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Viva Spanish School is a gay-owned Spanish language school in the capital of Nicaragua. The school was muy buena and the owner has all of the scoop on gay activities in Nicaragua.
www.vivaspanishschool.com
505-270-2339
If you intend on staying in Beijing for a few months, try learning Mandarin at the Hutong School. It is situated in a beautiful courtyard in the middle of a hutong area. They give you all sorts of support, have apartments to stay in, organise trips, it's a great way to live in Beijing!
Design Summer Sessions for beginners
and advanced students of all ages at two of the city's top design schools. Courses last two or four weeks and cover the areas of fashion, graphics, interior and product design from a fascinating Milanese point of view with many guest speakers - a great place to network for contacts as well. Book a place online for this July.
Domus Academy and Naba are the host schools - it is also possible to do the first two weeks in London at St Martins College of Art and Design
www.london-milan-courses.com
www.domusacademy.it
www.naba.it
emails:milan@london-milan-courses.com
or london@london-milan-courses.com
Convivio Rome run Italian Cooking Holidays in a little medieval hilltop village called Toffia, which lies, in a magnificent region called Sabina, just north of Rome, in Italy.
I would highly recommend them as my friend and I had a wonderful week and we loved the casual but hugely informative and enjoyable cooking sessions, which were great fun and provided loads of insight into real Italian cooking. We actually got to stay in a little home inside the
ancient walls of Toffia, it was great to feel like one of the locals!
One of the highlights for me was the local olive grove tour as the information provided was interesting and valuable, the tasting delicious, and the whole thing a very welcoming experience.
All in all, they gave us a great balance of cooking, sightseeing, tours and leisure. Thanks go to Guido and Sally who run the holidays, for a great week filled with warmth, personal care, refreshing simplicity and a huge helping of inspiration.
Toffia, region of Sabina, near Rome in Italy.
Phone: ++39 0765 326 144
www.conviviorome.com
Rio de Janeiro is quite an amazing place. Imagine a huge, antique house that used to be a brothel (a fancy one) in one of the cutest neighborhoods of the city. Many decades after its closure, the house now keeps the same name, Casa Rosa, from the old times, but has nothing to do with prostitution anymore.
Nowadays, its a place that offers so many attractions you wouldn't believe. During the day, it operates as a cultural centrr with awesome classes for tourists. There you can learn, as a total beginner, with few classes, the samba dance and the capoeira.
If you think you will never get the way to manage such beautiful movements, you are mistaken!
At nights the place also works as a nightclub, with Brazilian sounds mainly. At Sundays, they offer samba with feijoada, the national and lovely dish included. A must!
Rua Alice 550, laranjeiras
www.casarosa.com.br
Learn Spanish at a farmhouse in Navarra at an informal, relaxed Spanish language house party with unlimited food and wine, gentle walking and opportunities to chat to the locals.
0121-711 3428,
www.pyreneanexperience.com
This is a hands-on cooking experience in the peaceful township of Kayamandi, where you explore the African food culture in a welcoming lady's home.
Prepare and taste ginger beer, steamed pot bread or sechu sa khoho (chicken stew) and share the everyday life with the community of Kayamandi on an interactive walk.
I took Spanish lessons when I was in Buenos Aires at a language school in Recoleta. Great place, nice people, really small classes. I learned a lot and really quickly. All the teachers were very qualified and the way they had the classes set up meant that they were a lot of fun.
The language school is around the corner from the Pueyrredón subway stop on Line D of the subte.
www.interhispanica.com.ar
There are dozens of schools. I took a beginners’ course – four weeks – at Linc, a small and very friendly school in the heart of the city. I chose it by narrowing down the schools I found on the internet and then phoning each one up and simply seeing how they responded to a few questions.
Jen, the administrator at Linc seemed not only the friendliest but also the most knowledgeable so I went with them. My teacher Rocio was great – really approachable and extraordinarily patient.
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
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