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
One Year Ago…
Rebecca Bogart
2019-02-17
I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was sitting in my Holocaust studies class, in room 1214 on the first floor of the freshman building. I remember every detail, even now a year later. We heard the first couple of rounds – warning shots. In the moment, we didn’t know what...
Read MoreCaterpillar Soup
Selena Harris
2019-02-17
*Preface: Something a lot of people don’t know is that caterpillars actually liquify in the cocoon before becoming a butterfly. Like, as a kid I always pictured the little caterpillar just growin’ wings, takin’ a snooze, and then poppin’ out 20 days later looking glorious as ever. In reality, for 80% of that process that...
Read MoreThings I have learned in the last five months
Grace Partridge
2019-02-16
– the process of healing is incredibly important, but don’t get so wrapped up in it that you lose part of yourself and forget to blossom. you need to be okay at some point – sometimes your problems aren’t something you can burn. sometimes it’s not that easy, and that’s okay – if you scratch...
Read MoreComing Close To An End
Dena Muething
2019-02-16
I have a lot of mixed feelings at this point in my gap year and I’ve been trying not to think about the small amount of time left here. I have less than 60 days left in Ecuador, about 50 days left with my host family in Bella Union , and less than 30 days...
Read MoreAn Indian Girl’s Guide to Ecuador
Surabhee Arjunwadkar
2019-02-15
(A short, not-comprehensive-at-all, possibly biased list of things that might help you thrive in Ecuador) 1. If you have two bottles of 100% pure Parachute coconut oil for your hair in an environment that is 20℃ or less, and no access to a heat source, you will have to buy very expensive extra virgin olive...
Read More10 Things I Have Learned in Ecuador
Maddi Schink
2019-02-13
It’s hard to believe but my time in Ecuador is coming to an end. As of the beginning of February, I have officially been living in Ecuador for five months. The weeks at times flew by, while others crept by at an agonizingly slow rate. Luckily, I learned pretty early on to take this experience...
Read MoreA Reflection on the Holidays away from Home
Brian Hill
2019-02-12
Christmas is really different here in Ecuador. There just isn’t the same hype and celebration that’s present back home in the United States. Businesses are actually open on Christmas here, whereas Waffle House is pretty much the only place you can find food out of the house on Christmas in Atlanta. Most families don’t have...
Read MoreAir Part 1
Avry Richter
2019-02-09
The air is heavy. The air is hot. The air effects me, it affects the Venezulan man attempting to sell candies to the bus folk, it affects my host mom as she mightily lights flame to this weeks garbage, it affects the tiny tots who frolic on the see-saw with a playfulness that is pure...
Read MoreI’ll Wake You Up Tonight
Macy Lipkin
2019-02-03
Note: Find my posts right away (with cleaner formatting!) on wordsofstargirl.wordpress.com. The Spanish version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” just wasn’t doing it for me. It carried the same tune but translated to “If you’re really happy, clap like this.” And yet I kept glancing up from my phone, where I was...
Read MoreA Listen Into my Life
Sundhya Alter
2019-02-03
7am: “I’m Into Something Good” by the bird and the bee Every morning I wake up to frost covering the window, the banging of pots and pans coming from the kitchen and if i’m lucky a view of the mountains just outside my window. As I am the last one in my family to get...
Read MoreWhat I Understand
Anna Denniston
2019-02-01
Some afternoons, when our mom kicks us out of the house and tells us to go play, my younger brother and I will trudge up the road and then off into the woods, where there is a waterless river we like to walk in. We slowly bumble our way along the riverbed, searching for nice-looking...
Read More10 Things I am Thankful for in Ecuador (and Will Inevitably Miss when I Return to the U.S.)
Jeffrey Fishman
2019-01-31
It has been awhile since I last posted to my blog, and I don’t really have a good excuse. Honestly, I have just been trying to soak up every moment of my life here in Ecuador, and I lost track of time. Through the good days, and even the bad ones, I try to stay...
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