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
You Get What You Need
Joe Giallo
2010-12-03
(The following conversation between me and my advisor has been both paraphrased and translated from Spanish. This is also just one small portion of a much larger conversation, and it’s constructed from memory, so don’t go quoting this exactly.) My entire body ached as I finally sat down in front of Edmundo, the president of...
Read MoreIn Which I Forget my Shoes, Play with Fire, and Learn the Letter “H”
Liza David
2010-12-02
You know how you run around the house making sure that you have everything you need and then you leave the house with a sense that you forgot something-something quite important? Well that happened to me. I left the house with a foreboding feeling that I forgot something. And I did. I forgot my shoes....
Read MoreMy new life, in pictures
Liza David
2010-11-24
Take a look at a photo essay I put together introducing my new life in Ecuador: [slidepress gallery=’liza-david-1st-slideshow’] Note: Move your mouse over each photo to see the captions!
Read MoreSunrises
Joe Giallo
2010-11-22
As many of you are likely aware, I have a rather… interesting sense of humor, which I share with the world at any given opportunity. I have a passion and, if I do say so myself, talent for puns and wordplay that you won’t really find anywhere else. If I’d had my choice of talents in life, I wouldn’t...
Read MoreA Familiar Scene
Cameron Kaufman
2010-11-19
About three weeks ago, I made the long awaited transition to my new host family, who I will be living with for the next six months. I was overwhelmed by the suddenness of the transition that I had blown up to such large proportions in my mind ever since my acceptance to GCY. Minutes after my...
Read More¨Holy Toledo!¨
Peter Saudek
2010-11-19
I´m working in the communications office with one of my advisors on the upstairs of the cultural center I volunteer at, when three women who are friends of my advisor enter and sit down. After my advisor introduces us, one of the women faces me and says something that sounds like ¨Howee toreeo.¨ My first...
Read MoreA day in my life in the Village of Zuleta
Omar Arteaga
2010-11-16
Every day I wake up at six in the morning to get ready for school where I help students improve their English. I teach at a small high school which has a total of no more than ninety students. When I get done eating breakfast I say good bye to my little siblings, Enoc and Sarita,...
Read MoreReady or not, here I go!
Caroline Pocock
2010-11-15
I had been in this tiny indigenous community for less than a week when I arrived at the elementary school, eager to begin the first day of my apprenticeship. I was a little anxious about the fact that I hadn’t the slightest clue as to what I was going to be doing, but faithfully optimistic...
Read MoreI Swear I’m Not a Witch!
Lily Shaffer
2010-11-14
I had spent the last 24 hours running between my bedroom and the bathroom, being force-fed oregano tea and chicken broth, and battling between “finding the light” in the situation and being thoroughly bummed out I wasn’t at my first day of my apprenticeship. After a day of this, I was starved, and Mamá and...
Read MoreFood Poisoning, Revelations, and a Little Bit of T-Swift
Lily Shaffer
2010-11-14
At 12:13 on Thursday, I should be delving into the first day of my apprenticeship at Pastoral Migratoria de Ibarra. I should be jabbering away with Mariela, my advisor, soaking in all that is political advocacy for the Human Rights of immigrants, anxiously planning tomorrow’s trip to Quito where I will be introduced to one...
Read MoreAppreciation for the little things in Life
Alberto Servin
2010-11-14
As I am walking to work in the morning, I am mesmerized by the dominant view of wispy clouds floating past the beautiful visage of the Imbabura volcano. One week has passed since I have moved-in to La Calera, an indigenous community near the market town of Otavalo. It’s an interesting and important change from...
Read MoreCooking Quimbolitos Con Mama
Lily Shaffer
2010-11-12
Quimbolitos are little gifts from the gods. I’m not kidding. They’re these delectable pound cake-like, steamed concoctions of sweet, buttery goodness wrapped up in the leaf of some secret plant I still can’t figure out. If you ever come to Ecuador, make sure quimbolitos are the first meal you eat—they’ll also be the last, because...
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