Our Experience in Villanueva de Cordoba
By the Academia Manhattan Interns
Maddie, Jess, Julia and Dani
Living in Villanueva de Córdoba has been an amazing experience, and one that we will never forget. During our summer here we have all fallen in love with the delicious foods, the gorgeous countryside, and above all, the amazing people we’ve been lucky enough to meet. You all have welcomed us into your town so generously and graciously, and we cannot thank you enough.
Some highlights of our time in Villanueva have been our long walks in the countryside, our traditional Thursday night pizza at Volao, tasting the typical foods, and, of course, working at Academia Manhattan.
Walks through the countryside:
Whenever we had the time, we all loved to take walks through the beautiful countryside that surrounds town. We enjoyed wandering down the dirt paths lined by stone walls and fields full of cows and sheep.
There is really nothing like this near where we live in the United States. From certain paths you can look back and see the whole town. At sunset, these walks were even more incredible.
Pizza at Volao on Thursday:
Every Thursday night we would meet at Volao and eat tons of delicious pizzas. It became a wonderful tradition! We would look forward to this dinner all week long. We enjoyed chatting and laughing with good friends and eating pizza after delicious pizza. Our favorite kind was the kebab pizza (sometimes we would even order two of them). This tradition will be greatly missed!
Eating traditional foods:
Of course, we ate more than just pizza during our time in Villanueva. All of the traditional foods here are so tasty! Some of our favorite dishes that
we tried were salmorejo, tortilla española, bocadillo de lomo con pimiento frito, berenjenas con miel, ensaladilla, queso, pan, tinto de verano, and jamón ibérico de bellota (of course!). We’ll try to cook all of these foods back in the US, but we’re not sure if it will ever be the same. Some of our favorite restaurants that we ate at were La bodega de Lucman, La encina de Lucman, KA Dulce, La puerta falsa, Franmer, and Volao among many others. Sometimes at night we would go to El chaparral for drinks and sit on the beautiful patio, under the trees, while listening to fantastic music and laughing with each other.
Working at Academia Manhattan:
It was truly an honor to work as interns at the Academia Manhattan. Working with Lucy (who we believe is actually superwoman) was an absolute pleasure. She runs the school with such grace and poise, and we were always inspired by her compassion and care for her students. As interns we had the opportunity to meet and work with nearly all of the students. We enjoyed all of the deep discussions we were able to have with you and the many games we had the chance to play. You are fantastic students and we know that you will continue to improve your English skills in the future. Though we were the teachers, we ended up learning so much from all of you. This really was the best internship ever!
