Dear host family,

hi, my name is Matilde, but you can call me Mati because I like it more.
I’d like to introduce myself: I’m 16 years old (almost 17) and I live in Italy, in the north, close to one of the biggest Italian cities. In my family there are 5 people, I have two sisters, but they are older than me and they don’t live with us: the 24-years-old one lives with his father (we don’t have the same one), while the 28-years-old one lives with her boyfriend in another town near mine. I don’t usually spend much time with them because of our commitments, despite we usually have dinner together. I also have a small and white dog, I call her Wendy (like the girl from the Peter Pan tale story), she is one year old, we took her last April on Easter Day and I really love her. I spend most of the time studying, but in my free time I like to play with my dog or meet my best friend Asia. We have always been friends and we see each other at least three times a week, even because we live in the same town. I have a boyfriend, his name is Francesco but he lives in Verona, which is about 155 kilometers away.

I’m usually extroverted, assertive, determined, curious and courageous, but I’m also impulsive, touchy and I demand quite a lot from myself. I like to undertake new experiences and when I get attached I dedicate a lot of affection to people.

My favorite subject is psychology and my goal is to become an investigative criminologist when I grow up, in fact one of my favorite hobbies is to listen to crime podcasts because I find them very interesting. I love watching tv series too, my favorite one is “Looking for Alaska”. I practice artistic gymnastics twice a week (every lesson lasts one hour). I also love to read poems: the poet that I prefer is Catullo. Most of all I love traveling. I don’t have a favorite dish because I like every kind of food, especially pasta.

From this experience I hope to reach more independence, to grow as a person, to gain more awareness, to overcome the challenge of knowledge and adaptation to new and different cultures. Lastly I hope to win the challenge against myself, by demonstrating that I can handle this experience with my own strengths and resources, even though this means stepping out of my comfort zone.

Thank you so much for reading my presentation and I cannot wait to meet you soon.

Best regards,

Matilde