Braselton Rotary Welcomes Anna Bencze!

Anna Benze, our GRSP Student for 2006 - 2007 arrived from Budapest, Hungary July 26th and was greeted by her 3 host familes at the airport. We are excited to have Anna with us this year and look forward to sharing many memories with her. Check our website often for updates from Anna and her host families.

Anna's PhotoBlog (click here)

Email: anna_bencze@yahoo.com

Cell: 678 367 8730

Dorm address: 150CA Reed Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30609

What's up?

My life has been incredible here in Georgia, and I cannot believe it is all happening to me. I do not think I deserve this, but do hope that someday I will be able to give it back somehow to everyone who made this possible for me. And if it has been great so far, it is just getting better and better concerning traveling around. I am going to New York City next week, Camden County in two weeks, Florida in four weeks and California in two months...I am very very excited!

After getting back from spring break, my hostfamily surprised me with a weekend in Biloxi, MS where I could not believe my eyes and ears and mouth and toes... ;-)It was an amazing weekend! Thank you very much!

In spring break I went on a roadtrip with two of my fellow Hungarian GRSP friends, Dori and Tamas. It was fantastic!!! We left from Macon, GA and got the chance to see New Orleans,LA where we visited the French Quarter of course. Then we headed to Houston, TX where we were accomodated by local rotaractors and we even saw a real rodeo show in a huge arena. In Austin,TX we even walked around the country's biggest state capitol and got some cowboy boots and cowboy hats. In Baton Rouge we "climbed" the country's tallest state capitol, then we arrived back to Valdosta, GA. For a perfect ending, we went to Savannah for St patrick's day and enjoyed the Irish festival :-)

I am trying to live up to my plans and travel as much as possible. I have been having a great semester so far. Classes are not overwhelming, though giving me enough occupation outside of the classroom. I also started working at the Georgia Center, which is a hotel and conference center on campus. I am very much enjoyong being at the front desk and meeting end helping people every day.

The first week of school went by quickly with running to different classes and trying to figure out a cool schedule :-) Now studying languages (Arabic, French and Spanish) and getting fit in PE and ballroom dances classes allow me the time to participate in programs at university, make more friends and travel as much as possible this semester before going home.

During the MLK weekend we had our first Rotary weekend this year in Atlanta which was a lot of fun. We visited the Carter center where we found the replica of the Hungarian saint crown, heard very interesting and inspirational presentations demonstrating "Service above self". I learnt a lot about myself, about different cultures and got a lot of motivation for initiating projects at home :-)

I really miss going to theater and my hostmom took Charli and me to the gorgeous FOX theatre and we watched the High School Musical. It was great! :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I spent New Year's Eve in the magical city of New Orleans. It was great and a lot of fun! We toured the famous and historical French quearter, tasted AAAALLLL the delicious local specialties and even experienced the unique Mardi Gras (@Mardi Gras World). It was great!!!

One night during the holidays I cooked the famous Hungarian GULYAS soup for my hostparents and some friends in the neighborhood. For dessert we had crepes a la Gundel. I enjoyed the cooking a lot, because everybody was very entertaining. According to the tasters the food turned out to be good, so I was very pleased with that and maybe the next Hungarian dinner is not that far now... :-)

After a very exhausting but exciting week of finals, I finished the first semester at UGA with a 3.54 GPA. I could have done better, to tell the truth, but then I wouldn't have had that much fun, and 2 A-s and 2 B-s and two more satisfactory dance classes are good enough for me now :-) I had learnt a lot and had had a lot of fun. I got the opportunity of attending three Rotary Christmas parties that I enjoyed a lot, and I am thankful for everything my great hosts have given me since I came to Georgia. In my winter break I am relaxing, and having fun with my host family in Chateau Elan. Christmas was wonderful and the break is not over yet :-)

I had the very best Thanksgiving with my hostfamily. I ate food I had never seen before, and they were all great - real homemade :-) The break was very relaxing, and I had a lot of fun. Dennis Still (GRSP chair) took me to the Atlanta marathon on Thanksgiving day, where after waking up at the crack of dawn I helped collecting the chips from the runners. It was a nice experience.

This weekend Charli and I attended the Braselton Rotary Club's Fundraising Raffle party, where we helped in preparing the decoration, and 7 of the GRSP students we split a ticket and entered the raffle. We did not win, but it all went for a good cause to make soms kids' Christmas happier! (And we also saw the Tour of Homes of the Legends of Chateau Elan, where I saw the most amazing homes with amazing Christmas decoration.) It was a really fun weekend!

