Well, a comment was posted to the blog asking for some more information as to where we are located. I am a totally a novice when it comes to Google Earth, but I did manage to find us and make a note of the Latitude and Longtitude. They are:-
Lat: 39°50'0.01"N
Long: 4°18'4.05"E
That should put you just about on the roof of the apartment. Now if any clever folks out there can give any more information from these details, like GPS co-ordinates, then please post a comment so that everyone who's interested can find out! I just know that there are people out there who are likely to be able to do these things....like DavidW, AndrewT, JoeK!
David
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Horses, Cows and chickens....Oh my!
Greetings to all from Menorca! Yep, I am finally doing an update!
Things are going well here. School has got underway for me, and James is busy doing his stuff too. The weather has been up and down, though not particularly terrible I have to admit! No snow, unlike some of you folks back in the US...The coldest it has got here so far is about 3 degrees Celsius, just a little above freezing. That may not seem too cold to those of you in the northern US, but in an apartment built of stone it's quite chilly! Still, with the help of the space heater and James' ever growing fire lighting skills we are keeping warm.
Last week we experienced our first piece of culture. Actually, we had two pieces of culture if you think about it! The first was St Anthony’s Day, which was a national holiday. The central point of this is a festival/market in each town, along with a ceremony where people have their pets blessed by the local priest. We went to San Luis for the morning and had a great time. The market was amazing and we bought some local sausages and meats and I took a whole load of photos, soon to be uploaded. The blessing of the pet’s ceremony was next, and was quite unlike anything I have experienced before. People brought not only, dogs and cats....but also chickens, gerbils, cows, donkeys and horses. All of this took place in the high street outside the church and was very noisy indeed. Dogs were barking at everything that moved, horses were stamping, cows were mooing etc. It was a wonder that there was no stampede! Then when the priest started flicking all the animals with holy water, it all got much tenser. Horses started to rear up on the hind legs, cows pawed the ground and most of the dogs started to look like Cujo. Still, all ended with no one being eaten and we went on our way.
The next piece of culture was going to the theatre. The man who works in our bank had written the music for a version of Homers Odyssey. It was being performed at the big theatre in Mahon, the capital, so we went and purchased our tickets there. I had never been to the theatre here before, and when we arrived last Friday evening it was filled with smartly dressed people everywhere. We had erred on the side of caution and were smartly dressed too, albeit with "crash-helmet hair". We headed inside and took our seats. The building is amazing inside and is really something to be quite proud of for the locals. It has 4 balconies, boxes and a huge orchestra/stalls area. Very nice indeed. The music started, the curtain rose and the play began......in Catalan! Needless to say we understood next to nothing, but we enjoyed the music, the singing and the dancing. Fortunately it was primarily a musical, so it ended up being a little like the opera really; you knew the general plot, but couldn't follow exactly. We had a good time anyway and will certainly go again!
School is a little stressful for me at the moment. I discovered yesterday that some of my professors have not been receiving any of the emails I have been sending. This is very concerning and I am trying to find out why. It also seems that some of you may not have been receiving emails either. If you were expecting something from us and have not received it, then please let me know. I will continue to investigate. Online classes are ticking along, although it is taking me time to get used to this new way of working. Due to the time-difference, and not having internet access at the flat, it is meaning that I have to be careful with my time management. I haven't quite cracked it yet, but am getting there. I am keeping up to date with online assignments, but coupled with the siesta in the middle of the day, where the library closes down, it is proving challenging. Spanish classes in the evenings are interesting, but progressing. The instructor speaks at 100 miles per hour and I don't understand most of what she is saying, but I am finding that things are coming back to me, although just as I think I have grasped a concept and try to use it, James informs me that I am not correct. It’s quite frustrating, but I guess it always is at the beginning.
Anyway, that’s about if for now. This weekend is James' birthday (54yrs) so we are going to celebrate it with a few friends at S'Olivera in San Luis on Saturday. We also have a Lasagna party on Friday, together with our usual date for dinner with Denise on Sunday evening. I'll write again next week!
Love to all!
David
Things are going well here. School has got underway for me, and James is busy doing his stuff too. The weather has been up and down, though not particularly terrible I have to admit! No snow, unlike some of you folks back in the US...The coldest it has got here so far is about 3 degrees Celsius, just a little above freezing. That may not seem too cold to those of you in the northern US, but in an apartment built of stone it's quite chilly! Still, with the help of the space heater and James' ever growing fire lighting skills we are keeping warm.
