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
journal entry #004 – crappy month does not equal crappy experience
Stephanie Sanchez-Aguilar
2017-11-08
“Perhaps the ache of homesickness was a fair price to pay for having so many good people in her life.” – Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet As the sunlight gleams through my metal bedroom window, I lay under my mosquito net and listen to the life outside of it. I...
Read MoreNo fear 2.0
Sy Richardson Dragon
2017-11-08
I never stood out much in the States, at least not physically. I’m five two, with brown hair, and green eyes. Here, aside from my height, I couldn’t be more different from the people around me. At least on the outside. The stares and whispered words elicited purely by my pale skin scared me at...
Read MoreIdentity
Jeannine Contreras
2017-11-07
On my first day as an English teacher, Edison, one of the main teachers I would be working with, took me to four of his classes to introduce me to his students. He introduced me to his first class in the following manner: "This is the new English assistant shes from the U.S but she...
Read More
The Winter Solstice Festival: Kapak Raymi
Maya Wilcox
2017-11-07
Someone asked me to elaborate on the winter solstice festival after my last post (shoutout to Jan!). So I’m sharing a little blurb about it from the magazine I work for. Kapak Raymi is a festival in honor of wisdom, and is celebrated on the 21st of December, hallmay pacha. Rituals that are practiced include: hutuku...
Read MoreGetting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
Zoe Ward
2017-11-07
Global Citizen Year focuses a lot on your stretch zone and I think I’ve just found a physical definition for it. Recently in capoeira class, I asked the teacher to show me how to do a one handed cartwheel. Apparently, there are four versions: two on each side with a different hand. My first try...
Read MoreMoving… Again
Leonardo Salvatore
2017-11-07
7 30am. A man I had never seen before opened my door and, having realized it wasn't the bathroom, politely apologized for the intrusion. I was far from awake, still lost in my dreams, probably breaking a string during my solo with Led Zeppelin or drumming for Pink Floyd in one of their majestic gigs....
Read More
Who are you, truly?
Yesenia Martinez
2017-11-06
A recent study, conducted en la Provincia de Cañar, showed that the person with the most descent from Cañaris/Incans had 37% of native genes, although most people ranged from 7%-10%. Today, citizens of el Canton Cañar (a town in the Province of Cañar) refer to themselves as either indígena or mestizo. You may ask, so what classifies you as...
Read MoreFrom Classroom to Staffroom
Sarah Candee
2017-11-06
High school was never my favorite place. I never really enjoyed it — never really thrived. In actuality, my high school experience is probably part of why I chose to take a gap year. From day one of freshman year I counted the days to my graduation, four years later. Somehow, don’t ask me how,...
Read MoreVisioning My Victory
Shukura Babirye
2017-11-05
I want the dream of being fluent in another language to be a reality. I know it is a challenge but I am never one to back down and quit. This will take a lot of time and commitment. I will need to put myself constantly in the stretch zone to the point where it...
Read MoreHarkadas: My Apprenticeship Experience
Alexis Floyd
2017-11-05
I arrive in a neighborhood foreign to my knowledge, surrounded by strangers staring at me as if I am an exotic creature that just escaped the circus. I’m lost and it’s the first day of my apprenticeship. Oh no, this is already a bad impression. I’m struggling to hold myself together. I’m scared.. Mujhe dar...
Read MoreSorbitol
Alexandra Moreno
2017-11-04
Sorbitol, less commonly known as glucitol, is a sugar alcohol with a sweet taste which the human body metabolizes slowly. On average, the human body can digest anywhere from 1mg to 5mg of sorbitol a day. Any more than that can cause bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Yesterday around 8pm, my host family asked me if...
Read MoreNov. 2nd – Día De Los Difuntos
Jeannine Contreras
2017-11-03
The last place that I expected to be full of life was the cemetery yet there I was at 10 pm in Atuntaki Ecuador in the middle of a bustling cemetery. Families gathered everywhere, crowding around tombstones, migrating slowly from tomb to tomb, greeting friends and other relatives. Lovers pulled each other close. Children stuck...
Read More