(Thanks for your sympathy and concern about my puffy eyes...they are a bit better today although still swollen, arghhhh! so I am off to the store this morning to splurge on Clinique, Clarins or Biotherm eye products, or one of each, lol!)
Because I was craving readers, Barbara!!! but not just at any price. Let me tell you my first blog was actually in Spanish and I started blogging in may 2004. It was a magic triangle: one blog + two readers: my dear sister and a dear girlfriend. Nobody else I told about my blog (not many, though) had time or interest or both to visit and comment. I knew I was missing an important aspect of the blogging fun...
I don't remember (wish I did, though) how I found Michele's blog and her great weekend game, meet'n greet, where I could read everybody was having such a great time commenting and getting many comments and visits. And they (and those of you I met that way!) all seemed so nice! Couldn't join in because I didn't have a blog the participants could read. So that did it! I thought even if I have a dull/uneventful blog, all I want to have is some interaction and meet other bloggers, can't get arrested for that.
On 9/23 last year I posted about a local festival (under my old url) and decided to play the meet' n greet game , which seemed to me to be the perfect safe place to make a sound introduction to the blogging world. With an immediate response! that's the best part of the game. How addictive! it was a real thrill. Then I found other memes to play and I slowly (and not without feeling a bit embarrassed somehow) started a blogroll of my own! My sister and my friend still show up around here when their schedules allow it. I am so happy I chose to write my blog in English, I couldn't have ever met you otherwise! Hey, aren't you glad, too? ::wink::
Well, I'm sure glad ou decided on English, Dear Mar....It is always a pleasure to visit you and always a greater pleasure when you visit me! Bravo to you! Michele has certainly expanded many of us in the commenting game....I too have met such wonderful people such as yourself through the Michele connection! Great! And so here we all are...and it is glorious, isn';t it?
ReplyDeleteindeed i am! :) came by through Expat Traveller and you had posted a poem by Pablo Neruda. It was a couple of days before you and Mr. Mar went off to Las Canarias and left Mr. 17 (at the time) fending for himself in Barcelona! Hehe. Seems like a long time ago now.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, i am usually attracted to bloggers i can relate. In your case it is the gypsy lifestyle we live of relocating often, el español (mine ain't quite there yet) and the fact that we are both latinos married to northern Europeans!
And because of bloggers like you, blogging is now an addiction!!
Thank goodness you did write in English as currently my Spanish consists of "a ham sandwich and a large beer, have you seen my suitcases and where are the loos please?" I know pitiful isn't it :o)
ReplyDeleteI was going to be in your neck of the woods on Thursday, unfortunately due to the bad weather forecast on t'Internet my trip to Perpignan and Figueras has been cancelled :o( Blinkin' rain!!
I hope your eyes feel better after you get the new cream.
ReplyDeleteAND...I'm so thankful that you chose English as your blog language or else I would have never found such a stunningly wise and beautiful woman to add to my list of blog buddies. :)
I for one am glad!
ReplyDeleteI hope your eyes get lots better. Mine are all itchy from fall pollen. :(
You bet I am glad you did it, Mar. I love having the ability to correspond with people from other countries, and while I took Spanish in high school, I don't speak or read it well. I don't remember how I found Michele either, but I am surely glad I did!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you write - I can't wait to read more. I have often wondered if it would be worth all the trouble to decipher some of the blogs written in other languages - then I realized, I barely have time for the ones written in English
ReplyDeleteGood question and loved your answer. Hope your eyes are better. Michele is resposible for lots of international friendships.
ReplyDeleteboy are we glad you decided to switch to english, mar. we wouldn't have been able to know all about the wonderful must-reads about spain otherwise and wouldn't have met such a generous soul. ;)
ReplyDeletedearest sis,
ReplyDeleteyou almost made me cry with your song, it's one of my favorite too (surprised???)
and how are you doing with your eyes? I'm sure you'll be fine in a couple of days.
Keep doing the great job! your blog is amazing! and you should be very proud!
hugs and kisses, sis X
I am glad it's in engish! I'd hav eto have my sister or someone in my family translate.. ;)
ReplyDeleteInteresting how you started blogging. I was introduced to it when I was searching the Internet for a recipe for a fish dish I had in Malaysia "Ikang Pangang" I hit a link that had a blog comment calling the blog owner Ikang Pangang. I started reading other comments and then a new blog was born ...
ReplyDeleteooooh querida Mar, hope your eyes are better now!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with all your dear blogger friends!
-Your Maremagnum is amazing!
-Your English is puuurfect!
-You're a gifted lady!
-You're a dear friend!
cariños, yositomer
Sounds like your plan worked. I rarely get comments (and I write in English), but I keep writing anyway, because it is my diary.
ReplyDeleteMar - Thanks for answering the question I posed. I'm glad you chose english too. My choice is English too, only because it's the only language I know, well, besides pig latin.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snowcrest.net/donnelly/piglatin.html
I'm glad you write in English. Es mucho más fácil leer que español. :)
ReplyDeletei sure am glad... it's how i met you and almost everyone else... michele is like a foundation for a lot of us...
ReplyDeletei didnt know you had a blog in spanish... i would have never been able to translate it though... thanks for changing to english...
I sure am glad!!! Goodness... I could have never survived the Spanish version... that's for sure! Sooooo...does this mean that it's MOSTLY Americans and other English speaking countries that waste the most time playing on their computers??? LOL! I'm not sUre this is a good thing... hehehe...
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your eyes, Mar! That is NOT fair -- especially from an old and trusted product! Sure hope it gets all better soon!