Caleb and I have both had our fair share of language oops (what’s the plural of oops – oopses?)… I think we’ve blogged about some of them here.  But we aren’t the only ones that are constantly “bringing cheer” to others with our choice of words… it works both ways, and we often get a good laugh at the English we hear thrown around here.

The girls were all so so so excited about meeting baby Isla.  They love her so much and are going to make great big sisters to her.  When they first met her, we heard all the typical Arabic expressions you hear in Lebanon – “ooh, she’s so delicious,”  “oh, my little life,” “I could just eat her up,” “In God’s name, she is beautiful.”

But then we heard one in English that we hadn’t heard before…

“I don’t know, I just feel like she is a little game!”

A game?

Then we realized, the word l3abe in Arabic is the same word used for both game and baby doll.  But the girls didn’t know the English word “doll,” so in their translation, Isla was a game.  I think it’s because she is so bald and white (that’s the topic of a whole ‘nother blog – “Is it healthy that she is so white??”)… she doesn’t look like most babies here, she looks more like the baby dolls the kids play with.

We didn’t correct them, it’s just too cute, and gives us a good giggle every time they call her a “little game.”  (“Will she still look like a game when she gets bigger?”)

So, here’s a picture of our little game playing with Daddy this past week:

posted by: nicolette

Ran into this picture on the ol’ intranets this week, and wanted to pass along the joy I got from seeing at this amazing Halloween costume.  Definitely a win.

posted by: caleb

… belonging to Isla Marie!

Born screaming on October 18 at 11:55 am.  Weighing in at 3.6 kilos (about 8 lbs, 2oz) and 49 cm (19 inches)

(Today at 6 days old)

We thank God for the incredible blessing of our little Isla! :)

]]> http://calebandnicolette.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/introducing-the-newest-beautiful-feet/feed/ 4 cnhutch http://calebandnicolette.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/should-i-open-the-door/ http://calebandnicolette.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/should-i-open-the-door/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:10:36 +0000 cnhutch http://calebandnicolette.wordpress.com/?p=722 ]]>

Living cross-culturally has it’s challenges (which is part of what makes it so exciting!).  One is that often you are living life by different rules – how to dress, speak, interact with others, the list goes on and on.  The difficulty here in Lebanon is that it seems like there are several sets of rules all being followed at the same time, depending on the context and on the people we are with.  There is a very Middle Eastern set of rules, but there is also a huge Western influence… a little French, a little American.  This mix is very uniquely Lebanese.  But sometimes it makes it hard to know which rules we need to follow at any given moment!

Last night Caleb was up at a conference and I was home by myself when the doorbell rang.  I looked through the peep-hole and the plumber who fixed our hot water heater this weekend was at the door to drop off a receipt.  Now I hadn’t actually met him or had any interaction with him – I was busy when he was here fixing the water – so I wasn’t sure what kind of person he was, or what set of rules I should expect him to follow.

I quickly, mentally ran through my options.  I could pretend no one was home.  But that seemed so rude, especially because Caleb was expecting him to come by that day with the receipt.  Second option, I could just open the door and greet him.  But if he is a very traditional or conservative man, this could be a bad idea, me being a woman at home alone.  It could be inappropriate or offensive or shameful or any number of things.  The last option I thought of very quickly would be to shout out “who is it?” and tell him through the closed door that Caleb wasn’t home so I wouldn’t open the door.  But if he wasn’t super traditional, and he knows we are foreigners, that could be offensive to him, especially since he came out of his way to bring us a receipt which is not necessarily common.

So in that split second I decided to just open the door.  I cracked it just a bit, and when he saw me he got this shocked look on his face and took two steps back away from the door.  Stink, I might have made the wrong choice.  But he was very polite, explained who he was, asked how the hot water was working, gave me the receipt, asked me to give my greetings to “Mr. Kable,” and left.  I have no idea if I should have opened the door or not.  Not sure if I will ever know what the rules of the game were in that particular moment and if I played correctly or not…  but I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure it out!  Ah, the joys and confusion of cross-cultural life!

posted by: nicolette

This is at nearly 39 weeks.  Officially massive.  :)

posted by: nicolette

So I’m definitely in count-down mode for this baby to arrive, and thought it would be fun to have a little contest!

Baby H is due sometime between Oct 18-24…

At my last appointment two weeks ago, the doctor estimated that she weighed about 3 kilos/6lbs, 9oz…

So, leave a comment with the date and time you think she will be born…. and her weight for a tie-breaker…  and the winner will get a fun little prize from Lebanon! :)

posted by: nicolette

P.S. If you are reading this on Facebook, please go to the blog to leave your comment in order to keep all the guesses in one place! :)

One of the things that we didn’t really appreciate about our old apartment until now was that it was on the same power grid as the Bank of Lebanon, which meant that we very rarely lost electricity.  Now in our new place, we experience the rolling brown-outs with the rest of Beirut.  Basically, the power is cut off every day for three hours.  It’s on a schedule, so we know when it is going to happen, and it’s only between the hours of 6am and 6pm.

Most buildings, including ours, have a generator, and for a monthly fee you can opt in to using it while the electricity is off.  In our building at least, you can choose how many amps you want from the generator, which dictates how much you pay as well as how many electronic devices you can use at once.  We are definitely having to get used to life on the generator.  For example, the hot water heater takes up too many amps, so we have to make sure it is turned off before we go on generator power.  If I want to run a load of laundry I need to make sure it will be finished before the generator turns on, or it will stop in the middle of the cycle.  Or, if we want to use the microwave, we have to make sure any A/C units are turned off.

It’s not a huge problem when we forget, it just trips the breaker.  Unfortunately the breaker box is in a locked room downstairs that we have to get the concierge to open for us.  Which stinks for him at 6am!

So for now, we have lots of conversations consisting of, “Hey, do you have the A/C on back there?  Can you turn it off so I can use the microwave?” or “Did we remember to turn off the hot water heater before we left the house today?”

I wonder if it is something that we will ever completely be used to, or if our poor concierge will just have to deal with us knocking on his door and apologetically asking him to flip the breaker back on for us.  :)  Ah, that’s life in Beirut!

posted by: nicolette