Dear hostfamily.

Da ich mal wieder langeweile und fernweh habe, dachte ich mir, ich poste heute mal meinen Gastfamilienbrief. Ich finde ihn nach wie vor ganz gut gelungen, und vielleicht könnt ihr mir ja auch mal sagen wie ihr ihn findet, und mir Mut machen, dass ich mit dem Brief bestimmt auch bald irgendwann meine Gastfamilie bekommen werde x).


Dear host family,

First of all I want to thank you that you would like to give me a home for one year. I am very happy that I will become a member of your family, that you will integrate me into your daily life and that you want to show me your culture.

In this letter I want to tell you something about me, my family, my friends, my hobbies, the reasons why I want to go to a foreign country and why I chose Sweden. To say it short, I want to introduce you a little bit to my life.

My name is Rabea, I am 15 years old, born on the 9th May and I live in a little town in Northwestern Germany, called “Steinfurt”, with about 20.000 inhabitants.
I have got a little brother called David, 13 and a sister called Jana, she is 21 years old.
We live here together with our parents Margit and Bernd and our grandma Helma in our own house with a big garden. And of course our little cat Smarty is also a part of our family.
We all get along with each other really well and love to do things together with the whole family. We do cycling tours through the nature, play board games or just have a barbecue at the weekend. I really love to live in a family where you always have a part in and where you are always welcome. I have also a good relationship to my siblings. We spend a lot of time together and we are like normal friends, although there are sometimes the discussions all siblings have.
In the household of course I tidy up my own room. I wash the dishes and hoover up the house in turn with my siblings.

At the moment I go to the grade 10 on a Gymnasium here in Steinfurt.
I like to go to school, to meet my friends and I like subjects where you learn something for your own and about life in generally, like History, English or Politics. I think school life in Germany is very different to the school life in Sweden. Germany is one of the last countries which does not have the all-day school system. We have school from 8 o’clock until 1 o’clock but therefore we have a lot of homework after school every day. I like that you have such a long school day in Sweden, I think it will be a big change to stay at school until the late afternoon, but I am looking forward to it.
I heard that you have different programmes in the Swedish school system. I am very excited that there are a couple of classes you can choose at your school. I would love to do a creative program including music - but at least I am open for everything.

Music is not just my favourite subject at school, you can also say that music is a huge part of my life. I love to sing in my free time and I am taking singing lessons every Wednesday.
There I learn how to breathe correctly and learn different exercises to improve my voice.
After the lessons I go to a choir together with my friends. It is a lot of fun to sing together. I can’t imagine a day, or a week without music. Music accompanies me my whole life, I like to listen to it if I am happy, but also if I am sad sometimes. It helps me in every situation in my life. In my future I want to become a musical actress. I love the musical, the feelings and the emotions which are expressed by using your voice to express yourself. Well, time will show if I will become a musical actress, but I am practicing a lot to become better, and I think if you believe in your dreams and goals they can become true.

I also love inline-skating, reading, doing creative things like painting or writing stories, horseback riding (but unfortunately cannot do it at the moment) and meeting friends during my free time. I love the time with my friends and we are always open for spontaneous activities. Sometimes we cook together or make a trip to the next lake and go swimming.
My friends are a big part in my life besides my family. They are always there for me and help me and listen to me if I have a problem. We can talk about everything and I think it will be hard to leave them as hard as to leave my family, but we will all stay in contact and I think that I will only get new friends in Sweden besides my friends in Germany, because you can never loose real friends, even there is a big distance between.

If I had to choose three of my character strengths I would say I’m very open-minded, cheerful and helpful. I am always open and curious for new things and situations. I also am a very humorous person who loves to make fun and have a good time together with others but I know when I have to be serious and I am also mellow. So I am always the person who is happy and dispreads high spirits.
My third character strength is helpfulness because I am a person who always wants that the people around me feel good. My friends say that I am a good listener who is always anxious that everything is going right, so if anyone has a problem I am always open for him to talk about.
Of course I'm a normal teenager girl and so I also have my weaknesses.
Sometimes my mother has to remind me to tidy up but I am anxious to get better in this point. I am also a calm person sometimes who needs a bit time for herself, so it would be great if I would have my own room in your home. But that is not often, I love to be around with people.

My parents are of course not really happy that I want to leave them for such a long time, but they are supportive and proud that I want to take this step and want to go to Sweden where I don’t know anybody and where I have to build my “new life” on my own. They strongly believe that you as my future host family will integrate me and help me to have a good start in the country, they are sure that you will treat me as good as them, so that is why they are usually calm and do not worry so much to let me go.
I am very thankful that they offer me the chance to learn a lot and get to know a new country and that they allow me to get these experiences I will make.

And there we are. Why did I choose Sweden?
I cannot really say when my heart has beaten for Sweden the first time but the last 2 years I went to Sweden during holidays, and the more I dealt with Sweden the more it fascinated me.
Especially I like the wonderful landscape, the mentality of the people and of course the language.
“What do you want over there?” a lot of people asked me, “It is cold and you can’t speak Swedish”. I can’t explain but I love Sweden so much, with its winters (I am so excited to see what real winter is) and with its long dark winter nights, its long warm summer days (because I know Sweden is wonderful in the summer) and the open-minded, friendly people.
I have learned Swedish for 3 months now, and it is a lot of fun.
I think it is a wonderful language and I look forward to speak it fluently.
Because H&M and Ikea is what most of the Germans know about Sweden, I look forward to tell the people how Sweden really is.
I am also very excited to experience the Swedish traditions we don't have in Germany. The Swedish “Midsommar”, the Lucia holiday and the wafer day for example.
In the last weeks I read a lot of books which have their location in Sweden or are written by Swedish authors. It really forces up my anticipation for Sweden. I love the books by Håkan Nesser, I bet you know him. I hope that you understand now why I really just want to go to Sweden. Sweden is the land of my dreams.


At least the question: "Why do I want to become an exchange student?"
I think it is an irreplaceable experience to get to know an absolutely new culture in one year, to build your “second life” in a new family and just to start something new on your own.
It is such a big chance to learn a new language in the country where it comes from, you will never learn it somewhere else as good as you can learn it there.
I hope to become more self-confident, to mellow and expand my horizon. To see the Swedish way of life is for sure the right way for me I should get to know.

I hope I made you curious of me and that you will be my second family for the next year, and hopefully stay it for the rest of my life. I hope you will give me an understanding of your life and I will give you as well one of mine. Finally, I just want to say that I hope that we will have a great time together. You cannot imagine how much I am looking forward to get to know you! Thank you in advance for hosting me!

Lots of love Rabea

So und jetzt verdammt nochmal liebe Gasteltern, erhört meine Gebete und Hoffnungen :D

Übrigens tuts mir sehr leid, dass ich schon den 3. Tag in Folge unsinnigen Kram poste, aber irgendwie muss ich im Moment das Zeitloch überbrücken.

<3