Life in Menorca

ScooterBoy1
Originally uploaded by davidnmartin98

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