In the last couple of weeks I have not bored bored at all. School has been keeping me very very busy - with all the finals coming up, and all the essays to be turned in. I am getting better in tap, I am trying to keep up with at least 80% of the readings for my international affairs classes, I am hopefully improving my public speaking skills and I can already say a couple of things in Arabic:-)

However, I still find a zillion things to do and chillax. I have been going to the theater around and on campus to see some nice shows and plays. They are all very entertaining. I am taking advantage of all the sport events and try to see as many as possible - this way I was lucky enough to meet the Olympic champion swimmer, Michael Phelps. The basketball season has started, so I watched a basketball game which turned out to be a true American experience. And even though the football season is soon over, my host family was great AGAIN and they took me to Arkansas with them to watch the Tennessee - Arkansas game where we had a lot of fun.

And again, I am amazed at the COLORS that keep changing but never stop being beautiful!

I am the luckiest person on Earth to have all that much fun during my year. I spent fall break in Chicago with some friends and thanks to my hostparents' and my hostaunt's generosity we could stay at the very heart of the city! We toured, we had the Chicago deep dish pizza, we shopped a bit, we saw Chicago from the Hancock Observatory, we fought with the foolish Chicago weather and we met local Rotaractors who took us out and who are amazing! They are doing a water project in Panama next spring and they invited me to go with them! That would be fantastic!

I spent the weekend in the mountains of Georgia and saw probably some of the most beautiful fall colors.

We went to Savannah this weekend and that city stole my heart. We went on Ghost Tour Friday night (Friday 13th), than we went to the Mighty Eight Museum. In the afternoon we made it to the top of the Tybee Island Lighthouse and then I swam in the Atlantic ocean!!! (Now I can say that I have swum on both sides;-) After spending the afternoon on teh beach we had a nice dinner and chatted for a long time. I wish we had had more time to see downtown, but it was great anyways and we had a lot of fun!

I had the most fun at the year's biggest Georgia game against Tennessee. We experienced the whole football weekend feeling. We tailgated with great people, had the best ribs ever, saw the Dawg Walk, and dressed up totally like a Georgia fan:-) Tom and I went to the game, and we took the best seats...GO Vo...Dawgs!

Steve and Patti are THE BEST HOST FAMILY and they put up the BEST "CHILLAXING" weekend ever for us this weekend. We had sooooo much fun with all the students. Going to the movies, shopping, BBQing, nightgolfing, jacuzzi-ing, hanving the most fun and CHILLAXING!!! I have no words to tell how much I and all the other students appreciate it:-) THANK YOU! (btw: Steve is wearing his Rotary pin in his heart!!!)

I had the "BESTEST" BIRTHDAY EVER!!!

I had the opportunity to go to Snellville and help the Snellville Rotary Club with some other Interactors to paint a public bathroom.

I did the trimming inside and learnt how to use a painting roller:-) After the work we had a nice picnic lunch in the park.

Remembering 9/11

I went to the Clayton County Rotary Conclave

and had a lot of fun. I built a postcard from sand, built a racecar from vegetable and a boat from cardboard and tape with other GRSP students. I didn't win any medals, but I gained new experiences and made more friends:-) And of course I danced a lot.

I got to go to my first BIG UGA football game - it was GREAT!!!

I had a fantabulous weekend at the Clayton Conclave.

I met Coach Richt ;-)

A little bit about me:

I have a brother, Peter, who is 16 and he’s a great waterpolo player.

My mother has 3 brothers and 2 sisters which allows me to have 12 cousins (2 from my father’s side), and we are a very close family as well. I like homemade food, and I love cooking and baking. I’d love to share the most delicious Hungarian dishes with you, friends and other Rotarians.

I live in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It is a big busy city which I‘m in love with. It has two parts: the plain Pest and the hilly Buda with the Danube between the two. I live on the Buda side, but I used to live in Pest until I was 15.

I study International Economics and Relations at the Corvinus University of Budapest, and my minor was Regional Development.

Besides English I speak Spanish and French. I love learning foreign languages, and I do tutoring in all three languages.

I love doing sports, especially biking, running, swimming and skiing. I did dancing (hip-hop) for 9 years.

I love traveling.

My other hobby is handcrafts. I love doing all sorts of creative things- postcards, beads, scrapbooking (I’d love to make a scrapbook about my year in Georgia).

I love music, dance and theatre (especially musicals), so I hope the University will give me opportunities to enjoy those as well.

I’m past president of Budapest Budavar Rotaract Club, which is very nice and I would love to share ideas with the Rotary in Georgia. At Christmas we raise money by selling mould wine at a big Christmas fair, and we spend the money on organising programs for kids who live in children’s home. This year we also started a new program like a vocational day (we called it shadowing program) where high school kids could spend a day with people at work.

I hope to attend as many Rotary meetings as possible and meet many people because that is how I get to know the culture the most and experience the real life of Georgia. I would also love to participate with the clubs’ projects so we can share ideas and learn new things.

I really appreciate this opportunity that has been given me for this year and I am very grateful for that.