Crack up to be Does anyone know what's the exact meaning of this idiom?

Hobbies The thing I love to do is playing soccer. I've been playing soccer since I was a six-year-old child. I remember that I played soccer with my neighbods every day at night and my mom was always shouting at me because I came home extremely dirty. Also, I've played in a football club with my best frined for a year. I left it because I didn't have much time. At this time I had to work and I was studying at the university at the same time. I learned how to play soccer from my older brother many years ago. He used to play soccer really well but now I think years have make him a little fat so he cannot run as fast as he did.

What do you like to do in your free time? There are many things I like to do in my spare time. Almost all of them are directly connected with my studies, what I'm trying to say is that I love learning new things and I fully exploit my little time in order to get some knowledge. So how do I do it? Well, I read as many books as I can . In fact, I do love reading books in English since in that way I can improve my vocabulary and grammar (you know , books are well-written). Another thing I do is to chat with International friends I got from Italki. We have the same goal as common to learn languages so we enjoy talking each others. Finally, I run. I used to run in Marathons but now I just run for fun. How about you? :)

Can anyone see if this letter is done right? Pdt: I'm preparing myself to take the Ielts Dear Isabel, Hi there! I hope you are doing fine. First of all, I want to thank you for your invitation. I'm really happy because this's my first time going to China and as you might know it's always been one of my dreams. So I'm really glad you gave me the opportunity to visit your country. Secondly, I was thinking in bringing something with me in order to surprise your parents and sisters,but I couldn't come up with any idea since I've never met your parents before and I really don't know what a nice gift would be for them. I hope you can help me figuring out what to give them, please. There's another thing I want to ask you, since I've never been to China , I would like to know what kind of clothes I should take there, I mean, is there cold now? Should I take jumpers or sweaters? Or maybe just shorts and a couple of t-shirts. I'm so sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable with my questions but it was because I'm kind of nervous and I want to be prepare for anything.