Greetings again, today I am going to talk about my families past and current. My first family consisted of a single mother, a daughter in university and a son who is currently being hosted in Canada. So most of the time I was home I was alone or with Uschi (the mother). I had a lot of fun with Uschi as we often went hiking and visited friends of her's. The only downside with my first host family was the location, I was in an incredibly small village (20-30 houses max) and a 20 minute (in good weather) bike ride from the small city nearby. However I had a great time there and have made some friends that I hope to keep having for the rest of my life. Since leaving Uschi's house I have returned once briefly so that we could go skating together and I am now in contact with her son in Canada making plans to visit with him once he comes back to Germany.

My second family was the Tahers. They are a larger family with two older daughters both off in university and a young son at home. The father works as a travel agent and so is constantly out of the house on trips planning trips for clients. The mother is a Wald-Kindergarten teacher and works with very young children twice a week out in the local woods. The son is an energetic, fun-loving and fashion conscious young lad who also likes to play video games. I got along with him quite well though at times he was a little annoying which reminded me to apologize to my brothers and parents once I get home. While with this family I went to a new school and took a week long intensive Deutsch course with University students that I continue to go to weekly. I have also taken to once a week helping the neighbour's son with his english and have continued to do this at my new family. 

My final family that I am currently staying with are closer to my age. There is a brother who finished school last year and was in Vancouver, Canada on working vacation, the middle brother who is just finishing with school this year and the youngest daughter who is quiet good with languages and even visited France on a short ten day exchange. The mother is a secretary at the travel agency that my second family's father works at and the father works for a Canadian paper company as one of their European contacts. I am getting along here well and can't wait to see what the future holds. I hope to fill you in more on my adventures more fully sometime next month as I am going on a tour of central Europe and will have many good stories to tell.

Love Sjoerd