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
A Lesson In Culture
Ariel Vardy
2012-10-04
Like America’s dedication and creed towards freedom, is Senegal’s declaration of Hospitality. Americans appriciate choice and individualism, and thus their citizens like to “mind their own business”. Senegal’s Hospitality is the opposite. So proud are they to host their country, village, neighborhood, and houses, that they will indeed host you— throwing huge pellets of smiles...
Read More
Pathways
Galen Tsongas
2012-10-04
This is by no means an easy task. From San Francisco to Stanford, from Stanford to the hostel in Quito, from the hostel in Quito to a new home in Quito. This is my life at this moment, and it’s huge. I understand very little Spanish and am constantly reminded that this is where I...
Read More
A Post From “Tall, Skinny, White One”
Aidan Holloway-Bidwell
2012-10-04
One of the first differences to hit me between the U.S. and Ecuador was food prices. In the U.S. it is, nearly without exception, cheaper to buy dinner at a MacDonald’s or Taco Bell than to head out and buy fresh ingredients for a homemade meal. Here in Quito however, a small salad from MacDonald’s costs...
Read More
Zuleta: A Small Town With BIG People
Kimberly Nerea Tellez
2012-10-03
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was told that I had been placed in a small indigenous town which is better known for their artisan embroidery and the grand Hacienda Zuleta. But I won’t be visiting as a tourist; I will be living there for a long six months. However, though it was...
Read More
“Is Your Hair Color Natural?”
Brian Riefler
2012-10-02
In the United States people describe me as a ginger. In Ecuador I am a gringo (foreigner). I have not had a problem blending in with the swarm of other sojourners in Quito. Outside the city, however, I realized I am a minority: My host mother in the Amazon, where I am living and working for the next six months,...
Read MoreMindfulness
Meg Crenshaw
2012-10-02
I was exhausted: I had spent the day–from 8am to 4pm–bringing big rocks from across the river to our community in the Ecuador Sun. I was lonely: I saw other workers joking around with their best friends, while I was stuck with five-year-old vocabulary. I was upset: I knew that this was not the day...
Read More
Accepting the Grit
Lydia Collins
2012-10-02
Acceptance. This word has been at the forefront of my mind during the first few weeks of my new life here in Ecuador. I feel as if my every move in this wonderfully refreshing, yet overwhelming country has been internally motivated by the hopeful outcome of “acceptance”. Let me give you some context. This context comes...
Read More
Buen Provecho, Ecuador!
John Villanueva
2012-10-02
Get ready to eat up! I made a video about my first month’s stay in Ecuador and about what’s in store for the next six. A full tummy is a happy tummy. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO
Read More
The Journey Thus Far
Delia Ross
2012-10-02
Check out a video I put together of my “journey” so far! I’ve been taking footage randomly throughout the trip, and this was my attempt to put it together and try to make it seem pretty. I’m hoping my video editing skills will improve as the year goes on, but I hope you enjoy it!...
Read More
Safari: The Way of Life.
Emma Anderson
2012-10-02
So much has changed in my life since I left the United States. I finished with Fall Training on August 29th and boarded the plane for New York that evening. We spent the next day using a 17 hour layover to visit Little Dakar in New York and taste the official dish of Senegal –...
Read More
Desire to Learn
Jackie Brown
2012-10-02
I never thought I would wake up every day with my driving motive to get out of bed to be to go to class. Growing up it never seemed to be quite this, and I always I had to find other reasons to peel my eyes open and get the day started. I never minded...
Read More
Who Am I?
Carly Sitrin
2012-10-01
“I’m wild again, beguiled again, a whimpering, simpering child again. Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered am I.” -Kurt Vonnegut Jr (Timequake) Who am I? What a superb question! I am quite glad that you asked! I am everything, and I am nothing at all. I am a convoluted knot of atoms, molecules, elements, and synapses....
Read More