Comida

Just some more details about the food, since that is such a big part of the culture:
I feel like the standard meal, that can be used for breakfast or dinner, is fried eggs and beans, with tortillas or bread. The beans are mashed up and, depending where you are, can be anywhere between pretty solid and very runny. Our mom makes them very runny, so we basically soak them up with bread or tortillas. She buys the bread and tortillas from shops down the street, where they make them fresh. We have beans with tortillas every day for supper. We´ve had it in the mornings also, but more often we have Corn Flakes or she makes pancakes or baked oatmeal, which are both awesome. If we have the choice between beans and eggs or Corn Flakes, we usually choose the latter to get a break from the frijoles :)
We eat lunch at CASAS Monday-Friday. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day generally. The cooks there are great and the food is a bit more Americanized. For example, once we had chicken tacos with guacamole and other good stuff. Yesterday we had fried chicken with this pasta salad, along with tortiallas and an avacado. They always have fresh fruit- usually pineapple and watermelon, and sometimes papaya. We haven´t had very much fruit at home, but I went with Chinita to the market today and she bought pineapple and other things. I asked if fresh fruit is expensive to buy, and she said that it isn´t.
There are several American restaurants as well. On our bus ride home we pass 2 McDonald´s, 2 Pizza Huts, and a Burger King. I think I wrote about the time we went to TGI Friday´s and there was a Chili´s and Applebee´s right beside it. There are also a lot of Guatemalan restaurants and street vendors. We´ve only boughten from the street vendors once, on Sunday when we were with Chinita and Mary. We got tostadas with guacamole, cheese, and onions.. SO good! We also got this atol (hot drink) made with rice and milk. Chinita makes a kind of atol with milk and vanilla at home, which is one of my favorite things. I should learn how to make it before we leave.

Today is a federal holiday, so we didn´t have to go to the hospital or class. I went to the market with Chinita this morning, and other than that we´ve just been hanging out at home. Mary is on her semester break from school (the school year runs January to October), so she´s here also. She loves music and spends quite a bit of time looking up music videos of Lady Gaga and Beyonce on YouTube. She found this version of ´Telephone´ that is Alvin and the Chipmunks singing, and has been playing it all day...
Well Steph and I are going to get some coffee now. There´s a great cafe near CASAS that I´ve been getting coffee at almost everyday. It´s excellent and less than a dollar. We also stop at the McCafe near our bus stop sometimes. It´s like an actual coffee shop.. they even have a case with tiramisu and different kinds cheesecake! We don´t want to go there too often though.. it would be embarrassing if the Americans were regulars at McDonald´s.

Have a great Wednesday :)