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
Just One
Ely Kadish
2013-03-27
[This was originally a speech given at training seminar. I left it as it was to give the most organic experience.] I have always struggled with the idea of one. I was the kid who could never read one page, only watch one more hour or just eat one cookie. One just never seemed like enough,...
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Saber y Conocer
Mackenzie McMillen
2013-03-27
The summer before senior year I realized that after five years of French classes I could introduce myself and order a meal but that was about it. I attribute this sad fact to 70% my goofing off in class and 30% the weaknesses of the language program at my high school and junior high. I...
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Farewell
Josh Thompson
2013-03-27
As I’m writing this, only two weeks remain until my departure from Pijal – my home for the past 6 months. I can’t help but feel nostalgic. I’d like to share some of the experiences that I will remember best from this place. To you they might just appear to be evidence that Ecuador is a very strange...
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Updates and Anecdotes Part II
Aidan Holloway-Bidwell
2013-03-27
Time grows short here in Los Bancos. With two weeks left I start to think back: “How exactly have a spent these past seven months, that it all went by so quickly?” Well, my routine made weeks fly by. Teaching English classes, giving environmental and recycling presentations, painting, building, traveling to and from communities…that was...
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Vending on a Bus
Lauren Holt
2013-03-26
“Papas, secos, heladitos, papa’s, secos, heladitos!” “Potato chips, chicken, ice cream, potato chips, chicken, ice cream!” This is the sound you are guaranteed to hear on a bus. Each time I am on a bus, whether I’m traveling or coming home from a day in Ibarra, vendors come on and sell food and trinkets such...
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Preparing for Departure: A Feelings Post
Emily Hwang
2013-03-19
Words are elusive to me now. Perhaps the effects of the monstrous exhaust fumes that billow out from behind Riobamba buses like parachutes and dissipate into small portions of carcinogens to be inhaled by unsuspecting townspeople are manifesting on my tongue, because it feels ashen and heavy. I lack words. The titanic shadow of the...
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Unapologetic Pride
Danielle Livneh
2013-03-14
With her bubble gum pink shall, bowler hat, long anako skirt, and shoes that garishly advertises Jesus as he savior, she stands defiantly on the side of the road. She is fourteen-year-old indigenous girl of Guamote. As her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents do, she speaks Kichwa. Unlike her relatives, however, she also knows Spanish. She attends a bilingual school,...
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The Speed of Time
Nathan Edwards
2013-03-12
Hey everybody, Life has been going well down here. I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to go travel and see some pretty amazing places and spend some time with good friends. The diversity of Ecuador is amazing. After a 5 hour bus ride from the mostly gray skied/ life packed cloud forest, we...
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Cultural Differences
Gabe Jackman
2013-03-12
Having been here for a while, I have gotten an inside look at Ecuadorian culture in the cities. I live in a decent sized city, considering that some other fellows in Global Citizen Year are living in towns of 100 people. Women wear low-cut shirts and jeans or shorts instead of traditional dresses. Men wear...
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The Foot Experience
Mackenzie McMillen
2013-03-07
I don’t know what, if any life lesson can be learned from the past three weeks but I’ve come to realize that not every event needs to have a lesson attached to it. Maybe there’s a lesson but frankly I’m too exhausted by this whole thing to uncover it right now. So I’m just going to tell you what...
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Rising in Love
Anvy Tran
2013-03-06
Fairy tales, teenager romance novels, love songs, chick-flicks; I have grown up surrounded by the idea of a beautiful boy. I have grown up seeking this beautiful person, dreaming of love, waiting for a prince. However I don’t think I would have even realized the concept of love if I hadn’t read about it, heard about, watched it on...
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Ecuador’s Presidential Election and Correa
Emily Soule
2013-03-06
On February 17th, 2013, Ecuador concluded their Presidential Election with the obvious victor in the form of Rafael Correa. Which means I am finally free of the political propaganda bombardments most of my friends escaped back in November. Correa is a liberal. He does not favor U.S. interests (as far as I can tell) and...
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