Hello, my name is Henrique, I live in a big island next to the continent in Brazil. My relationship with my parents is very good. They are divorced, so me and my sister spend half of our days with each. I am a pretty much easy going guy, although my parents get mad at me sometimes, as it happens in every other family. I get along well with my sister too, she´s only one year and a half younger than me, but we do have some beefs ! I´m very close to my grandparents, uncles and cousins, as we all live in the same area. We have lunch together weekly, go out to dinner and sometimes travel too. My closest cousin is almost my age and we do many thing together. Down here summer is hot. The average temperature its about 27°C (81°F), but in winter it can can drop to about 5°C (41°F), wich is kind of the coldest it can get in Brazil. I spend my summer vacation at the family´s beach house. I swim in the ocean, play soccer, ride my bike, play videogames, go to the pool, go fishing and many more things. But in the rest of the year I go to school. When I´m in my dad´s I go walking, because he lives downtown. My grades in school are very good now, ranging from 7 to 10 (C to As), and they are almost never below that. But it wasn't always like that, I used not to put much effort into studying because I found it boring and had trouble paying attention. However, I learned to enjoy studying and found ways to make learning more interesting, especially in chemistry and biology, which are my favorite subjects and the ones I get better grades. Apart from school, I really like sports. I've been doing Jiu-Jitsu since I was little and I like it, I'm a yellow belt now after 8 year of training. I played tennis for one year and I really liked it, but I had to stop because I didn’t have time to continue. And my favorite sport is soccer (but here we call it football - futebol ). I have never taken soccer lessons, but I always play with my friends. But these are just the main ones, I've tried others sports too, like surfing. They make me feel I'm out of my routine. Besides sports, I enjoy practicing other hobbies too. I went camping 6 or 7 times in my life and this makes me feel closer to animals and nature, and I love it. last time was this month with 2 of my friends and my cousin. But I don't think the weather here is the best for camping. Since it's a humid subtropical climate, it rains quite a lot. I have gone fishing sometimes before and every time I catch a fish I feel very happy, but it doesn't always happen ! I've gone with my friend and my father, like 12 to 15 times, and our goal is the "robalo", a famous and very difficult fish to catch, I hope we can do this one day. Now, I can't forget to mention videogames too, because they are a big part of my life. I started playing since my grandpa showed me his Xbox 360 and then I couldn't stop playing. I started in Minecraft with my cousin, we learned together how to play. After we tried a lot of games, but we play mainly Fortnite. The videogames helped me a lot to grow relationships, with my friends, my cousin and my grandfather, especially during the pandemic. Stuck at home, me and other kids started playing a lot, help us go through all that. I think my personality could help me a lot with my exchange experience because I make friends quickly. I am introverted when with someone I don't know but with my friends I am almost always extroverted. I'm very curious too, I watch videos about science and how things work, this could help me to learn new things in school and with my host family. I am not very competitive because I prefer having fun rather than taking everything too seriously. I like doing things with my family and my friends for pass time and have fun. I am not very organized but I am trying to change this and the exchange experience could help me with this too. Talking about things I would like to experience during my time in the US, I would like to learn more about the country, become fluent in english, develop new skills, and make new friends. I think the main goal one for me is to become more responsible, since I'll be far from my parents, friends, and everything I am used to. I'll have to deal with things like household chores, different foods, the language barrier, homesickness, and the relationship with my host family. I know this works both ways: if I want a good host family, I also have to be a good exchange student. I'll do my best sharing the Brazilian culture, cooking foods, telling stories, so we can create great memories and have a good relationship that lasts a lifetime.