Letter to my host mom

VIERNES 18 DE AGOSTO DE 2017

Dear Brenda,

I have so much to thank you for everything you taught me in that long and beautiful experience that was the exchange in the United States, I chose you as the person that I want on this letter to be about, because when I felt that there was no possibility that any family chose me to spend my exchange in the United States, you chose me and decided to welcome me to your family, that enlightened me the days of the rest of the year 2015 because I knew that my adventure in the United States just started and getting closer to being happy in January 2016.

It makes me very happy to remember that it was you who taught me to mature and value more the things that are in my life, I think it is very normal that there are so many changes and cultural differences when relating each other in the family but what I learned is that: that is important to know the world and all the things that cross in other's minds and I never get tired of thanking you for all the patience you had with me, I have got a bad mood and I am also very sensitive, so the problems we had among the members of the family were very important for the most of the time and  helped me to become a little stronger and understand that we can not be apart for so long because we started missing a lot.

I thank you for being my mother during and after the exchange, you are great for that and even more, your job and actions, make you awesome, for loving me as you love your kids, I needed someone to ask for advice and a shoulder to cry on and let off steam and there were you were willing to listen and resolve my doubts, thank you for making me laugh because of my way of speaking English, my accents and everything else. I thank you for taking the time to say things to me personally when you did not like something or the whole family in general, it really was very useful for me everything to improve as a person, but at the same time to have better relations with the whole family (I always tried to do my best to make everyone happy.)

I thank you for being my friend and uphold me when I needed it, to be there, to carry things to the school when I left them, thanks to you I learned the importance of being a very responsible person, thank you for supporting me in all the sports I joined for believing in my skills and say you know what? I am pretty sure that you are going to do it right and you will be the best one, thank you for going to my softball, soccer and basketball games, you are and were like my mom that's why I always wanted to surprise you and give you a reason to be proud of me and say: I am hosting that Colombian who is playing with aggressiveness in the field! While you smiled.

Thanks for shout out every time I scored a point for the team, for posting all those goals of mine on Facebook and making me feel important as if I really was the center of attention for others, in the good way. Thank you for making me so happy taking me to such spectacular places in the United States, you know that it has always been the country of my dreams and knowing more and more places to take photos over there, take selfies, try new foods, lifestyles and being happy is something that I valued a lot, because nobody else would do it than you.

Thanks for teaching me to eat veggies lol, seriously, I mean since you made the experience of eating vegetables nice and funny, something that became a kind of adventure, makes now whenever I see some dish or Meal with vegetables I simply ask for it because you taught me that it is interesting to try new things and to surprise to us that it can end up liking us that we ate, just by trying it. It really makes me very happy to try new things and have learned to tolerate and value food even more; thanks for teaching American recipes and letting me cook a few things that were needed for dinner now and then,  sometimes just cooking I see that life is more beautiful and I enjoy more.

Brenda if it weren´t  for you, for your initiative to host exchange students, for your patience, for your love, for your hope, for your understanding, for your curiosity, for the interest in knowing other cultures as mine for example, among other qualities that distinguish you, I definitely would not have had the possibility of having the language that I speak now (english), the maturity I gained as a person, the memories I have and the birghtness of my eyes whenever I speak of my exchange student experience in Davenport, Washington. Brenda, you can not imagine how much I miss the whole Hendrickson family, and I reiterate it again that what you did is great and I think the least I can do is say thank you all the time for the opportunity you gave me to say: I was an exchange student in the United 

States.

Lots of love,

Your favorite colombian

Lina Giselle Trujillo G.

"I came to Davenport, Washington as an exchange student, as a stranger, as another foreigner, and I left it in December as par of Davenport, WA, USA family."