Last week we experienced our first piece of culture. Actually, we had two pieces of culture if you think about it! The first was St Anthony’s Day, which was a national holiday. The central point of this is a festival/market in each town, along with a ceremony where people have their pets blessed by the local priest. We went to San Luis for the morning and had a great time. The market was amazing and we bought some local sausages and meats and I took a whole load of photos, soon to be uploaded. The blessing of the pet’s ceremony was next, and was quite unlike anything I have experienced before. People brought not only, dogs and cats....but also chickens, gerbils, cows, donkeys and horses. All of this took place in the high street outside the church and was very noisy indeed. Dogs were barking at everything that moved, horses were stamping, cows were mooing etc. It was a wonder that there was no stampede! Then when the priest started flicking all the animals with holy water, it all got much tenser. Horses started to rear up on the hind legs, cows pawed the ground and most of the dogs started to look like Cujo. Still, all ended with no one being eaten and we went on our way.
The next piece of culture was going to the theatre. The man who works in our bank had written the music for a version of Homers Odyssey. It was being performed at the big theatre in Mahon, the capital, so we went and purchased our tickets there. I had never been to the theatre here before, and when we arrived last Friday evening it was filled with smartly dressed people everywhere. We had erred on the side of caution and were smartly dressed too, albeit with "crash-helmet hair". We headed inside and took our seats. The building is amazing inside and is really something to be quite proud of for the locals. It has 4 balconies, boxes and a huge orchestra/stalls area. Very nice indeed. The music started, the curtain rose and the play began......in Catalan! Needless to say we understood next to nothing, but we enjoyed the music, the singing and the dancing. Fortunately it was primarily a musical, so it ended up being a little like the opera really; you knew the general plot, but couldn't follow exactly. We had a good time anyway and will certainly go again!
School is a little stressful for me at the moment. I discovered yesterday that some of my professors have not been receiving any of the emails I have been sending. This is very concerning and I am trying to find out why. It also seems that some of you may not have been receiving emails either. If you were expecting something from us and have not received it, then please let me know. I will continue to investigate. Online classes are ticking along, although it is taking me time to get used to this new way of working. Due to the time-difference, and not having internet access at the flat, it is meaning that I have to be careful with my time management. I haven't quite cracked it yet, but am getting there. I am keeping up to date with online assignments, but coupled with the siesta in the middle of the day, where the library closes down, it is proving challenging. Spanish classes in the evenings are interesting, but progressing. The instructor speaks at 100 miles per hour and I don't understand most of what she is saying, but I am finding that things are coming back to me, although just as I think I have grasped a concept and try to use it, James informs me that I am not correct. It’s quite frustrating, but I guess it always is at the beginning.
Anyway, that’s about if for now. This weekend is James' birthday (54yrs) so we are going to celebrate it with a few friends at S'Olivera in San Luis on Saturday. We also have a Lasagna party on Friday, together with our usual date for dinner with Denise on Sunday evening. I'll write again next week!
Love to all!
David
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Life in Menorca
Greetings one and all! The promised update! I am sure you have all been waiting with bated breath....lol!
It's wednesday morning and we are here in the library in Mahon. Wot, not the Library in San Luis I hear you all cry? Well, yesterday when we came into Mahon we checked out the big library here and joined it as well. They also have free wifi and much better opening hours. Whereas the SL library opens at 11am and closes at 1.30pm, this one is open at 9.30am, so it suits our working patterns better.
So what have we been up to? Looking back though the blogs it seems the last proper update was on December the 26th! That was just before the car was due to go back...and a lot has happened since then. Christmas passed without a hitch. We had a lovely time, seeing the few people that we know, Denise, Jenny and David, John and Sarah. We then purchased our scooter on Friday 27th, which was very exciting. Registering it takes 5 business days here in Menorca so we were on foot for almost a whole week. Most of the time we walked to San Luis, which takes about 50 minutes. Once, we decided to hitch and were picked up very quickly. John Whaley (henceforth known as American John to avoid confusion with John Talbot (English John)) gave us a lift a few times as well which was nice. The walk is really not so bad, and those of you who are Menorca visitors might want to try it sometime. You get to see so much that you never do in the car! Some of the days we took the bus from San Luis into Mahon as well. So although we were on foot, we were very active and mobile. We had waterproofs, torches, backpacks etc.....you all know me and my organizing, so everything went well. We received some mail as well, which was all very exciting. The mail service here on the island is erratic at times, but the packet of mail forwarded by our divine neighbour, Cheryl, reached us just fine. We also got a Christmas card from Alison and Martin and a few others. Thank you all! If any of you feel like writing to us, sending cards etc....then our address is as follows:-
David Martin & James Koschoreck
Apt 53b, Avenida Ocho
Salgar,
San Luis 07710
Menorca, Baleares
Spain.
