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 Girl Who Comes Next
Amelia Wohlers
2017-03-13
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Read MoreFriendship at home vs. friendship abroad
Lily Jorrick
2017-03-12
Moving to Ecuador has pushed me to change my definition of the word “friendship”. I arrived in Ecuador for a bridge year with Global Citizen Year in September, and spent the first few months of my homestay without many close peers in my community, in the sense that there isn’t really anyone here who’s at...
Read MoreSaying goodbye
Amma Thomas
2017-03-11
My host mother and sister left for Germany this Tuesday and they won't be coming back till April 12th. To give a little background I switched host families mid December, even though I decided to switch late November it took a while to find a host family. After much deliberation my host mother bought two...
Read MoreFear of the Faded Accent
Abi Bethke
2017-03-10
Written on March 9th, 2017. Tomorrow would be my dad’s 47th birthday. I just got off the phone with my grandma…after she sent me a text saying she felt sad but also grateful to have been so lucky. After getting over the grief that comes within the first two years, that is the ever lasting...
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Achachay
Caroline Montag
2017-03-10
After celebrating Ecuadorian carnival, I decided that from now on I want to celebrate it every year. And as you might feel like joining me, I wrote this little guide on how to celebrate a successful 6-day long Ecuadorian carnival and what to expect! (Please consider that the guide is based on my own experience...
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Building Family
Amelia Wohlers
2017-03-08
Joining a family was never going to be easy. I have had a million ups and downs in the process and endless worries about if I am doing the experience well enough. Now we’re in my last month and I am faced with a startling realization – I’ve done it. These people are my family...
Read MoreSafe Haven
Kari Hoegh
2017-03-08
04.02.17 There is this place in Otovalo, where I spend a lot of time. It is a safe haven, dependible, consistent, clean. A welcome escape from the clusterfuck that is the rest of indigenous Ecuador, with rabies touched dogs, screaming bus dirvers and hustling vendors. Directly in front of this safe haven...
Read MoreHumility
Kari Hoegh
2017-03-08
01.10.17 To be humble: A hugely forgotten act in our fast paced egocentric world. In fact we are pushed away from the idea, made to discern it. Humility is questioned and ridiculed, cast aside in the world of pride. To be humble can be seen as an act of vulnerability, laying down your sword...
Read MoreJustice?
Kari Hoegh
2017-03-08
19.08.16 The other day my host dad called out to me that the town had caught a robber. He seemed very excited and asked if i wanted to go see him. Surprised, unsure of what he meant, i said yes of course, i mean new exeriences, right? As we got closer to where the robber...
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The Comfort of Food and Friends
Maryanne Roughton
2017-03-08
Hello and welcome back for my third blog post! As you may or may not know, a part of every fellow’s bridge year is language learning. For my cohort, our Spanish classes are every Thursday. Since we were all going to be in the same place around the same times, it only seemed logical to...
Read MoreConsider Taking A Gap Year, Do Research…Now!
Jensine Raihan
2017-03-07
Now that college applications are done, I want to talk about a door I did not even imagine existed, much less for me, before a trusted and beloved friend brought up the idea to me. Being a working-class student in a magnet high school, I was in two worlds: (1) expected me to go to...
Read MoreExperiences that Stretch Boundaries and Open Possibilities
Jensine Raihan
2017-03-05
The other day, my friend Antoinette and I entered our utmost delight with choclos, which are roasted corn in the cobs dressed in shredded cheese glued together with mayonnaise. The shop is a woman-run restaurant that specializes and only offers the best empanadas in all of Ecuador. She has grown to be a very familial,...
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