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
Live in Your City, Don’t Just Inhabit It
Henrietta Conrad
2011-09-15
A utopian city would be divided into equal blocks, the streets would be paved from north to south and east to west, and there would be sufficient parking, an efficient sewage system, and verdant public parks. Salvador is not a utopian city, but it feels like home; a place where you can put your feet...
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Reciprocity
Holli Sullivan
2011-09-15
Nature is so smart. How can you take a big green coconut ball and fill it with clean, fresh, delicious drinkable water? Don’t ask me, but geez, está muito bom. So anyways…Here I am on the patio in Rio Vermelho (Hee-oh Veh-mel-yoo…who’d have thought right?), soaking in the Bahian sun and finally writing my blog....
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Commitments
Winson Law
2011-09-13
I wear a frayed pink yarn bracelet around my wrist every day. It’s a reminder of the last night before all 56 fellows left for Ecuador, Senegal, and Brazil. That night,as often the case during Fall Training, we formed a circle for our final activity. In this closing ceremony, each person voiced a commitment that...
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The Dog That Broke My Heart
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-13
Sunday in Salvador is a quiet day for Brazilians to cook at home with their families and walk the beach. For Gringos who do not have a kitchen, Sunday is a day to search for the few restaurants that are open in order to get a hold of the typical big lunch. Six of us...
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Cultural Explosion
Antonio Peluso
2011-09-13
Making the choice to take a gap year was a difficult decision filled with skepticism, second thoughts, and sometimes criticism from others. I wondered if I was straying too far from my path to follow my passion for music. Brazil seemed like a surreal and magical country filled with so many things I...
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Learning to Unleash; A Day With the Girl Effect
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-12
On the morning that the Nike Girl Effect came to Stanford, eleven of us debated about whether the card that said “financial reserves that can be used for an emergency” should go under responsibilities for a girl that was 14 or 16. Then we discussed the card that said, “should know the national marriage laws”...
Read More A Guide to… Meeting the Best Brazilians
Mariah Donnelly
2011-09-12
Ola amigos. The following post will be useful for anyone who is interested in meeting the best Brazilians. This guide comes from the heart and first hand experiences. It is especially useful for people who know little Portuguese. First, in order to find the most friendly Brazilians one must first fail at being able to...
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Instant Tourist Attraction
Sarah Coyne
2011-09-12
I pretty much get constant stares anywhere I go on the streets of Salvador. My blonde hair blue-eyed status is something quite foreign in a place where around eighty percent of the population is Afro-Brasilian, and I’m pretty sure my khaki pants and chaco sandals do not help my cause. Needless to say, I attract...
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Taking Candy From a Stranger
Winson Law
2011-09-09
It’s hora pico (rush hour) in Salvador and we’re on our way back to the hostel. In the middle of city, as our bus stops, a man I’m sitting next to passes some centavos (Brazilian coins) to a street vendor and gets three pieces of candy. What is this guy doing? I think to myself. Before I know it,...
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An Enriching Experience
Sarah Coyne
2011-09-07
August 27, 2011 was the send-off event for the Class of 2012 Global Citizen Year Fellows. Celebrating in the form of a family-style barbecue we ate, laughed, listened, and said our farewells to family and friends. Before the event, I had the pleasure to talk to my family via Skype for the first time since...
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Goodbyes and Beginnings
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-02
Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have pictured myself standing outside a Stanford dorm at 4 in the morning to wave goodbye to 45 fellows on their way to Senegal and Ecuador. As a recent high school graduate, it takes a lot for me to give up hours of valuable sleep. However, when I found out...
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The Mission
Winson Law
2011-08-23
On a dreary, foggy day, a charter bus full of 57 Global Citizen Year Fellows tore through the Mission and Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco. In an attempt to simulate urban poverty, Global Citizen Year provided each Fellow with only $5 and two other weary souls to venture through some of San Francisco’s most impoverished...
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