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
The things you’ll need for the places you’ll go
Olivia Dutra
2017-12-04
You’ll need to be able to go with the flow, this will be especially helpful when within the first few days of arriving at your host families house, they bring you on a trip that starts with nine people fitting into a car for five on a car ride that somehow takes four hours even...
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More Than Just Sightseeing
Tiffany Hurtado
2017-12-04
It’s already been three months since I’ve been here and it feels like time is passing by both fast and slow. During these three months, I’ve been both homesick and truly happy to be here. It’s hard to explain my experience, and what’s it’s like being here. So I decided to do a photo blog...
Read MoreBefore They’re Gone
Marissa Emerson
2017-12-04
The last two weeks have been a doozy. Not the, “day after day has an amazing, new surprise” kind of doozy, but a, “hardship after purpose-questioning hardship” kind of doozy. How much I’ve started to miss my at-times monotonous, daily life and the number of blessings I seem to have overlooked makes me realize how...
Read More3 Moons
Elise Steenburgh
2017-12-04
When we arrived to Brazil on September 3rd, the bright full moon lit up the night sky as we sat outside under a tree at Morro Das Pedras hotel in Florianópolis, for our first in country get-to-know-you. Today, December 3rd, a supermoon – the biggest, brightest, and last full moon of the year – marks 3 months...
Read MoreA tiny summary of an epic experience!
Creede Burton
2017-12-03
After 22 hours of plane flights, layovers and bumpy bus rides, the Indian cohort had finally made it to Hyderabad. We arrived at the sight and sound of the bustling city of Pune. We spent the first week of our journey at the Center for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) in Pune doing our...
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10 Life Lessons From My Irritated Bowels
McKenna Daily
2017-12-01
This past week, in the beautiful cloud forest of Mindo, I was finally initiated into the sacred rite of having serious diarrhea. Three months and many parasites in, it’s even become a badge of honor in our cohort to have shit your pants. I am now among those proudly inducted. I invite you to...
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Thankful For My New Life—My New Home
Shannon Yang
2017-11-30
Almost three months ago, I stepped off a plane in Dakar, a city I didn’t know much about, in a country that I didn’t know much about. I spent a week doing a seminar at the Tostan Training Center in Thiès, speaking English, using the Wi-Fi, eating westernized food, and then suddenly, that bubble...
Read MoreOf Neocolonialism and Other Cruelties of the World (and How to Deal With It)
Shannon Yuen
2017-11-29
’So — how’s Senegal? Are your eyes finally being opened to the cruelties of the world? The global north expunge the world's resources while the south scrimps for what little is left behind.” This Facebook message popped up on the screen of my phone as I plopped down in an internet cafe, ready to indulge...
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Leonardo Salvatore
2017-11-29
Soccer. It’s a big thing in Brazil. Everyone belongs to a team. Whether it be in Serie A or Serie B, from where they were born or where they grew up, everyone likes a team. Corinthians, Santos, Palmeiras, Flamengo, Cruzeiro: these are probably the most famous soccer teams, but the list keeps going, and it’s not...
Read MoreMy first bad day
Sydney Scanlon
2017-11-28
I told my mother a few days before my departure to India how my timeline for the next 8 months would look. I go with the flow, but when it comes to my emotions, I have always been a diligent planner. Given that my mood swings rarely sway beyond mild; it is relatively simple to...
Read MoreDesde Uruguay a Senegal, pensamientos en el Super
Julieta Lechini
2017-11-28
Cada tanto me viene a la mente las historias que mis padres y abuelos me solían contar sobre mi país. Un Uruguay donde las puertas permanecían abiertas, donde se podía comprar una bolsa de caramelos por 1 peso y donde todxs eran bienvenidxs a tomar mate a cualquier momento del día. La vida pasaba más...
Read MoreJust So Dang Grateful
Elizabeth Ollila
2017-11-26
Right now I am sitting in my living room watching my host dad make a nativity scene out of recycled boxes and my host mom string tinsel on the tree that they just cut from outside. Yesterday, my family celebrated Thanksgiving with me. They gave me a day to invite a friend and make the...
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