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
Equanimity
Alexandra Lines
2013-09-18
I sit here at the Office of Immigration early in the morning, surrounded by people with blue envelopes filled with their legal documents. I am waiting for a man named Carlos. I barely know him, but he is carrying around my passport and other legal identification. He told me to meet him here at 7...
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Faith
Sayre Quevedo
2013-09-18
“Cristiano…” the question begins, “Católico…Mormón?” We’re standing beside a mound of trinkets and wallets. In the middle of the square a man blows bubbles with his leathered lips, his face peeking out from the neck of his Barney suit. There is the sound of flutes. There is the cocktail of sweet and flesh, odors rising...
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Pichincha
Madeline Lisaius
2013-09-18
The Teleférico is a gondola that carries passengers high above Quito onto the volcano Pichincha where the trail to the summit begins. Although I love the vibrancy of Quito, it has become somewhat suffocating – I am surprised that I wholeheartedly believed that city life was for me – and wanting a small escape from the hustle and bustle, I...
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Change
Madeline Lisaius
2013-09-18
When my flight landed at the San Francisco Airport on August 21st, I was really wishing I hadn’t had oatmeal for breakfast. I was planning on avoiding bananas when I got off the muggy plane. Because, as mom says, bananas and oatmeal “slow down the system.” From my experience, change leads to constipation. And since this flight landed me...
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Ecuador is all about family and friends!!!
Charles Hill
2013-09-17
Ecuador is simply amazing!!!
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Breathing in Quito
Yani Alexander
2013-09-13
In Quito, where the altitude is 10,000 feet, I have learned to breathe more deeply. So I inhale Quito; taking in both the fresh air from the trees that cover the mountains which surround the city and the exhaust expelled by buses and cars that race along its streets. With each exhale I feel myself opening up. I was worried about...
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Lost in Quito
Lauren Guido
2013-09-13
The day started off well. I hiked Cotopaxi , one of the world’s highest volcanoes, managed to talk to my family almost completely in Spanish , ate dessert with my friend Charlotte and met a well known British puppeteer. After departing from my friend and the puppeteer my biggest fear came true, getting lost at night in Quito. A...
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Confiar
Abigail Clavin
2013-09-13
Well, I got lost. It was bound to happen living in city I don’t know and struggling to speak the language. I decided to trust my instincts and hop on the bus assuming it would just take me home. As I started to recognize less and less and lost sight of Pichincha, my landmark, I knew I was in...
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Fear
JT Su
2013-09-13
Snip. Snip. Snip. Within ten minutes, my hair was eight inches shorter than it was. Having long hair for most of my life, I often get asked why I decided to get such a drastic makeover, and why so suddenly. I would often tell people it was simply for a new beginning–the start of a...
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Yes, and…
Eva Ackerman
2013-09-13
I have never been good at not being good at activities. The extracurriculars I continued throughout the years are the ones that came naturally to me, never the ones that took work, because I always quit either mentally or in actuality before I tried to persevere. For years I played soccer, yet instead of trying,...
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¡Estamos Perdido!
Claire Wohlers
2013-09-05
Today, I got lost. Probably the most lost I’ve ever been. After Spanish classes today, we visited the United States Embassy for a security briefing and explanation of what the Foreign Service does here. During the security briefing, we were warned about the dangers of Quito. The taxis, the streets, the evenings, the buses; apparently...
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A Year of Many Firsts
JT Su
2013-09-05
Life is full of firsts–first steps, first day of school, first wish, first date. The list is endless, but there always seems to be a time when our lives become somewhat repetitive. I, myself, was a victim of this. I had become so accustomed to how I lived my daily life that I stopped growing....
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