Has It Been A Year Already?

Well, actually a little bit more and it's incredible how fast the time has gone. I can still recall sitting down in my small office, deciding to write a blog for the first time because I thought it'd help get the book I was writing published. Before I'd even typed a word, I was surprised at how much easier and cheaper it was to run a website than it had been in the mid-nineties. Back then there was the hundred dollar domain registration, the cost of design and hosting. Now, it's ten bucks a year for a domain and that's it. Thanks, Mr. Google, even if you know more about me than I do.

I remember having the feeling of writing for an audience of one those first few weeks, then I got a comment here and there, sometimes two. Sometimes it was the same person, other times new visitors. This is the beauty of blogging, I think. It's getting the chance to meet people from so many places, from so many backgrounds. Ninety-nine percent I'll probably never meet in person, yet in some way, I feel I know them better than my upstairs neighbor. And it's thanks to these fellow bloggers and readers that I know more about Spain, Europe and Barcelona too.

When I look at the comments, the post on Catalunya or Catalonia received the highest number, followed by my tongue in cheek rant requesting Spaniards to stop using "punky" for punk music, although most of them were a back and forth between Tom at the Badrash and I, so the numbers are obviously skewed. After these, the topics related to nationalism and the Spanish economy garnered quite a reaction, while the comments to the post on eating and drinking in Spain taught me exercising doesn't burn calories, but changes the metabolism. Meanwhile, one of the very first posts I wrote has recently been nominated for an award, so click here and vote, please.

So what does year two hold? Hopefully, I'll continue to meet new people and learn about new places. I also want to write more about what makes Barcelona, "the great enchantress," as Robert Hughes called her and less about nationalism and the economy because they're a bit tiring and depressing for me. I'm not promising, though. But first, I want to thank everybody for reading. Have a great summer!