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
Reciprocity
Holli Sullivan
2011-09-15
Nature is so smart. How can you take a big green coconut ball and fill it with clean, fresh, delicious drinkable water? Don’t ask me, but geez, está muito bom. So anyways…Here I am on the patio in Rio Vermelho (Hee-oh Veh-mel-yoo…who’d have thought right?), soaking in the Bahian sun and finally writing my blog....
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Luxurious?
Emily Hanna
2011-09-14
Since arriving in Senegal, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the concepts of privilege and luxury, and how drastically their definitions can change depending upon one’s environment. Personally, my perception of what constitutes a “luxury” has shifted dramatically since my immersion into Senegalese culture. There are material aspects of of this duality of luxury, of course;...
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The Dog That Broke My Heart
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-13
Sunday in Salvador is a quiet day for Brazilians to cook at home with their families and walk the beach. For Gringos who do not have a kitchen, Sunday is a day to search for the few restaurants that are open in order to get a hold of the typical big lunch. Six of us...
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Cultural Explosion
Antonio Peluso
2011-09-13
Making the choice to take a gap year was a difficult decision filled with skepticism, second thoughts, and sometimes criticism from others. I wondered if I was straying too far from my path to follow my passion for music. Brazil seemed like a surreal and magical country filled with so many things I...
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Learning to Unleash; A Day With the Girl Effect
Annie Plotkin
2011-09-12
On the morning that the Nike Girl Effect came to Stanford, eleven of us debated about whether the card that said “financial reserves that can be used for an emergency” should go under responsibilities for a girl that was 14 or 16. Then we discussed the card that said, “should know the national marriage laws”...
Read More A Guide to… Meeting the Best Brazilians
Mariah Donnelly
2011-09-12
Ola amigos. The following post will be useful for anyone who is interested in meeting the best Brazilians. This guide comes from the heart and first hand experiences. It is especially useful for people who know little Portuguese. First, in order to find the most friendly Brazilians one must first fail at being able to...
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Instant Tourist Attraction
Sarah Coyne
2011-09-12
I pretty much get constant stares anywhere I go on the streets of Salvador. My blonde hair blue-eyed status is something quite foreign in a place where around eighty percent of the population is Afro-Brasilian, and I’m pretty sure my khaki pants and chaco sandals do not help my cause. Needless to say, I attract...
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Care for some Tea?
Samuel Parson
2011-09-12
…Let me fire some up for you. So as you can see, the ways things go in Senegal do not go the same way as things in the US. If you didn’t know Senegal is a third-world country where our every-day conveniences like electric stove tops, cars, and even toilet paper along with so many...
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Time Spent Pondering
Brian Baylor
2011-09-10
As I take my Siesta time, reminiscing rather than sleeping, my mind is racing, wondering what to think of it all thus far. I flash back to a “Fellow” and I, searching for his house, wandering aimlessly, confused on what was left and right in a district in Dakar known as S.I.C.A.P Mermoz. In our...
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