Dear Host Family,

My name is Merit and I’m 16 years old. 

I live in a terraced house in the North of Germany, where I go to a secondary school, that is just a 3-minute walk away from home. Most of the time, I only have school until 1 pm, but on two days I have lessons until 2 or 3 pm. 

My favorite subjects are Art and Biology and as foreign languages I learn English and Spanish. At the end of this school year, I’m going to have my intermediate school-leaving certificate, and after having got my university entrance qualification, I will go to university. I don’t know yet what kind of job I will do later, however I can exclude occupations with computers plus working with materials like wood and metal.

Every Friday I go horse riding at a club, located 5 km away from where I live. Besides that, I do apparatus gymnastics once a week. A few months ago, I still did show dance, and recently I went with our athletics school group within the scope of the competition. 

My newest hobby is playing the piano. Friends of my parents lately gave us a used keyboard as a gift and it is fun to play on it.

I love animals, reading novels and being outside, while photographing. In addition, I like painting with watercolors and pencils, as well as baking cookies with my sister.

Mi sister is older than me. Her hobbies are horse riding, painting and scouting (she also is the leader of her own scout group). Besides that, she juggles and is interested in astronomy.

My mom works at public administration of the state, where she supports the IT users. Her hobbies include playing the guitar, doing yoga and reading novels. Just like my father, mom loves gardening at our large allotment garden, where we relax on weekends.

My Dad’s heart also beats for gardening, wherefore he made his passion to his job. He is a master teacher for horticulture. Besides gardening, Dad likes swimming, visiting flea markets and doing yoga in his free time.

Together, my family and I often play board games and sometimes we do bicycle tours.

Unfortunately I don't have grandparents anymore. My grandmother was the last one and she died a few months ago.

I want to do a year abroad because I finally want to try something completely new. A year abroad offers me the perfect opportunity to improve my English skills and get to know new people and their culture, different habits and a new way of life. This works particularly well in a host family, as you get part of it.

I am already looking forward to spending my year abroad in the United States.

 Kind regards,

Merit

Interested in hosting—whether 6-8 weeks or the entire school year?