Well, after 2 treks to Ikea this past week, I think I’ve had enough of that store to last me for quite awhile! But at least we are mostly set up and unpacked in the house! Our shipment of stuff from the states still hasn’t arrived on the boat, and they have pushed back the arrival date a few times, but in some ways it’s less overwhelming to kind of move in in phases (first the stuff we brought with us, then our shipped stuff once it arrives). At least we are trying to look on the bright side 🙂

We are finding lots of things here take a little longer than expected. It took a month before they would finally let us open a bank account (despite letters from Jeff’s work), and you need a bank account to do lots of other things, like get garbage cans, pay utilities, order from grocery delivery services, etc. So finally getting that opened is a relief!

As we go about daily life here, I go back and forth between sometimes feeling like most things are the same as at home, and other times feeling like things are totally different. I’ll share a few more random differences that have struck me:

— most pregnant women don’t find out the gender of their baby before birth. The few times I’ve asked pregnant ladies if they know what they’re having, they reply “oh no! It’s the one surprise you can have in life!” In the states, it’s not like everyone finds out ahead of time, but it seems much more common than here.

— older ladies all stop to say hi to Rafi and they all touch him. Or they will stop to say hi to Isaac and then talk to him. This happens sometimes at home, but seems to be more of a thing here. Also, I find that older people here get more involved in commenting on children’s behavior, both for the good and bad. The other day, we were walking and an older lady stopped to talk to me, and Isaac wanted us to keep walking. He was grumpy and said to the lady, “go away!” and she said “you are being very rude, lad!” He was shocked. They see it as their job to kind of help the parents so they don’t have to do all the disciplining. At home, most people would probably think that to themselves, but wouldn’t say it. Conversely, the older people will also say “well aren’t you such a good boy,” when they see kids helping, being friendly, etc.

— if you’re waiting at a bus stop, you have to “hail” the bus you want to get on. You can’t assume it’ll automatically stop.

— also, really random but the book “Where’s Waldo?” is called “Where’s Wally?” here

We’ve also learned a few new phrases to add to our repertoire:

“Yer man” or “your man” (or your woman): means the guy or that guy (or woman). Like “yer man at the store helped me find the produce section.”

“How are you getting on?” means “how’s it going/how are you doing?”

The garden is what they call a yard.

A car park is a big garage or parking lot.

Pissed means drunk.

Brilliant and lovely are also used quite frequently for when something is great or cool.

I’ve also seen Isaac have a few miscommunications with words. The neighbor boy came over the other day and asked if Isaac had a football (meaning soccer ball). Isaac said no, but then the boy saw the soccer ball we have and said “there’s your football” and Isaac got confused and said “that’s not a football! That’s a soccer ball!”

Then, Isaac was telling the same boy we had to do some vacuuming and the boy said “what does that mean?” I guess the word (both noun and verb) for vacuum is “hoover,” so I had to translate.

Also, when we came back from Ikea in the taxi the other day, Isaac said to the driver, “thanks for the ride.”
Very polite of him, but um, you don’t want to thank someone for “a ride” here…it means something else. I’ll just leave it at that 🙂

Well, those are just a few more of the new random things we are learning and experiencing as we adjust to a new culture! I keep wondering if we stand out as being obviously from somewhere else or if we blend in.

I’m sooo excited for my parents to get here tomorrow!! I’m sure they will make some appearances on the blog in the next few weeks!