I cannot believe this year is almost done! It feels like it was only last month that I got here. It’s unbelievable! I have just recently put together my final presentations for my rotary clubs, it took me longer than I expected to put it together because I swear I have taken hundreds of photos and I’m only allowed to talk for 15 minutes at Rotary. It was so hard to just pull out a few things from my amazing year here in Georgia as a GRSP student.

I arrived in America on the 7th of August to be welcomed by my two incredible host families. I had come straight from the middle of New Zealand winter right into the middle of a hot Georgia summer, now that was a shock. From day one I was living the dream. I wasn’t to start school for a few weeks so we started to explore my area. Flowery branch was where I called home. A beautiful little town right on Lake Lanier. My school is about 20 minutes north in a town called Gainesville. Brenau is traditionally an all-women’s college which dates back to 1878, it has beautiful big old buildings that creek and bang in the night and is said to be haunted by Agnes the school ghost. I started school after a few weeks and loved it. The American college life is much different to universities back home and I loved every minute of learning the new ways. My weekends often consisted of going out on Lake Lanier with family friends and meeting new people and enjoying the summer.

I have been extremely lucky with the opportunities that I have got while being here in America. For Christmas my amazing host dad took us to Las Vegas for New Years. One thing about me is that I am a total Fleetwood Mac fan and in October we learnt that they were playing in Vegas over New Years. What an experience! On the 30^th of December we went and saw Fleetwood mac and yes I cried. There are really no words to describe Las Vegas, it is absolutely spectacular. Each hotel is like its own city and you could explore it for days!

This semester we were lucky enough to have snow days. We have had nearly two weeks off due to the snow, which there hasn’t been much complaining coming from the student’s side. Brenau looked incredible in the snow, its big old pink buildings covered in snow was like a picture. It was amazing because pretty much everything shut down over these two weeks. Poor Atlanta just couldn’t cope with it. A great adventure for someone who comes from the North Island of New Zealand though.

Even after 6 months of being here I am still learning and still trying to get use to American ways. As I am down here in the south I have learnt that pretty much everything is sweetened, salted or fried. They say that as a freshman in college you gain the freshman 15 (pounds), I’d say that’s defiantly the way. Especially when eating in the school cafeteria every day.

I have been so lucky and I was placed with the two most amazing host families possible. I really became one of their kids and really experienced the real America. Halloween and Thanksgiving were a blast. Halloween we carved out our own pumpkins and thanksgiving we had the big feast with the family and the turkeys. Could not have asked for anything more amazing.

Being part of this GRSP program and meeting the amazing friends and the two new families that I now have has been a life changer and I am so thankful to GRSP for this opportunity. I now have many more friends from all over the world who I just can’t wait to go and visit. This year couldn’t be possible without my sponsoring clubs South hall, Buford/ North Gwinnett, Mosaic, and the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville, and my amazing host families. Forever in my heart. Also Otorohanga Rotary club back in New Zealand this couldn’t have happened without you.

I would like to thank Rotary international from the past, present and future GRSP students for this amazing opportunity that I would urge anyone to take up as it is an amazing life changing experience.