Introducing our new Expat Blog. Sal DeTraglia gives you his very own take on life in Spain for a foreigner.

Greetings from the plains of Castilla-LaMancha, Spain…and welcome to the first post of the Virtual Tapas Bar blog!  I feel honored to have been selected as Expatica Spain’s first blogger, and undertake this task with a humble heart and a hyperactive adrenal gland. 

Now, some of you may be scratching your heads and wondering what’s this all about?  In an effort to ease your minds (and, in the process, fill my minimum required word-count), let me anticipate and address some of your questions.

Q1:   What’s a blog? 

A1:  Ah yes!  That’s probably good starting point.  “Blog” is an odd word—sounding more like an intestinal disorder, or something you’d drink from a pewter mug.

But it’s neither.  Blog is the contraction of the term “web log.” It means—according to Merriam-Webster—“a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.”  In other words, it’s a digital dumping ground for people’s thoughts, observations, recommendations and rants—no matter how banal or rambling they might be. 

The year 2004 was a coming-out party for the fresh-faced blog.  Merriam-Webster OnLine ranked it as the year’s #1 word, based on on-line look-ups. 

But blog-mania really hit a fever pitch during the US presidential election.   It seemed that each candidate got three things in his “I Wanna Be President” starter kit:  A US flag lapel pin, a vial of Botox®, and a copy of Blogging for Dummies.  And man-oh-man…did those dummies blog!  Howard Dean did it.  John Kerry did it.  Dick Gephart did it.  They all did it.  Well…actually, none of them really did it.  Their “people” did it for them—but delegation is the sign of a good manager, so we won’t deduct points. 

 Incidentally, the Spanish have their own word for blog.  It is bitícora. I suspect, however, that—much like the triumph of marketing over mercadotecnia—blog will soon snuff-out bitícora in the Spanish lexicon for reasons of expediency.  Although I admit that my logic is shaky on this point, since expediency isn’t necessarily a high-priority in Spanish culture—particularly when urgent plumbing repairs are needed.

Q2:   Why are you interested in writing a blog?

A2: Well…it’s certainly not for reasons of idleness.  Between changing diapers, cooking meals, grocery shopping, working out and that pesky day-job that constantly conflicts with my sunbathing schedule, I didn’t need an additional item on my plate.  What I did need, though, was some kind of respite from the dryness of my daily existence.  Spending forty hours per week staring at contract clauses (yes—I’m in THAT profession) and debating the most prudent placement of arcane terms like “hereinafter,” “thereby,” and “notwithstanding the foregoing” does cause one to seek a creative outlet of sorts—and Spain’s balmy climate rendered butter sculpting impractical. 

Q3:  By the way…who ARE you?

A3: You’ll have to read my biography to find out.  But I’ll tell you this much…I don’t speak Italian. 

Q4:  How did you decide on the name Virtual Tapas Bar for this blog?

A4: I thought that naming the blog would be easy.  Just think up a clever word play by substituting the word “blog” for “dog,” “hog,” “cog” or any of their brethren.  After ten minutes, I had churned out the following list of candidates:  Sal’s Blog Cabin; Sal’s Blog Day Afternoon; Goin’ Whole Blog with Sal; Sal’s Three Blog Night; Blog Wild with Sal; and several others of a similar ilk. 

Feeling proud of my sharp wit and turbo-charged mind, I did a quick Google® search to confirm my belief that no one had ever coined any of these magnificent titles.  Well…my confidence was, perhaps, a bit unfounded.  Truth be told, the least used of the bunch yielded no less than 17 pages of hits. 

That’s the problem with the Internet age.  It reinforces the fact that nobody on this planet has had an original thought since Jimi played Berkeley.  In the good old days when people actually went to the library to do research, I might have operated under the delusion of my own cleverness for years—before finally stumbling upon a Cincinnati Post clipping that mentioned “Tony’s Blog Cabin” in the “Men Seeking Women” classified ads.  In the Google® age, however, delusions of grandeur are measured in nanoseconds.   Mine lasted for less than two.

In the end, therefore, I decided that word play is the domain of second-rate advertising execs and opted for the geographically-relevant title, Virtual Tapas Bar.  I like it.  I’ve always wanted to be a bartender; but am utterly incapable of making correct change.

And last but not least…

Q5:   Now that you’ve SOMEHOW convinced Expatica Spain to let you write this blog, what do you intend to write about?

A5: Why…life in Spain, of course—as seen through the Rioja-colored glasses of an introverted, slightly balding, (almost) middle-aged US expat who has lived here for five years and still speaks Spanish like…well…like an American. 

As the great Dr. Seuss once wrote:

From there to here
From here to there
Funny things are everywhere.

To which I add, “If you want to find them, you have to look for them.” 

There are a lot of funny things about life in Spain.  Sometimes an outsider is best-suited to look for them.

Sal DeTraglia

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