{"id":4457,"date":"2026-09-28T18:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:24:37","slug":"leaving-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4457","title":{"rendered":"Leaving the USA For Good*"},"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 internal chaos in the towns and villages where we live in Portugal and Spain: Periodic festas and ferias 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 mild-mannered people who become demons when driving \u2026 the ubiquitous frustrations of the bureaucracy in otherwise tranquil, 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

LOL! You want a specific moment? I\u2019d say it was when realized we could drive through the traffic roundabouts everywhere without fear. They no longer threatened us. In some ways, the moment you refer to happened to us almost immediately upon arriving in Portugal with our D7 residency visas. Even before emigrating from the USA, however, we saw the handwriting on the wall and doubted that we could ever move back there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike some expats \u2013 immigrants, too, no doubt \u2013 we didn\u2019t rent a property but purchased a house which, over time, we turned into our home. We got to know our neighbors, participate in the local culture and community, and made a point to speak their language, not ours, no matter how wrong our vocabulary or how awful our pronunciation. That, too, contributed to a shift in mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 a time and a purpose, I would say that occurred during our fourth or fifth year living in the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We never returned to the USA\u2014not even to visit family and friends. We had invested financially in both Portugal and Spain with primary residences and rental properties. 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, just as steadfastly, 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 immediate family. Meanwhile, on this side of the great pond, we had become increasingly accustomed to the ways and means and political consensus achieved through coalition-building. Despite disputes and disagreements and some (expected) corruption, we came to believe that these two socialist democracies cared for their people and put the people\u2019s welfare above 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to sort out required responses and actions by email, only never to receive a reply because, in these cultures, emails go ignored often is another pet peeve and bugaboo. Attempting to get answers by telephone, instead, but nobody picks up on the other end. Or the phone is answered by an automated bot that only speaks Portuguese (or Spanish) and can\u2019t understand your answers to pre-determined questions, so the call gets disconnected instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in a \u201cforeign\u201d country means learning how to persist and persevere. Have a complaint about a purchase or service from a merchant? Use Portugal\u2019s Livro de Reclama\u00e7\u00f5es<\/em> or (consumer advocate) Deco Proteste.<\/em> Most importantly, get to know your neighbors\u2014that\u2019s essentially how you come to understand their culture and the way things work (or don\u2019t) hereabouts.<\/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, and such high cholesterol since living in Portugal and Spain. Nonetheless, since I\u2019m neither vegan nor a fish fancier, my food choices here are rather limited. I must confess, I\u2019m not particularly a fan of Portuguese food, which, to me, neither looks, smells, nor tastes appetizing. Spanish food is more to my liking. Maybe that\u2019s because of the tapas?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, of course, I do crave a thick and juicy American hamburger, a pastrami sandwich, a heaping of mac-and-cheese, a Nathan\u2019s all-beef hot dog. 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, Domino\u2019s Pizza, Taco Bell, et al \u2013 aren\u2019t really \u201cfood,\u201d as far as I\u2019m concerned. They\u2019re AI applied to machines that do the cooking. Human robots do packaging. Ironically, if you go to a food court in Iberia where American fast-food franchises stand side-by-side with eateries serving the country\u2019s traditional foods, you\u2019ll find more young folks lined up at the digital kiosks, ordering USA-style meals. If only they knew the difference!<\/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. And understand carefully that relocation is more about where and why you\u2019re moving to than it is where and why you\u2019re moving from. You must be able to explain the whys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An entire chapter in my latest book, Fado & Flamenco: Living Abroad in Portugal or Spain, tells the stories of nearly a dozen people who moved to Iberia \u2026 for all the wrong reasons. While they had everything going for them in their new countries, they couldn\u2019t adjust and adapt. They became unhappy. So, they returned to their homelands or moved on to somewhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stuff that fills guidebooks, blogs, podcasts, and social media groups are nothing more than moments in time, brief snapshots which flood and flicker, beckoning us like lanterns and lighthouses. But they\u2019re paid promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a lot more than pretty postcards, however, to become settled and comfortable \u2013 even happy \u2013 in Portugal or Spain, homelands to others \u2026 but not ours. As with the time-consuming red tape of these alluring lands, it can take years to be able to say with conviction, \u201cThis is my home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

* Expat: Leaving the USA For Good<\/em> is a candid non-fiction expatriate guide written by Bruce H. Joffe and published by New Generation Publishing in 2019.<\/p>\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 internal 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":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[493,52,50,123],"tags":[491,492],"ppma_author":[579],"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":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t