Dear friend,

I' d like to tell you something about myself: my name is Federica Cairo. I'm sixteen years old. I'm average height and medium build. I have curly black hair and a dark complexion. I wear glasses as I'm rather short-sighted. The clothes I like are casual. I don't have problems for eating, I eat anything. I'm attending the Liceo " D'Adda" in Varallo and I'm in the third year. My favourite subjects are: maths, philosophy and modern languages. It's a very hard course because there are a lot of subjects. However I'm the sort of person that doesn't give up in the presence of difficulties. I'm quite pugnacious and stubborn. I also go to afternoon courses of drama and of English conversation with our mother-tongue teacher.

I live in an apartment in a town called Varallo Sesia in the north of Italy. I live with my parents and my sister: my mother is an accountant and her name is Paola; my father is a maths and physics teacher in my school and his name is Roberto; my sister is five years old, her name is Sofia and she goes to the nursery-school in Varallo. She's always speaking whereas I don't speak much. In fact I'm very shy: Yet I feel I'm open to know other people of different cultures, customs and traditions. I'm particularly interested in learning new things for my future life. That's why I like travelling around the world. During my summer holidays I often go abroad with my grand-mother: she has been to almost all foreign countries!

In my free time, I like reading novels, listening to music at full volume, riding my bicycle and doing puzzles of one thousand pieces. My favourite hobby is to do KARATE DO. It's fantastic and also very useful because it teaches you how to defend yourself and at the same time how to respect other people, finally it helps you to live comfortably. I think this sport is the top of life. At the moment I'm Yellow Belt; the next steps are: Orange, Green, Blue, Brown and finally BLACK belt..

I hope I'll be able to have an American student staying with me when you visit our school.

Love,

Federica