Miscellaneous

10 Smartphone apps I couldn’t live without in Bogota

October 27, 2014 // 5 Comments

When people move to a new country, they’ll often buy a cheap phone with a local SIM card to use while they’re there. This is fine if you’re just visiting for a short time, but if you’re in Colombia for the long-haul, a smartphone will be a really useful tool. Here are the (Android) smartphone apps that I use regularly, which I really [more]

The 5 Stages of Culture Shock in Bogota

October 26, 2014 // 6 Comments

Reading through my blog, I feel conscious of a generally negative undertone as I’ve been writing about my experience in Bogota. I initially assumed that this was due to my general dislike of Bogota as a city. I often feel that if I were given the opportunity, I’d leave Bogota for somewhere else in a heart-beat. Then the other day, I was looking for [more]

A Foreigner in Bogotá: My 5 Colombian Identities

August 20, 2014 // 6 Comments

I’ve been a foreigner in Bogotá, Colombia for more than two years now, and something I’ve noticed is the way that people are defined here. Since moving here, I have taken on a number of identities which didn’t matter or exist when I was in London. In this post I explore my various Colombian identities. 1. I’m a gringa I’d actually say [more]

Life in Bogota: 18 things I like and dislike about Bogota

July 14, 2014 // 1 Comment

I felt that it was time for me to write a post speaking frankly about my own experience of and opinions about life in Bogota; you might arrive here and disagree, or just not be bothered about the kinds of things which bother me; equally you might not be impressed by the things that I actually like about the city. It will often depend on where you come from (and [more]

Bread and croissants…

April 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

You will find that Colombian bakeries have this tendency to bake bread and croissants with fillings. These could be ham, cheese, ham AND cheese, bocadillo (guava jelly), or as I discovered the other day, grape and peanuts… As for croissants, I’ve only found one place that sells decent croissants without the obligatory bocadillo/arequipe (caramel)/ham and [more]

How to send a letter – Bogotá mail

January 4, 2014 // 29 Comments

The first part of this post explains how to send a letter from Bogotá to somewhere else (either in Colombia or to another country). The second part briefly explains how to format a Colombian address when you are posting a letter to Colombia. How to send a letter from Bogotá Colombians rarely use the public mail service so it took me a while to find out how to send [more]

Bogotá: a city of opportunities (amongst the chaos)

December 9, 2013 // 0 Comments

Bogotá, like most world capitals, is a cosmopolitan city – hay de todo un poco (there is a bit of everything) – and thus is a city of many peoples (if not many cultures, exactly); Colombians have drifted towards the city of Bogotá for various reasons. One is that it offers more opportunities in terms of studies and jobs. It is relatively easy to set up a [more]

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