Hi.
Can you ride a bike?
If not: The trick is learning to balance while moving and it may sound odd but you will balance better going a bit faster than too slow.
Your elbow pads might be useful while you learn balancing.
Your levers on the bars control the gears as vickster (a lady) says. The one with the - to + marking will be the front gears and the numbered one will be the rear cogs. While you get confident riding you are probably best leaving them both in the middle cogs or slightly easier pedalling : slightly nearer the - sign and No 3 or 2.
When you are more comfortable start changing and seeing what happens. Nearer the + and higher numbers are more for flat roads, downhill, going faster. Near the - and low numbers are for climbing hills, sticky mud etc.
You need to think.of the front and back gears together to get the best out of them and to save damaging the cogs and chain: don't have the front all the way to - and the rear on 6, 7, or the front all the way to + and the rear on 1,2 as the chain will be running \ or / at an angle rather than. | as straight as possible between the front and rear cogs.
It all comes wirh a little practice and then you will be changing without even thinking about it.
As well as som .proper gloves, you should also think about simple toolkit: a pump- check it is the right valve type for your wheels, some patches to fix a puncture, some tyre levers to take off your tyre and a bike multitool or some Allen keys & spanners to fix and tighten bits up.
You could also get some spare inner tubes (look on your tyre sidewall for the correct size e.g. 26 x 1.95 - the tubes may have a range of e.g. 26 x 1.75 to 2.25 - these would be fine for 26 x 1.95 ) as they are always useful to have.
Later maybe buy some cables and brake pads ready for when your brakes or gears need servicing or start to get poor - that will be a long time so not something you need to worry about right now.
Most bike maintenance is pretty easy and plenty of videos on YouTube or the Park Tools website and the tools/kit can be bought online. It's good to learn as you say you are a distance from the bike shops.
