Hello Villanueva de Cordoba! I am Maya, one of the students from the United States here in Spain for the Summer to teach English. I just studied abroad in Chile for the past 4 months. Chile speaks Spanish with a very different accent and uses a lot of different words, so it has been fun learning from my host family and the Academia Manhattan community. One thing that I have really enjoyed here in Spain is the different food. In the week, I have been here, I have tried gazpacho, jamón, tinto de verano, and caracoles…and I haven’t found anything I don’t like yet!
If you can’t already tell, I am a super big foodie. My favorite think about Villanueva de Cordoba thus far is the custom of tapas. Last week, the group of interns and I went out for la Ruta de Tapas. This is an annual event where each participating restaurant has a special tapa. A tapa is a small serving of food. If you went to ten restaurants and tried their special tapa, you could get entered into a raffle. I was only able to go to 5, but it was still so much fun and was a great introduction to Villanueva de Cordoba. I also had the opportunity to try tinto de verano, which I really enjoyed.
I also had the opportunity to try jamón, ham, and gazpacho with my family. Someone came over to my host family’s house to cut ham in our kitchen. It took a long time, but the ham was so good, better than any ham I have tried in the United States or in Chile. My host mom also made gazpacho for me. Since it has been so hot in Villanueva for the past week, upwards of 35 degrees Celsius, gazpacho has been a great way to cool off.
My host mom and I also went out for snails (caracoles) and beer (cerveza) my first night here in Villanueva. This was a fun welcome into the town. I had never tried snails before coming to Spain, but I am always ready to try new foods although I didn’t really know what to except. At first, I had a lot of trouble sucking the snails out of the shells, but once my host mom taught me how to use a toothpick, I found them very delicious.
This past week has been full of new experiences and I am very excited to see what other new experiences I will have this summer!