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 Marvelous & Wearisome First Month in Brazil (written during the beginning of October)
Filip Carnogursky
2017-10-18
Stanford. New friendships. Inspiring speeches. Learning a new language. More friends. Cultural differences. First signs of fluency in Portuguese. Making a joke in Portuguese! Cultural and language similarities. Host father. Host family. Beautiful beaches. Views. Smells. Unfamiliar food and drinks. Time to think. Downtime….From each day that I spent in Brazil, I can come up...
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Rene Ramos
2017-10-18
0:00 : Walking out of the classroom, two kids walk in with brooms and dustpans. Seems common within the school to have kids clean the classroom once school is out. Tired and hungry, I don’t think twice. 0:14 : Walked down the stairs and out the huge wooden doors of the building to walk outside...
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Why Rooftop Yoga Makes Patriotism Hard
Elise Leise
2017-10-17
I fold my legs beneath me, silently stretching my arms up and out to the edge of the periwinkle horizon, where streetlights trace a thin line between city and neverending sky. The half-finished cement buildings create a jigsaw puzzle, cut through with abstract slashes of laundry lines and dirt rectangles of futbol fields. Far below...
Read MoreLive From The Field
Callista Helms
2017-10-17
From being in Ecuador for a little over a month, I have been catching on to the differences in this culture from the one I left back home. Here is a list of things that I have either observed or experienced from my time here. Differences in Culture/Daily life Rice is served with every meal...
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My town, my family and a highlight
Gijs Smid
2017-10-17
A 15 hour travel day from the US to Ecuador was the start of a many new smells, sights, and sounds who both have fueled and drained my energy. In this blog post, I´ll describe my town, introduce you to my family and share one of my highlights so far. My town, Gualaceo, is the...
Read MoreWhatsOpp
Alexandra Moreno
2017-10-17
This past few days have been a little rough. I decided to make a list of a bunch of things that annoyed me or inconvenienced me in some way as a way to try to shake off these bad vibes: Was told I was getting a ride home, didn’t get the ride home After being...
Read MoreFé
Kara Esplin
2017-10-16
Today I learned the word Fé. Today Fé meant getting on a bus, hoping it was going to the right place, kind of knowing it wasn't, but REALLY hoping it was. Fé meant looking out the window at the terminal I needed to get off at, but the one my bus wasn't stopping at- but Fé meant knowing I'd get there… eventually. (Even if that Fé...
Read MoreStudent of Mine
Sunghoon Kwak
2017-10-16
How delicious is our curiosity,Guiding us through night?Unaware of the troubles that are revealed in the daylight A world achesFor a child as bright-eyed as youPain bolstered by the life the child has lived through Yet, you are still beautiful, student of mineWithin a large landscape,You are the shine But like any light, we saw...
Read MoreAn Open Letter to My Sister on her 21st Birthday
Marissa Emerson
2017-10-16
Hey Moo Moo, Guess what? No, actually. Guess. What. IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!! WOOHOO! Okay, so maybe you knew that…but still! I’m so excited for you and I’m not even on the same continent as you! Yeah…actually about that. I’m really sorry I can’t be with you today and celebrate with you. Not...
Read MoreRealizations during experiences
Shauni Lustig
2017-10-16
When people say that having a sense of empathy changes your outlook on things, they’re not lying. This week I started my apprenticeship in la casa hogar para todos. For those who don’t know, this is an orphanage. I had mentioned many times before my disliking of children and how apprehensive I was towards starting...
Read MoreThe Guachapala Life
Antony Le
2017-10-15
I’m loving it here in the south of Ecuador. I am located in a canton called Guachapala with my Caguana-Toledo family. My family consists of my mother, Gloria, my father, Esteban, my brothers, Martin (17) and Pedro (11), sister, Paula (19), and our four dogs. We have two pugs, a poodle, and a german shepherd...
Read MoreGossip: an appeal for reappraisal
Sydney Scanlon
2017-10-15
Gossip has been given its nefarious reputation by men jealous of the human discussion they so poorly execute. Testosterone dominated individuals have never been as good at letting things go, periods attest to that. There is something about women and gossip that so pleases the tongue. Why humans so universally chatter is a...
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