Dear family,

My name is Victoria, I am currently 14 years old, turning 15 this May. I am from Germany and would love to spend a semester in the US and make my “American dream” come true. I have travelled to the US with my family twice and fell in love with the country and the friendliness of the people. I am very open-minded, outgoing, curious, confident, friendly and ambitious. I love meeting new people, learning about different cultures and their traditions. I enjoy and I am always up to trying out new things, such as new sports, hobbies, foreign food.

My close family consists of my parents, my brother of 19 years who is about to graduate this year from high school (13 years in Germany) and my grandparents who live in the town next to us where my school is. My parents and I have a very good and close relationship and talk about everything. They support me with advice and help me to achieve my goals and also encouraged me to spend a semester abroad. My brother and I also have a close relationship and my grandparents are very important to me as well, they are very caring and supportive.

I love animals and always wanted to have a family dog or cat. However, to be honest, I am scared of very BIG dogs such as mastiffs, Rottweilers or boxer dog etc. I enjoy going to school, my favorite subjects are English, French, German and Political Science/Economics. That’s why I voluntarily chose the subject “Politics and Economics bilingual” where we discuss political news. I have been voted class representative a couple of times and I currently still am. I do not favor math and chemistry, but I do ok. My favorite part of school is, however, seeing my friends and catching up. We always have a good time and plan our activities for the weekends. Currently I am taking dancing lessons for couple classic dances at the local dance school where we will have a final “prom” dance soon. My girlfriends and I are super excited to dress up in evening gowns and go to the dance night. Besides those classes I have been doing classic ballet since the age of four. I am taking regular classes twice a week and for the last year we have been preparing for the annual ballet performance at a grand theatre in front of approx. 700 people. This show is the highlight for the entire ballet school and my family is excited to watch it every time. Besides that I attend a “cheerdance” class once a week at a local dance school with two of my best friends. My focus today is really on dancing. However, when I was 4 years of age I did gymnastics for about 6 years but quit because it was just very time consuming. When I was in fourth grade I also played basketball for a year and joined a tennis camp during summer vacation. I did have a lot of fun but prefer dancing instead of ball sports. Besides sports I also love to read, listen to music and have fun trying out new recipes or baking.

I am not picky with food (luckily don’t have any allergies). My favorite dished are pasta, Tex-Mex food, Asian food, Oriental food and of course Burgers and Pizza.

I am grateful that my parents like to travel and enjoy showing my brother and me different countries and cultures. We have been doing quite some traveling in Europe and abroad. My absolute favorite trips were two US roadtrips and this winter vacation in Dubai. Dear future host family, I would love to be part of your family and to experience the American everyday-life, make new friends and memories and get to learn as much as possible about your country.

I would love to take part in your traditions and routines and get to know your family life in Texas! I am especially hooked on Texas as it seems to me to be the “real America”, traditional and from what I heard very friendly people. So for me the decision was easy: If I wanted to experience the real USA, I want to be part of a family in Texas.

Looking forward to meeting you and having a great time with you! Yours sincerely,

Victoria.