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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Class Year
Country
Reflection about Yaye Fatou Dieng
Paula Medina
2019-04-29
*29 de Abril de 2019* El día que llegué a mi casa senegalesa, me dijo mi Yaay que a partir de ese momento, yo me llamaría Yaye Fatou. Mi apellido sería Dieng, porque así se apellidaba mi nueva familia senegalesa. Yaye Fatou Dieng. Y yo, que probablemente no entendí ni una tercera parte de lo...
Read MoreOwning Happiness
Rebecca Rose
2019-04-29
It’s my last night in Brazil and I’m….happy? I set aside time tonight to write something profound. A pontification on life’s beginnings and ends, a graceful foray through my best memories in Brazil, and the things I’ll miss most of all, hammering the keys as tears stream down my face. And yet it’s here and...
Read MoreSanto Antonio in Postcards
Ida Nydelius
2019-04-27
During my gap year, I lived in a culturally rich neighbourhood called Santo Antônio de Lisboa. A community which is named after the Saint Anthony of Padua, who is known as the patron saint of lost things (which was very adequate after losing my peace somewhere in the IB exams and transitioning) and as a...
Read More“You’re so young, yet so brave”
Jovana Jovanovska
2019-04-27
*”The thing about goodbyes , you see – is the beautiful medley of a sense of loss and self-discovery, all at once.”* I’ve learned how to take care of myself. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but at the end of the day, I manage to do so. I like being there for myself, being that stable...
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From the Depths of Darou Khoudoss
Alexander Taylor
2019-04-26
*Reviewing a piece I wrote during my first two months in Senegal:* It is barely sunrise on a Sunday, but I still get up to confirm my suspicion. I leave my room and enter the rugged sandy paths of Darou Khoudass, passing by the goats, pigs, and chickens, some of which are still asleep. I...
Read More19 things I already miss about Ecuador
Dena Muething
2019-04-26
I started writing this during my last week in my host community and it was going to be called “things I am going to miss about Ecuador”. But I realized, sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to miss until it’s gone. So I stopped and waited till I got settled in my home in...
Read MoreBLOG#6 Last Days and Re-Entry Training.
Haider Ali
2019-04-26
It was March now, and April was coming soon. Time was coming to leave soon. Breakthrough memories of everywhere. I was not ready yet to leave for Pakistan. In March, I didn’t have much to do. We started to saying bye-until-next-time to my host community. About language learning, we finished our final test and after...
Read MoreBLOG#5 Carnival and Curitiba
Haider Ali
2019-04-26
It was January when our Garopaba was full of Argentines and bunch of people from northern and southern Brazil. People of the north and the south of Brazil came up because summer without the beaches is boring and extremely hot. It was after our independent travel, as it was same circumstances for Argentines. The population...
Read MoreBLOG#4 Garopaba And Independent Travel To Porto Alegre
Haider Ali
2019-04-26
Since I moved to Garopaba city, things seemed really changed. Daily routine became different except apprenticeship and language learning classes. In week days, I´d go apprenticeship in the morning and I’d come home at lunch time. I´d eat some lunch and would help my mom with washing dishes and setting cutleries on the table. After...
Read MoreBLOG#3 New Homestay. My Apprenticeship and Language Learning.
Haider Ali
2019-04-26
This morning, I was supposed to wake up early than I´d been waking up, because Marcella (my team leader) told me, we will go visit my apprenticeship, which was adjacent to my homestay. It was like 10 min walk from the main street. I could walk by either main street or street behind my house....
Read MoreBLOG # 2 Host Country “BRAZIL”, Welcome Week, Homestay, Apprenticeship.
Haider Ali
2019-04-26
After the amazing pre-orientation meeting in Stanford with beautiful motivational speakers, we started our journey to Brazil. I was so full of excitement and nervousness. I was happy to see the most beautiful country of my life. After a long journey, from Stanford to 4 more different places, we were so tired but still excited...
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Before I Said Goodbye
Eliza Stowe
2019-04-25
Thursday, April 25 2019. Every once and awhile I wish more than anything that I could go back to those days before I said goodbye to Ecuador. Those days where I woke up to my natural alarm clock of the sun and the songs of the gas truck making it’s rounds past my house at...
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