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 Desolation of the Single Story
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2014-01-11
The other night I did something so COOL! It was so cultural and eye-opening. I went…wait for it…to the…movies. I went to see the latest Hobbit movie with my two sisters and brother at the theater in the local mall. At the last training seminar, we had a long discussion about telling the danger of...
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Connection
Russell Gens
2014-01-11
Like any major city in the states, Riobamba is crawling with public transport. The fleet of big blue busses spewing out clouds of black smoke, a smattering of less than reputable gypsy cabs, and of course, the omnipresent yellow taxi. It was a crisp Riobamba evening when I flagged one down to bear me to...
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Expectations
Alexandra Lines
2014-01-11
Four months ago, I said goodbye to my family and friends with tears running down my cheeks. I walked away from the traditional high school-to-college track and I walked away from the comforts of home in search of adventure in Ecuador. When I got on the plane, I expected to trek through the rainforest, live in a small hut...
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Protected: Spot the Difference
Simone Fillion-Raff
2014-01-11
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Jobs, Friendships, and the Passage of Time
Cecily Montgomery
2014-01-10
Before coming to Ecuador nearly everyone from Global Citizen Year warned us that we might struggle with the seemingly slow passage of time. In the beginning this was true—the spare time in the afternoons seemed endless and the first few weeks in my community were incredibly lengthy. Now, however it feels as if time has...
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Quilotoa
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2013-12-31
On Friday December 20, 2013, I woke up early to meet my friends Abby and Alex at the main bus terminal in Riobamba. We were going on a trip that had been mostly planned the day before. If you know me, then you might know that this would panic me a little bit. I still made it to that...
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Taking Time
Florin Langer
2013-12-30
I wake up in my host sister’s room to the screeching sound of my phone’s alarm. She lives in Cuenca, so I get to sleep in her rosado-colored room under her lion-printed blanket across from her porcelain doll that watches me sleep. I used to sleep in my host brother’s room, but it sits on...
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Merry Christmas!
Lillie Mayfield
2013-12-30
Here’s me wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from Ecuador! The holidays are a hard time to be away from home, but there’s plenty of holiday spirit here as well! Sending my love this holiday! -Lillie
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A Little More Perspective
Sarai Patterson
2013-12-30
It has been almost four months since I stood in line at airport security, trying not to cry as I waved goodbye to my family. Four months since I last saw my mom. Four months since I stood on hot red desert dirt—and I still have yet to post a single thing on this blog! No, it’s not merely...
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An Ecuadorian Love Story
Nikita Dolin
2013-12-30
You asked me where I am. Well, short story long; I’m 20 minutes outside a town that you cannot find on a map. I’m also 40 minutes outside the capital of nothing; nothing less than everything you need. If you take the journey somehow from the south, you should make sure to go when the sun is half...
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The Power of Words: A Human Rights Manifesto
JT Su
2013-12-30
“If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” — George Orwell, 1984 In Spanish, there’s a word called “estadounidense.” It doesn’t have an English translation–that is, people try to translate it into “American,” but this translation isn’t accurate. “Estadounidense” is how people here describe someone who hails from the US, derived from “Estados Unidos,” the Spanish words for “The United States.” But...
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Thoughts on the Future
Abigail Dring
2013-12-30
I entered into my senior year of high school burned out and fed up. I was sick of being forced to take classes that were neither useful nor interesting. I kept asking myself, “When in my life am I ever going to need the quadratic formula?” I was fed up with the extreme emphasis on...
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