinia, and now and then he takes me on excursions for few days. So growing up all my holidays have always been spent by the sea. Unfortunately, my parents are divorced which caused me a great distress when It happened, but they were continually making my sister and me feel loved and cared for and with time I have managed to accept and understand it. My dad is currently living in London but before that he lived for six years in Hong Kong for work. After the divorce my sister and I used to spend the whole summer at his place in Honk Kong and winters at my mom's in Italy. I now feel so lucky for the experiences and opportunities I had growing up and I am still having now. My mum and I share the love for travelling. We try to visit new places every Christmas and summer, and this Christmas we are going to Egypt. I have always been amazed at its pyramids, history, and mysteries of that world. I have joined her to great destinations like the Hawaiian Islands which is one of my favorite trips, for their easy-going life and how everybody lives in peace with the world. My dad and I both enjoy going out and getting around the city together in London, from small coffeehouses to big museums and I always come back with new findings. I get the curiosity aspect of my personality from him. My sister is 18 years old and we study in the same school, we are very close thanks to the experiences we shared growing up. I get along with her quite well, despite the fact that we are always competing in the area of school marks. It is healthy competition, as we both want to outdo the other, but at the same time we both motivate each other. I am attending Liceo Scientifico because I love scientific subjects, I have always wanted to be a doctor since I was a child. My uncle, who lives in Sardinia, is a doctor, and told me once that when I grow up, he would be happy to leave his studio to me if I wanted. Another huge part of my life is music, aside from school and basketball. I do enjoy hip-hop, the beat, the lyrics, the way it expresses feelings. In junior high school I learned how to play the piano, which I have played ever since but now I enjoy playing modern music more than classical music. My day-to-day life is pretty busy. On weekdays, I wake up early in the morning to go to school, and usually come back home in the afternoon when I walk my dog Rex. He is my buddy, and I love him so much. I play basketball three nights a week and a match usually at the weekend. On the other evenings, I get my homework done. I go to school on Saturdays too, so only Saturday afternoons are free for me to go out with my friends. Sundays are always relaxing mornings and I get up quite late. I like sleeping in. What frightens me is the idea of being so far from my family and friends for a year, but I am thrilled at the same time, I would like to find out who I am beyond my comfort zone, beyond my known routine of my Italian life. Thank you so much for welcoming me into your home and making me feel like part of the family. I am so grateful for your kindness, generosity, and all the wonderful memories we will be sharing. Looking forward to meeting you, C.