Dear host family,

Hi, this is Luisa. One thing before we start; I just want to thank you, because if you're reading this it means that you have been looking at my profile,  or that you are willing to share your home with a kid that wants to spend a year abroad, and I want to thank you for that, for giving opportunities to children like me, because you are giving them the chance to see for themselves how the world is outside their homes, and because if you are still reading this it means that you are even willing to give me that chance. Thanks for wanting to get to know me. I hope it's worth it.

 So, my name is Luisa, I'm a Spanish girl that lives in the city, I live in an appartment in a busy part of the city, with my dad, my mom, and my brother, who’s two years younger than me. We get along and I love them. Obviously we have arguments like any family, but I consider myself lucky for the relationship I have with my family, not only them, but cousins, grandparents, uncles... I am a sociable person; I like to just be with people, so I don’t spend a lot of time alone in my everyday life. I’m always at school, at volleyball practice, with my friends... I’m kind of busy all the time. I think that could be the reason why I also cherish my time alone so much. I love to be with people, but I also find it very important to have some time just for myself, with my music or my book. I don’t know if that makes sense. Anyways, I mentioned my friends before. I want to tell you about them because they are a very important part of my life. They have always been. I love to spend time with them to do something special, talk or just do nothing together. I have had some friends since I was two years old, even younger, but I have also been meeting people that have become my friends my whole life, and I'm really looking forward to meeting people in the States. For me, friends are built in trust. I consider my best friends the ones whom I can tell everything, and know that they aren’t going to judge me, because they know me and like me for who I am.

I think I’m a very committed person, I get really involved in everything I do, and I take it seriously. I like to get good results and grades at school, and to see my improvement in things like volleyball. I think that can make me competitive sometimes, and maybe perfectionist, but being determined is part of my personality. I have always played sports. When I was little, I played a bunch of them, but after I grew up, I focused on roller hockey and volley, and horseback riding sometimes, besides surfing in the summers, when I travelled to the north of Spain. This year, I had to quit hockey after more than 8 years playing. A lot of girls quit, so our team was going to change, and I knew that if I continued playing, I wasn’t going to enjoy it as I did. It was a very tough decision, but now I know I did the right thing. This year I added a volleyball club to my schedule, besides playing in the school team, so I don’t have that much free time. Now I play volleyball almost every day since October and I have already improved so much. It has become a very important part of my life, and I would really like it if I could still play in the States.

I also think I’m an empathetic person. I like to study people, to learn the reason why they could be having a hard time, and to try to think what could help me get through that situation. Obviously, every person is different, so I like to learn how I can help each person to feel a bit better, if it’s in my power.  I think that I’ve been incredibly lucky with the life that i have, so the least I could do is try to make the people around and the people that matter to me happier, even if it’s just a little bit. Sometimes it’s just talk, sometimes it’s just listen. I like to see that my actions can matter and can make someone's life kind of better.

This brings me to the reason why I want to spend a year in the USA. Of course, I want to improve my English. Right now, I have passed the Cambridge First Certificate Exam with a C1 level, and I hope to pass the C2 level exam before I graduate in Spain in three years. I decided to spend this year in the States rather than any other country maybe because it’s the big country that we see in the movies, so far away and so unreachable, but it’s mainly because I want to know how things work outside my comfort zone, outside my country, on the other side of the ocean. I want to learn the way American families live, the differences and similitudes from my own. I don’t have any requests for my family, because I am travelling to understand how you live, not because I expect the same life that I have here.

With all this, I want to thank you again for deciding to read this letter, and for reading until here. I think I have kind of summarized my personality and my life. After all, I’m just a normal girl who likes to be with her friends and to play volleyball, but I promess that if you decide to choose me, I will show you everything that I am beneath this letter. I don’t know what else to say. I hope that after reading this letter you have found me interesting enough to give one more look through my profile, because I really want to go. As I said, I want to know how it is to live in an American family for a year. I hope that you want to show me.

Kind regards,

Luisa

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