Hey, Leute… Ich weiß,es gibt schon so unglaublich viele Hostfamily letters hier, aber ich würde mich total freuen, wenn ihr meinen mal lesen und verbessern könntet. Sagt bitte auch, wenn euch etwas vom Inhalt her nicht gefällt. Kritik ist kein Problem 
Dear host family,
you can‘t imagine how long I was sitting in front of the computer, thinking about the perfect beginning of this letter. I wanted to begin with something special, something, you will remember. You see, I know in which way I should start but it’s still not easy to find the right words.
At first, I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to live a year abroad. Without you, my dream would never come true!
To make your decision easier I want to give you a little impression about who I am. My name is Teresa and I am an 14-year old girl from Austria. My birhday is on the ******, so when I will come to you, I will be 15.
My family and my friends would describe me as an independent, humorous, helpful and friendly girl. Sometimes I am a bit crazy, and sometimes a little shy.
My dream to go abroad developed about one year ago. At first it was just an idea but in a few months it started to be my dream. I love to get in touch with people from a different culture and with a different point of view. It’s not that I don’t like my life here in Austria, in contrary, I will miss my family and my friends for sure. But I know that the experiences of one year with you will be more than worth leaving my normal home. I hope I will become more self- confident and open- minded during the year and that I can speak a new language fluently and have friends from all over the world.
Now, I want to indroduce my familie. It consists of four people, my mum ****, my dad **** and my 17-year old sister ****. My mum is social worker, my dad electrical engineer, and my sister finishes school this year. My dad doesn’t live at home, because my parents divorced a few years ago. So I just see him biweekly, because I live with my mum and my sister. I also have two cats, and two rabbits. Me and my family get along pretty well most of the time even if we argue sometimes. All in all I have a very good relationship to my family, especially to my sister. We often laught the hole day and we have so much fun with each other.
My mom has lots of work to do, so I often have to help in the household. That’s no problem for me. Of course, sometimes she has to remind me but I always try to help her. I also have to take care of my pets, like feed them.
On Weekends I sometimes do little trips with my family, like going swimming, shopping or just playing card games. I also often meet my friends on weekends and stay overnight. I don’t really have a best friend, but a few good friends, which are a very important part in my life. But sometimes, I am just at home, learn for school and sleep quite long. But all in all, I am an outgoing and adventurous person.
From Monday to Friday, I go to school. It is a secondary school with focus of science. My favourtite subjects are Maths, PE and German. In school, I often help the other students with homework or explain them something, they do not understand, because I am one of the best students in class.
One of my hobbies is doing sports. Sometimes I go running and take part on competitions. I also do other sports, like climbing, swimming and so on. I also really like to do little trips on weekends, like going to the cinema with my friends or something like that. I also play flute since 7 years now. I play about 4 hours a week. Mostly, I really like it, but sometimes it’s a bit exhausting. When I am bored, I watch TV or play computer games. One year ago, I started to bake different cakes and biscuits. I do not only like to bake them, I love to eat them. If you want, I can bake some cakes and cook traditional Austrian food for you in a few months. Another hobby are my pets. When I am bored, I just go to my cats or rabbits and stroke them or play with them. I really love them and I’m sure I will miss them a lot.
As you see, I really like animals and so I am self- imposed vegetarian since 6 years now. I hope this fact doesn’t terrify you. But it is no problem for me, when others eats meat because I think everybody should eat what he or she wants. It is okay, when I have to cook for myself or when I just eat the side dishes. I don’t want you to cook extra menus for me.
In my future, I want to finish school and study on a university. I do not know, what exactly I want to study, but I am very interested in science and jobs, where I can help people.
I hope this letter gave you a little impression of my life and who I am. Finally, I wanted to say that I really hope to hear from you and to see you soon.
Greetings from Austria,
Teresa