We paused for lunch today in Zaragoza, where my college friend Monique lives. She introduced us to a colleague of hers and the riverfront and the basilica in the center and we ate delicious lamb and rabbit. Is this what it means to be cosmopolitan? To meet with friends met in one town in another town entirely where you know no locals? We probably spent more time talking about one another’s work and travels than about Zaragoza. Makes me wonder what the meaning of a place is if you more or less ignore it while you’re there. But then again, this is a road trip and maybe it’s not worth worrying too much about not getting to know any one point along the way. I have a family connection here, too: my grandmother grew up here, but I don’t know if anyone from our extended family still lives here.