Fellow Stories

True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!

Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!

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plane

2015-09-11

August 19th, 2015   Thirty-four thousand one hundred and five feet up, one thousand five hundred and twenty-two miles to go. A brisk negative 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Nothing but three inches of aluminum and hard plastic separating my cheek from the cold oxygen-starved Iowa stratosphere. As I look down at the cottony white clouds below...

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Sick Day

2015-09-10

Today I stayed home, sick and bedridden. After an episode of constant vomiting, insomnia and headaches, I’ve decided to never eat McDonalds ever again. Laying down with my aching stomach and pounding head, I’ve realized what an important day it was, and what a unfortunate time it was to get sick. Today was supposed to...

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Four seasons

2015-09-10

When you ask geography experts what seasons you can find in Ecuador, they say that you get a Dry season ( summer) and a wet season (winter). However when you ask the natives, the Ecuadorians, they say that although that may be true, in each day they experience all four seasons. In the morning they...

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Great Expectations

2015-09-10

      My departure from the United States quickly approaches and I invite you all to follow me on my journey to Santa Catarina, Brazil. I have chosen to postpone the traditional college experience and embark on a bridge year abroad. This adventure consists of eight months in a strange and new place. During...

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Dear me, remember this.

2015-09-09

It’s been a few weeks since I stood in the middle of the airport in Houston, Texas and waited to board my plane to Ecuador. Bodies passed in a blur. Feet scurried toward their destinations. Luggages dragged behind grudgingly. Despite the pace of the environment I braved the ocean of people, propped my camera on...

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I can swim.

2015-09-09

I’m scared. I feel like I’ve been thrown into the middle of the ocean with a crappy live jacket and leaky goggles. I thought I was prepared, but it doesn’t seem like anything could’ve prepared me for the situation I’ve been placed in. No one could have prepared me for the feeling of literally not...

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I’m Here With Intent

2015-09-09

Our nights would be, mostly, the same. Apart from one night. That night I was half awake, in my boarding school bed, with fairy lights painting orange swirls under my eyelids, I could hear fingers tapping away at keyboards and friends chatting in the background. What was different about that particular night was the conversation; and how her voice rose...

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Salt and Vinegar Pringles

2015-09-09

Today was a rough day. The little moments of culture shock have been slowly piling up in my mind and I'ts really starting to hit me that this is not just a trip, this is going to be my life for the next 6 months. On our way back from an overwhelming and overstimulating market/beach...

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How To Survive In Brazil Without Knowing Any Portuguese

2015-09-09

I have only had one Portuguese class. For the past four days I have been living with a family that only speaks Portuguese.  —————————— Rule #1: Verbal Charades The past few days have been a big game of verbal charades. I have my list of words I’m not allowed to say, anything in English, but...

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Untitled

2015-09-09

a poem to departure lately i have been finding myself gripping on doorknobs as if they were hands clasping on ever so tightly to the stillness and consistency as i transcend in between a moment of hesitation and assemblies of brief holy gatherings in my lungs unmolding my soles from familiar floors it is a...

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And We´re Off (A Litle Bit Late, I Know)

2015-09-08

There are times in your life when hours feel like days, days like weeks, weeks like years, and years, decades. Where time seems to stretch in a way it never could before, making what was in another setting trivial, irreplaceable. This was one of those times. There are times where what you expect to be...

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The Vision

2015-09-08

Since my decision to be a Global Citizen Year fellow, people have asked “What are you going to do?” quite a lot. I answered the question by laying out the program structure. But that answer isn’t personal, people asked “what are you going to do?” And I answered, “The program does this…” or “Fellows have worked on these type of projects”....

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