Sofia Somewhere

Work has kept me quite busy in the three months that I've been here, but on the weekends I've gotten to explore a bit of Guatemala City , also called  Guate or la Ciudad (the City) by the locals. I technically live in Villa Nueva, a municipality right outside Guate, but is still very close to the city (in fact, La Esperanza is closer to the edge of the City than it is to downtown Villa Nueva). Cenma (which is 10 minutes away) is the first stop (Centra Sur) of the Zone 12 line of the Transmetro , Guatemala City's public transportation system. The Transmetro is a bus rapid transit system (which is similar to the TransMilenio of Bogota, which in turn was modeled after Curitiba's, and interestingly, both of which I have experienced), in which the buses run on designated lanes, so it can even turn out to be faster than taking a taxi. It's also considered one of the safest ways to get around the city because the drivers don't carry any money, and there's a les...

One of the best things (for me) about traveling and getting to know another culture is the food ! I tend to be a picky eater, but I also enjoy trying new food (a bit of a juxtaposition, I know). There is still a lot of Guatemala cuisine I have yet to try, but sharing a couple of the dishes that we get at school (I get free breakfast and lunch as part of my job), and a bit of the country's food that I've tasted. First up, which is very typical of Guatemalan cuisine is frijoles (black beans) (picture on the left). At school, we'll have it either with crema (cream) or queso (cheese). Frijoles are typical not only for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner as well; it's very common to have it on the side of a meal. On the picture on the right you have dobladas (meaning "folded") which are deep fried stuffed dough mixture. The stuffing can range from potatoes to cheese to meat and whatnot, and even a mix of several ingredients. They're traditionally topped...