Heading North to Burgos

June 17

We spent the morning at Anna’s school with her students on their last day. Every time I visit one of her classrooms, I am more secure in my decision to never become a teacher. I’m glad she does it, but it is not the career for me.

In the afternoon we hopped on a bus to Burgos where we’re staying the night in a fancy room (thanks parents!) that smells like bath oil beads. We got here in the rain, but by the time we left the hotel again it cleared up and we had a few hours to wander the streets, up to the castle, and around the gorgeous gothic cathedral catching up and recounting relationship woes. Some of the ruins have giant storks’ nests on top, which is super cool. We stopped in for dinner at Cerveceria Morito, where we got morcilla, pulpo frito and pork medallions with bread with goat cheese and raspberry sauce, all of which I would definitely recommend. The place was packed but we lucked out grabbing the last stools, and the food took maybe fifteen minutes total from the time we ordered to the time we started eating, which is completely baffling to me in a place that had so many people packed inside and so many staff just shouting orders back and forth. We walked off the food wandering along the river and through the park, then made it back with only a few wrong turns to the hotel where we listened to the excellent Cheerleader remix and I introduced Anna to the first few songs on the Hamilton soundtrack (because the obsession must be spread as far as possible).

High: It’s still just spending time with Anna. A lot has happened in the years since we’ve seen each other, and we both have a lot of doubts and hopes and stories, though I feel like I contribute much less to the catastrophe conversation, except in the terrible diseases category.

Low: I spent the first four hours of the day feeling intensely ill. I don’t know if it was the sangria or the traveling or a combination of the two, but my body wanted nothing to do with it.

Glitter: Watching The Little Mermaid with the middle schoolers was one of the more hilarious moments of the day, the highlights being when Ariel says “bet you on land they understand and they don’t reprimand their daughters” and the class as a whole very soundly disabused her of that illusion with derisive laughter, and when Eric jumped back on the sinking ship to save the dog and they were all yelling at him to save himself.