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