No hay vida sin agua
Ana Gvozdic
March 25, 2017
The view of the Andean mountains warms up my heart. If there is one thing I fell in love with here, it is the nature and the indigenous environmental movements. The more hikes and lectures I attend, the more fascinated I am by their ideology. One concept I learned about is sumak kawsay, the idea...
Read MoreDisrespectful Foreigners
Ana Gvozdic
March 15, 2017
During our Global Citizen Year training we were encouraged to change our mindset towards mistake. Instead of seeing them as something negative, we were supposed to see them as learning opportunities. Although I agreed with this approach, I wanted to minimize the amount and the impact of my mistakes/learning opportunities, which hurt others. With that...
Read MoreMean Girls and Privilege
Ana Gvozdic
February 28, 2017
You know your bridge year is the year of learning, when even watching Mean Girls with your friends as a break of Ecuadorian life starts relating to the things that have occupied your mind in the last days. So here are the things we can learn from Mean Girls about privilege, especially within the international...
Read MoreA shortcut to creativity
Ana Gvozdic
February 6, 2017
I have never really seen myself as an artistic, creative person. Most of my friends tried to counter that point by bringing up my background as a dancer, but that never really worked for me. I see my dance as a sport, rather than an art or a way to express myself, because my strength...
Read MoreOn Gringos and Not Gringos
Ana Gvozdic
January 24, 2017
“Yo no soy de los Estados Unidos, soy de Europa” – the proud tone I used to say this sentence surprised me, considering I don’t normally identify myself based on the arbitrary geographical borders. The association with Europe was not enough for me, for it only painted the picture of developed Western Europe, and I found myself very...
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The teacher’s least favorite sentence
Ana Gvozdic
November 5, 2016
„ Ya acabé“ tells me my student Samantha at least 5 times each class. Translated to „I finished“, this sentence could seem as a rather nice indicator that a student of mine has finished with whatever task that the class is working on, and help me have an overview of the class. So, why is...
Read MoreMy first culture shock
Ana Gvozdic
September 22, 2016
My first culture shock probably has nothing to do with culture. I’d say it has more to do with what we call the economic class or perhaps the distance from a city. Either way, I will refer to it as a culture shock, as this is a cultural immersion program, and the concept of...
Read MoreDear future co-teacher Ana
Ana Gvozdic
September 17, 2016
Dear future co-teacher Ana, tomorrow you are moving to Cumbe, a small town south of Cuenca (the 3rd largest city in Ecuador). You will co-teach English and help out with the extracurricular activities in a primary school. I am glad you managed to replace the initial disappointment regarding your apprenticeship with true motivation and excitement...
Read MoreThe Big Questions
Ana Gvozdic
September 3, 2016
There was one idea that really stood out to me as I was listening to the opening speech by Abby Falik, the CEO and Founder of Global Citizen Year, during our Pre-Departure training in the Redwoods Alliance, California. She told us about her interpretation of the New Year’s resolutions. Every year she finds a question,...
Read MoreWhy Global Citizen Year and What I Already Learned From It
Ana Gvozdic
August 25, 2016
When I was 8 years old, I told my mom I want to be a nun because I wanted to help people. At the age of 9, I was thinking that if I ever win a monetary prize, I could get 10 000 energy bars for 10 000 BAM (approx. 6000 USD). I wanted to...
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