No One Ever Has Pens!

I don´t know why, but Colombians never have pens around - especially when they are needed! For example, at the bank and at work.

I miss these.

While growing up in the U.S., Iing the was used to always having pens around. At the bank there was always a free pen to use. At work we had a suppy closet full of pens and other supplies. At my first two jobs here, there was no supply closet. Eveyone had to bring their own supplies including paper, pens, notebooks, etc. This was crazy to me. I mean, how am I supposed to work without being able to write something down!

Another thing that is similar to this is that at work there was rarely a printer or copy machine. Usually there is one personal-sized printer next to the administrative desk. Usually only limited people have access to it and you have to ask for permition to use it. This is totally different from the large multi-purpose copy machine that you could make 100 copies and print personal items.

Eventually, once ou bring your own supplies tow things happen. 1) People stat stealing your supplies 3) Coworkers will borrow it or it becomes a communal pen. At one point, I was sharing a pen among 3 people!

At the bank, the bank employees don´t understand why you would need a pen. This is demonstrated by how they react when you ask for a pen. They are shocked and even sometimes rude about it!

Colombian Street Food: Raw Hot Dogs & Other Weird Snacks

Colombian street food is a mix of tradicional and non-traditional snacks. For example, the typical hot dog may seem like a tradicional snack, but Colombians have add a different twist to it that make give them a local spin. There are two ways to eat hot dogs here:

• Raw Hot Dogs
  I did not know it was ok to eat hot dogs raw until I moved to Bogota. Apparently, hot dogs and other forms of raw meat are perfect to eat alone. They even come individually packed in easy to carry sizes, which are designed to be convenient as an on-the-road snack. It may be surprising for some to be on a bus and see someone pull out a pack of raw sliced ham and take a big bite out of it as if it were a full meal. Other common situations where you would see this is while on roadtrips where there are limited choices for food. Since your only stop for miles may be a gas station, there is an opportunity to buy a raw packag of hot dogs and snack on them for the rest of the ride home. It is a weird snack, but the raw hot dogs are really good!

• Street Hot Dogs
  The street version of the hot dog is very special to Colombians. Even while living in the U.S., I saw places that specialized in Colombian hot dogs and Colombians would serve them this way while at BBQs and community events. The Colombian hot dog is good, but it comes with a lot of extra ingrediants that you may not be used to. These extra ingrediants include:
• 4 different types of sauces (ketchup, mustard, salsa rosada AKA pink sauce AKA ketchup & mayonaise, and tartar sauce?!?!?!?),
• potatoe chip crumbs (for extra crunch),
• quales egg
• cooked onions
• pineapple