Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Ecuaproblems
Elizabeth Warren
2012-04-17
In any country you go into you are more than likely going to run into problems, some may be bad or just plain funny. I have my share of problems here in Ecuador, which I like to call Ecuaproblems! First, one of the problems I struggled with when I first got to Ecuador was the...
Read MoreThe Big Red Machine
Nicolas Freschi
2012-04-17
In August, before leaving for our respective countries, the Global Citizen Year Fellows watched the movie Avatar together to help us understand our roles as foreigners entering a new culture in a faraway land. The alien race of the Na’vi is at one with nature while the human visitors are materialistic and tied...
Read MoreOn the Side of the River
Holli Sullivan
2012-04-09
On the side of the river where all my dreams are realized. where all the things I have wanted in my life are in my hands. and all the things that I will ever want they also are mine. River, teach me to love with all my heart. teach me to accept everything in my...
Read MoreThe Price Free Spirits Pay
Holli Sullivan
2012-04-09
The Price Free Spirits Pay Traveling the world has various costs. We all know this now. There are passport and visa costs, plane tickets, and baggage fees. Then comes accommodation, food, and transportation. And what about souvenirs? How ‘bout that $200 guided hiking tour that you just have to go on? Maybe a few...
Read MoreThe Strings of my Heart
Galen Burns-Fulkerson
2012-04-02
Ecuador has tugged at my heartstrings plenty of times. I still remember how I felt the first time (and the second and the third… and maybe the fiftieth too) I saw the views from Pimampiro. When my little host brother told me that he loved me for the first time, I smiled from ear to...
Read MoreTur
Paulina Personius
2012-04-02
I hear the sharp sound of the drum starting to lay down the beat of the song at the weekly dance called a “tur” that is held in my town for girls my age. Ran-tan-tan, ran-tan, ran-tan. Soon more drums join in and the beat is almost lost to my untrained ear in the cacophony...
Read MoreThe Uniform is All
Lucy Blumberg
2012-04-02
Senegal has taught me many things. The most important I would say is “just go with it.” “It” may be reading children’s books in Wolof to a group of toddlers, putting on beautiful clothes and pounds of make up only to have to take it off minutes later, or spontaneously becoming a member of the...
Read MoreExplaining the Unexplainable
Mariah Donnelly
2012-03-30
America is not perfect. I would say that almost universally Americans would agree that this statement rings true. Just ask an American about recent politics and when you hear just a long moaning noise you will know what I am talking about. But what is easy for Americans to see isn’t always so easy for...
Read MoreConnect Four
Sienna Walker
2012-03-30
In the past month, I spent a handfull of days in and out of the hospital, having CAT scans and blood tests, with an undecided but looming pre-diagnosis of tuberulosis. Much to my appreciation, my Quito host family took me in during those dramatic days. And one night during my stay, my sister invited me...
Read MoreRosa Victoria: World Traveler
Welcome Frye
2012-03-30
While on the way to Misahuallí to start Training Seminar 3 with the other Napo Fellows, I took my seat next to an elderly Ecuadorian woman sound asleep with her head resting against the bus window. A few minutes later, a particularly bumpy section of road jolted her awake and, upon hearing my English conversation...
Read MoreWords From Ecuador
Lily Ellenberg
2012-03-30
I am from eight thirty bedtimes and rising with the sun. From devious little cousins and younger siblings. From fresh fruit juice, ecua-shoes, and a new system of time. From seemingly shy women and overtly forward men. From fried yucca, comidas tipicas and yogoso sabor a naranja. I am from open-air classrooms, school uniforms and...
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