{"id":204,"date":"2014-01-24T23:34:32","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T22:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caseybrown.org\/blog\/?p=204"},"modified":"2014-01-29T19:46:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T18:46:02","slug":"first-paseo-retiro-park-and-a-flamenco-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/caseybrown.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/first-paseo-retiro-park-and-a-flamenco-class\/","title":{"rendered":"First Paseo: Retiro Park and a Flamenco Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paseos por Madrid<\/em> is another class offered as part of American University’s Iberian Experience that the Madrid Business Program students can participate in occasionally. Paseo<\/i> is a Spanish word that means a walk or stroll, though its connotation is very similar to the English word\u00a0promenade<\/em>, as it’s more a leisurely stroll through a public area. The class tries to expose all of us to different areas of Madrid in ways that it would be difficult for us to do on our own, so even though the class is optional for us, we will try to attend as many as possible so we can get to know the city we call home that much more.<\/p>\n

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For the first paseo, we traveled to the Atocha Metro Station, which is located right outside of the Madrid Atocha railway station<\/a>, basically Madrid’s equivalent of Grand Central<\/a> or Union Station<\/a>. The professor, Keke, likes to make the final destination a surprise, so we weren’t really sure where we were going until we got there. Though we had a pretty good guess that it was the Retiro Park, and it turned out we were right.<\/p>\n

Parque del Buen Retiro<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is a large public recreation area right on the outside of the city center, basically Madrid’s version of\u00a0Central Park<\/a>. Though according to Wikipedia<\/a> Madrid has the highest number of trees and green areas per resident and all madrile\u00f1os <\/em>have access to a green area within a 15 minute walk,\u00a0el Retiro\u00a0<\/em>is still a very popular place for people to go to exercise or just spend some free time.\u00a0Because the park isn’t too far from my homestay, I’d actually already been there a few times with Ben and some of my other friends like Hyunjin and Christy. \u00a0(The last time we went we actually saw a cute little book fair right outside of the park as well!) However, it was still good to actually learn some information about the park with Keke. Also, it’s always nice to chill in a park, and the park is so big that you can always find a new monument, exhibition, or walkway.<\/p>\n