{"id":4457,"date":"2026-09-28T18:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:54:52","slug":"leaving-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4457","title":{"rendered":"Leaving America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people dream of moving abroad <\/em>in search of paradise, but your story shows us what it truly takes to build a home. Welcome, Bruce, and thank you for taking the time to sit down with me today.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question<\/strong>: You chose to move from the USA to Spain and Portugal, two countries whose combined population is slightly less than that of California and Florida together. Don\u2019t you miss the chaos?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a bit! We have our fair share of domestic chaos in the towns and villages where we live in Portugal and Spain: Periodic festas<\/em> and ferias<\/em> that disrupt the tranquility for weeks on end \u2026 Portuguese and Spanish people who take to the streets to argue and bicker in front of their neighbors \u2026 People accompanying their unleashed dogs on walks and not picking up after them\u2026 the ubiquitous frustrations of the bureaucracy in democratic states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Shift & Identity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q<\/strong>: In your writing, you emphasize the distinction between being an \u2018expat\u2019 who plans to return and an \u2018immigrant\u2019 who isn\u2019t looking back. At what exact moment did your mindset shift from a temporary \u2018vacation bolt\u2019 to realising Iberia was home for good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, that moment came almost immediately upon arriving in Portugal with our D7 visas. Even before expatriating from the USA, however, we saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that we could never move back there. Unlike some \u201cexpats\u201d \u2013 immigrants, too, no doubt \u2013 we didn\u2019t rent a property but purchased a house which we turned into our home. We got to know our neighbors, participate in the local culture, and made a point to speak their language, not ours, no matter how wrong our vocabulary or how awful our pronunciation. If I had to identify a period of time when we realized that we were immigrants here to stay and put down roots in Portugal and Spain rather than \u201ctry them on for size\u201d expats here for but a time and a purpose, I would say that occurred during our fourth or fifth year living in the EU. We never returned to the USA\u2014not even to visit family and friends. We had invested financially in both Portugal and Spain not only with primary residences but rental properties. And, in parallel universes, the United States under Trump had become a wasteland of incorrigibles \u2013 crooks, thieves, authoritarians \u2013 where the country was ever more divided between the rich and the poor, the 1% v. the rest of us, those who arrogantly leaned extreme right v. those who \u2013 just as steadfastly \u2013 leaned progressively left. The Doomsday Clock was ticking under a president who didn\u2019t give a damn for anything but his personal fortune or anyone except his egocentric self and family. Meanwhile, on this side of the great pond, we had become increasingly accustomed to the bureaucracy and political consensus achieved through coalition-building. Despite disputes and disagreements and some (expected) corruption, we came to truly believe that these two democracies cared for their people and put the people\u2019s welfare overall over their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Cultural Hurdles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q<\/strong>: You\u2019ve written somewhere that \u2018paradise is never as simple as the postcards suggest\u2019. What has been the most frustrating cultural or bureaucratic hurdle you had to overcome while settling into life in Southwestern Europe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a word, I guess that would boil down to the bureaucracy. Never getting anything right the first time around \u2026 at least, according to one government official. Go to another official working elsewhere for the same department or agency, and you\u2019d get a different set of answers. Try to sort out your required responses and actions by email, only never to receive a reply because, in these cultures, emails go ignored more often than not. Attempt to get answers by telephone instead, and nobody picks up on the other end. Or the phone is answered by a bot who only speaks Portuguese (or Spanish) and can\u2019t understand your answers to pre-ordained questions, so the call gets disconnected instead. Living in a \u201cforeign\u201d country means learning how to persevere. Have a complaint about a purchase or service from a merchant? Use Portugal\u2019s Livro de Reclama\u00e7\u00f5es<\/em> or consumer advocates Deco Proteste.<\/em> Most importantly, get to know your neighbors; that\u2019s how you understand their culture and the way things work (or don\u2019t) in their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Culinary Tastes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q<\/strong>: A few thoughts on Portuguese vs. Spanish food and how drastically does American food culture differ by comparison?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How drastically? By tons! Our digestive tracts have rid themselves of so much gluten, so many preservatives, since living in Portugal and Spain. Nonetheless, since I\u2019m neither a vegan nor a fish eater, my food choices here are rather limited. And, I must confess, I\u2019m not particularly a fan of Portuguese food \u2026 which, to me, neither looks, smells, nor tastes appetizing. Spanish food is more to my liking. Maybe that\u2019s because of the tapas? Sometimes, of course, I do crave a thick and juicy American hamburger, a pastrami sandwich, a Nathan\u2019s all-beef hotdog. The fast-food franchises that pass for American food here in Portugal and Spain \u2013 Burger King, McDonald’s, Popeyes, KFC, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, et al \u2013 aren\u2019t really food as far as I\u2019m concerned. They\u2019re AI applied to machines that do the cooking. Ironically, if you go to a food court in Iberia where American fast-food franchises are side-by-side with eateries serving the country\u2019s traditional foods, you\u2019ll find more youngsters linked up at the kiosk machines, digitally ordering USA-style meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Words of Advice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q<\/strong>: To close with a bit of \u2018food for thought\u2019: for Americans looking at the current political landscape and dreaming of an escape, what is the single most important truth they need to hear before packing their bags?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look before you leap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Website: https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/bruce-h-joffe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce H. Joffe\u2019s books so far: https:\/\/amoz.onl\/78x<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘My next book, Spamming and Scamming Your Book,<\/strong><\/em> is quite different from anything else I’ve written of late. In fact, in some ways it harkens back to my years of teaching marketing, public relations, and communications on the university level.’ – Bruce H. Joffe, author, Associate Professor of Communication (Retired):
Mary Baldwin University, George Mason University,
The American University, Carthage College,
Kaplan College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people dream of moving abroad in search of paradise, but your story shows us what it truly takes to build a home. Welcome, Bruce, and thank you for taking the time to sit down with me today. On Chaos Question: You chose to move from the USA to Spain and Portugal, two countries whose combined population is slightly less than that of California and Florida together. Don\u2019t you miss the chaos? Bruce: Not a bit! We have our fair share of domestic chaos in the towns and villages where we live in Portugal and Spain: Periodic festas and ferias<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,52,50,123],"tags":[491,492],"class_list":["post-4457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bruce-h-joffe","category-interview","category-non-fiction","category-picks","tag-american","tag-iberian-peninsula"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4462,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions\/4462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}