On New Years eve we cooked dinner for Denise, American John, John and Sarah and their eldest son, Blair. James cooked some Mexican food and we had plenty to eat and drink! We had a great time and it was lovely to spend the evening with some good friends here in Salgar. We missed all of the people we usually spend New Years Eve with in the US too. Maybe one year we can get everyone together! After dinner we headed into San Luis and spent an hour or so in one of the bars there. It was a cultural experience to say the least! At the stroke of Midnight the Spanish have a custom of taking 12 grapes and eating one for every chime of the bell. If you have never tried eating 12 grapes in quick succesion before, try it! It's not as easy as it seems!
On Saturday we got to pick up our nice new scooter! It was an exciting moment, not least because we had been walking everywhere! The guys who own the bike shop in San Luis have been so helpful to us. it was pleasure doing business with them. We picked the scooter up and then headed straight back to Salgar on it. I drove and James rode pillion. I had ridden a Honda c90 in the UK for a few years but had never legally had a passenger on the back. Everything was fine though, and we made it back ok. James then took the bike for a little spin around Salgar on his own. He wants to practice a bit before venturing too far as the driver, but he did really well. With a bit more practice maybe I can sit on the back and watch the world go by!
We are now settling into daily life. We go to the supermarket, go for walks and continue to work on the small challenges that living in a different country bring us. One by one we get them sorted. Most of the big challenges we have now overcome. We have transport, we have internet access and we can be warm when we want to. Thanks to Andrew and Louise for the tip on the hairdryer! Yesterday we also had success with tracking down the elusive Mari, the nightschool teacher in San Luis. We met her last night at the school and spoke to her about joining classes. She is happy to have us, so I will be joining Spanish Level Two tonight. I will be in Spanish class Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. She says if Level two is too hard I can step down to Level One, or I can also step up to Level Three. Frankly I am quite terrified, so we will see how it goes. I have been working on my Spanish since we arrived, and it is slowly coming back to me. I suffer from terrible confidence issues with my Spanish, so I am looking forward to getting back into class. James is enrolled in Catalan classes with Mari, and he will be in class on Tueday and Thursday evenings. We will both have some catching up to do, as classes began in September, but it will be exciting!
So that bring you all up to date! I start my online classes and independent studies on Monday of next week. James is prepapring to start his work as well. Maybe he'll post sometime, as I am sure you all could do with a change from my blogging! Thanks for all of your comments on the blog. It's nice to know that people are reading it and keeping up to date with us.
Love to all of you, and watch this space! I have no idea if you can subscribe to this blog and if you get notified automatically of updates or not....can anyone tell me if they are doing that?
Big love to all!
David and James
It's wednesday morning and we are here in the library in Mahon. Wot, not the Library in San Luis I hear you all cry? Well, yesterday when we came into Mahon we checked out the big library here and joined it as well. They also have free wifi and much better opening hours. Whereas the SL library opens at 11am and closes at 1.30pm, this one is open at 9.30am, so it suits our working patterns better.
So what have we been up to? Looking back though the blogs it seems the last proper update was on December the 26th! That was just before the car was due to go back...and a lot has happened since then. Christmas passed without a hitch. We had a lovely time, seeing the few people that we know, Denise, Jenny and David, John and Sarah. We then purchased our scooter on Friday 27th, which was very exciting. Registering it takes 5 business days here in Menorca so we were on foot for almost a whole week. Most of the time we walked to San Luis, which takes about 50 minutes. Once, we decided to hitch and were picked up very quickly. John Whaley (henceforth known as American John to avoid confusion with John Talbot (English John)) gave us a lift a few times as well which was nice. The walk is really not so bad, and those of you who are Menorca visitors might want to try it sometime. You get to see so much that you never do in the car! Some of the days we took the bus from San Luis into Mahon as well. So although we were on foot, we were very active and mobile. We had waterproofs, torches, backpacks etc.....you all know me and my organizing, so everything went well. We received some mail as well, which was all very exciting. The mail service here on the island is erratic at times, but the packet of mail forwarded by our divine neighbour, Cheryl, reached us just fine. We also got a Christmas card from Alison and Martin and a few others. Thank you all! If any of you feel like writing to us, sending cards etc....then our address is as follows:-
David Martin & James Koschoreck
Apt 53b, Avenida Ocho
Salgar,
San Luis 07710
Menorca, Baleares
Spain.
