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
Making My Way Downtown
Valerie Hurst
2013-10-10
The dogs outside are barking again, noisily chorusing amongst themselves. There’s a man from one of the surrounding apartments spitting rapid Spanish to what could only be a scorned lover. My neighborhood has woken up far before me, and from under my covers I silently plead with the buses, taxis and especially motorbikes to give me a moment of silence....
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um mês
Kristen Lee
2013-10-10
A month can be a lot of things – a compilation of trials and tribulations, yes, but with an acknowledgement of overall progress. A month is a time period long enough to make broader goals, long enough to make lasting friendships, long enough to track progress, long enough to be tricked into thinking we have more time. Yet it,...
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“Time is this”
Rachel Teevens
2013-10-10
Since the last time I blogged I’ve travelled on two planes, I’ve lived with two host families and my life has been completely flipped upside down. I’ve known I was going to be living in Africa for months now but I was definitely not fully prepare for everything I’ve seen and experienced. Here I am...
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Souveniring the Scene
Sayre Quevedo
2013-10-10
Riobamba is like a surrealist painting. Dogs on roofs. Half-built, quarter-built structures, like big gray dollhouses. Farm animals along empty train tracks. Little boys in baseball caps playing in a dusty lot. Nameless streets. Especially when the neighborhood is empty, cold and blue, I remember that I will remember this. I try to take the...
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Jamm Rekk :)
Shakhi Begum
2013-10-10
Oh my god! The mangoes here are so good and really sweet. Same goes for almost all the people I have met so far. Other than the plane so close to the ground that it seems the airport is right in the kitchen, it’s ‘jamm rekk’, meaning ‘peace only’ in Wolof It’s been over a month...
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Practicing Patience
Cameron Carrick
2013-10-10
The following story is one that I worked hard on and that I am proud of. In writing it many details surfaced that had no place here: little histories and personality quirks, dreams and complicated dialogues, a few bus rides and some fresh mango jam–just bits and pieces, really. I do carry a small remorse...
Read MoreIn Which the Protagonist Faces Abundant Confusion
Spencer Wise Watson
2013-10-02
“Finally,” I think, as I sigh contently at my new apprenticeship in Azogues, Ecuador. I have my own desk and practically my own office since no one works in the same room. The walls are covered in calendars highlighting ecological days throughout the year from the familiar (Earth Day – April 22nd) to the bizarre...
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Transitions and Transformations
Ilana Marder-Eppstein
2013-10-02
I left home one month from today. Flew to the coast, a caterpillar with butterflies in her stomach, anticipating who and what I would find there. As the plane shuttled me from Chicago to San Francisco memories of home flooded me in a wave of emotions. The crunch of the leaves beneath my feet as I walked, lunch box in hand,...
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Week 1 of Otavalian Life
Emily Hockett
2013-10-02
After months of preparation and orientation, we were heading to our communities for real. I was the first to be dropped off, and my family arrived with balloons and flowers for me and pineapple cake for our entire group. My host mom, Tania, was crying and I gave “besos” to my host dad Jamie, 14...
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