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
Family
Claire Wohlers
2014-01-24
Back at home, I know many many people who would describe their parents as mortifying and/or uncool to hangout with. Occasionally, I may even have been known to say this, even though I love hanging out with my parents. In the US, it is social convention for teenagers to hate their parents. To be seen...
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The Desolation of the Single Story
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2014-01-11
The other night I did something so COOL! It was so cultural and eye-opening. I went…wait for it…to the…movies. I went to see the latest Hobbit movie with my two sisters and brother at the theater in the local mall. At the last training seminar, we had a long discussion about telling the danger of...
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Connection
Russell Gens
2014-01-11
Like any major city in the states, Riobamba is crawling with public transport. The fleet of big blue busses spewing out clouds of black smoke, a smattering of less than reputable gypsy cabs, and of course, the omnipresent yellow taxi. It was a crisp Riobamba evening when I flagged one down to bear me to...
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The Things I Carry
Alexandra Ding
2014-01-11
The announcement I carried a parasite was met with mild hysteria amongst the inhabitants of Grove Circle. My mother was frenetic, as mothers are wont to, and locked in vigorous debate with my father—and really, anyone who would listen—on the merits of hiring a hazmat team to cleanse my entire 400-person West African village. They...
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Expectations
Alexandra Lines
2014-01-11
Four months ago, I said goodbye to my family and friends with tears running down my cheeks. I walked away from the traditional high school-to-college track and I walked away from the comforts of home in search of adventure in Ecuador. When I got on the plane, I expected to trek through the rainforest, live in a small hut...
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Protected: Spot the Difference
Simone Fillion-Raff
2014-01-11
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Jobs, Friendships, and the Passage of Time
Cecily Montgomery
2014-01-10
Before coming to Ecuador nearly everyone from Global Citizen Year warned us that we might struggle with the seemingly slow passage of time. In the beginning this was true—the spare time in the afternoons seemed endless and the first few weeks in my community were incredibly lengthy. Now, however it feels as if time has...
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Global Citizen Year
2014-01-10
Micky Singh just got back from a ten day trip to Ecuador, where her son Neil is living as a 2014 Fellow. We recently visited our son, Neil, in Ecuador. He lives in a large farming community in Quingeo about an hour and a half from Cuenca. Seeing our son immersed in the local culture...
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Being Sick in Brazil: My Venture into The Public Health System
Libby Parker-Simkin
2014-01-06
Just before Christmas, I got quite sick. It started with a sniffle and sore throat and escalated to a nasty upper respiratory infection. After a few days of being miserable, my host family took me to a Pronto Atendimento, Brazil’s version of an urgent care center. I went through the triage process, got my forms...
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