Carta para a Host Family!

Oi pessoal,

Como eu prometi, aqui está minha carta para a host family.

"Hi dear host family! My name is Mariana, I’m 22 years old and I live in Votuporanga, a small city in the state of São Paulo, 7 hours away from the capital. I live with my mom, my dad and my dog, but I have two siblings, a 19 year-old sister who studies medicine in another city and a 30 year-old brother who lives with his girlfriend in another city, both are teachers.

My family is very important to me! We are very close and I really like spending time with them! They are supporting me a lot to become an au pair and that encourages me to follow my dreams.

I just graduated in a literature course and now I’m a Portuguese and Spanish teacher. I love teaching! I teach Spanish classes to adults and I also teach English to 5 year-old kids.

During my college I went to Spain in a exchange program to improve my Spanish skills. I lived there for 6 months, where I learned to live by myself and I could deal with different people and habits. I think this experience contributed to my personal grown and now I feel even more prepared to live in another country.

In my free time I like watching movies, hanging out with friends, reading, riding a bike.. and I love staying home with my family, talking to them or watching tv together. I'm a comunicative person and I like to meet people and talk. Sometimes I write because I like to express myself through the words. I love dancing and photography! I took ballet classes a few years ago and now I'm devoting myself to contemporany dance. I consider myself a out-going and active person!

Kids are my passion! I think their smile is the most genuine thing in the world! I love just being with them, playing or helping with their needs. Spending time with them it's like therapy to me! I feel great when I am by their side because they are innocent, spontaneous, honest and full of life! They have a lot of energy and that's contagious! But I'm also responsible and I know the limits between the fun time and the obligation time.

I have worked in a day-care taking care of children from 6 months to 5 years old. There I learned how to feed the kids, to change the diapers, to bottle feed, to prepare the meals, to bath, to put them to sleep and mostly, how to deal with them. But one of my favorite part was playing with them and creating dinamic activities to entertain them. It was a such great experience which I could see closer the kids routine. I was very happy while working there because during that time my life was full of energy and love!

I would say that I’m a friendly, optimistic, patient, flexible, open minded and easy-going person. I think I have a lot to learn because we always learn from people that cross our lives, but I guess that I have a lot to offer too! I'm also affectionate and I want to take care of your kids with love, responsibility and dedication.

I have always wanted to be an au pair and now that I finished the college I feel that is the right time to do it! I have decided to become one because I love kids and I want to improve my English. I also want to know more about the american way of life because since I was younger I have admired your country! Besides, I love to travel and I like to know about new culture, people and places. Certainly this experience will be very rich and at the end I know that I’m gonna be a different person and I'll be grateful for everything!

I will do my best to make this exchange program awesome for me and for my future host family! I would like to be part of the family routine and I hope to have a great time with the children. If you let me, I will prove to you that you can trust me!

I hope you choose me to be your au pair because I really want to make the difference in your kid life! I want to get close to them and care about them like a older sister. I'm pretty sure that love will grow day by day between us and I already can't wait for this.

Thanks for reading my letter! I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Bye, bye."

Ficou bem grande! Pedi pra algumas amigas corrigirem e essa foi a parte chata porque não gosto de depender de ninguém. Fiz isso porque estava muito insegura com o meu inglês, mas no final entendi que não precisa estar perfeita a carta porque as famílias sabem que vamos lá, na maior parte  dos casos, para estudar inglês. Também aconteceu de pedir pra amiga americana corrigir e acabou ficando formal demais, o que não é o objetivo, afinal quero que as famílias se sintam mais próximas de mim com a carta. Então no fim das contas aceitei algumas correções de palavra ou outra e deixei praticamente do jeitinho que escrevi mesmo! Fiquei feliz porque quase não tive erros, só do tipo "I wanna", ao invés de "I want to" ou "I would like", que é more polite.

Essa foi minha carta, fui bem sincera e tentei ressaltar ao máximo minhas qualidades. Qualquer dúvida que tiverem, deixem nos comentários. E não se esqueçam, a carta para as famílias é nosso cartão de visita!

Beijos e boa sorte!