On New Years eve we cooked dinner for Denise, American John, John and Sarah and their eldest son, Blair. James cooked some Mexican food and we had plenty to eat and drink! We had a great time and it was lovely to spend the evening with some good friends here in Salgar. We missed all of the people we usually spend New Years Eve with in the US too. Maybe one year we can get everyone together! After dinner we headed into San Luis and spent an hour or so in one of the bars there. It was a cultural experience to say the least! At the stroke of Midnight the Spanish have a custom of taking 12 grapes and eating one for every chime of the bell. If you have never tried eating 12 grapes in quick succesion before, try it! It's not as easy as it seems!
On Saturday we got to pick up our nice new scooter! It was an exciting moment, not least because we had been walking everywhere! The guys who own the bike shop in San Luis have been so helpful to us. it was pleasure doing business with them. We picked the scooter up and then headed straight back to Salgar on it. I drove and James rode pillion. I had ridden a Honda c90 in the UK for a few years but had never legally had a passenger on the back. Everything was fine though, and we made it back ok. James then took the bike for a little spin around Salgar on his own. He wants to practice a bit before venturing too far as the driver, but he did really well. With a bit more practice maybe I can sit on the back and watch the world go by!
We are now settling into daily life. We go to the supermarket, go for walks and continue to work on the small challenges that living in a different country bring us. One by one we get them sorted. Most of the big challenges we have now overcome. We have transport, we have internet access and we can be warm when we want to. Thanks to Andrew and Louise for the tip on the hairdryer! Yesterday we also had success with tracking down the elusive Mari, the nightschool teacher in San Luis. We met her last night at the school and spoke to her about joining classes. She is happy to have us, so I will be joining Spanish Level Two tonight. I will be in Spanish class Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. She says if Level two is too hard I can step down to Level One, or I can also step up to Level Three. Frankly I am quite terrified, so we will see how it goes. I have been working on my Spanish since we arrived, and it is slowly coming back to me. I suffer from terrible confidence issues with my Spanish, so I am looking forward to getting back into class. James is enrolled in Catalan classes with Mari, and he will be in class on Tueday and Thursday evenings. We will both have some catching up to do, as classes began in September, but it will be exciting!
So that bring you all up to date! I start my online classes and independent studies on Monday of next week. James is prepapring to start his work as well. Maybe he'll post sometime, as I am sure you all could do with a change from my blogging! Thanks for all of your comments on the blog. It's nice to know that people are reading it and keeping up to date with us.
Love to all of you, and watch this space! I have no idea if you can subscribe to this blog and if you get notified automatically of updates or not....can anyone tell me if they are doing that?
Big love to all!
David and James
Monday, January 7, 2008
Happy New 2008!
Hello to all!
This is a quick update blog......and I will write a proper entry tomorrow or the day after.
Things are good here on the island. We have been quite busy, especially with all the holiday stuff. For those of you who are not from Europe, lots of Europe has an extended holiday from December 24th untill January 2nd, so we have had our work cut out for us in terms of getting things done. But things are now taking shape! We have internet access sorted at the Library in San Luis, the nearest large town to us, and we took delivery of our scooter on Saturday! I'll take pictures and post them in the next day or two.
As I say, I will write a proper update tomorrow, but in the mean time have fun! For those of you wanting to see (basic) pictures of the apartment, I just uploaded some to the Flickr account. You can get there off the photo attached to this post, or by heading to http://www.flickr.com/davidnmartin98 . Some have you have been wanting to check it out with a view to coming and visiting, so pictures are now up for viewing!
Love to you all!
D&J
This is a quick update blog......and I will write a proper entry tomorrow or the day after.
Things are good here on the island. We have been quite busy, especially with all the holiday stuff. For those of you who are not from Europe, lots of Europe has an extended holiday from December 24th untill January 2nd, so we have had our work cut out for us in terms of getting things done. But things are now taking shape! We have internet access sorted at the Library in San Luis, the nearest large town to us, and we took delivery of our scooter on Saturday! I'll take pictures and post them in the next day or two.
As I say, I will write a proper update tomorrow, but in the mean time have fun! For those of you wanting to see (basic) pictures of the apartment, I just uploaded some to the Flickr account. You can get there off the photo attached to this post, or by heading to http://www.flickr.com/davidnmartin98 . Some have you have been wanting to check it out with a view to coming and visiting, so pictures are now up for viewing!
Love to you all!
D&J
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