In, At, and To for you

One of these nights when I want a treat, I’ll get a Coke Slushee from Plurn Dee and film the dude making it.  Glass bottle Coke in a vat of water that are constantly spun slowly.  Then, when you order (25 baht, btw- that’s about 63ish cents for those at home) the guy grabs a bottle, taps it with this metal rod he has and then as the super cooled liquid starts to form into ice, he pops it and uses a rubber mallet to get the slush out and into an iced cup.  I’ve been in Thailand for almost 3 years now and I am just learning about this.  My mind was blown and I had to try it.  I’m not a huge coke fan, but on a HOT day… oh yes!

Yesterday was Friday and hurray, so on the walk home, Kiddo and I popped into Plurn Dee and slushee guy was there.  So, I took Kiddo to get one.  Her mind was blown as well.  She is also a bigger coke fan than J or myself and she was DIGGING it.  She was also pink in the cheeks and her hair was a mess of plastered to her or flying everywhere as her class got 30 minutes of playtime at the end of the day and she “even got to do cartwheels on the futbol field.  Not the big one, just the small one.”  First, yes… she calls soccer football or futbol, the accent is kind of hard to nail down.  Second, yes… the school does has a large and small football/soccer fields.

After we got the slushee, Kiddo and I headed home.  Ratchet has the Lombax flu and needed a flu shot, because in Lombax, the vaccines only work after you get an illness.  Poley assisted as a nurse.  It was a thing.  As we were setting up, Kiddo looked at me and asked what was for dinner and could she have another drink of the coke.  Yes, have a drink.  Pork chops, air frier potatoes, and green beans.  “Oh, I was hoping we could go to Plurn Dee for dinner.”  So, I messages J and she was down with it, so since I hadn’t done any prep besides have everything in the house, I could hold it over for a day.

We joke all the time, J and myself, about how we have a little Thai girl.  How she eats and what she eats.  How she dresses and what she likes to wear.  Some of the sweets and treats that she likes.  She will throw a tissue into the bin and then close the lights, but only after playing futbol with her friends.  She also lives AT Bangkok, next year she will live AT Shanghai, but before that she will get to holiday at The United States and Mexico.  

Most Americans reading the above will note the differences, Europeans will note a few quirks.  A Thai person would find this 100% fine.

We are taking that little Thai girl and she’s getting about 20 days in LA, SF, and GB this summer and 3 weeks in Mexico.  Then, she will get 2 years in Shanghai and will start learning Mandarin.  After that, who knows, but if all goes to plan, we’ll spend next summer in Japan and Korea.  

I can’t wait for her to be in her early 20s, just to hear the stuff that comes out of her mouth and what mix, blend, and combination of English she will have as it gets influenced and shaped by the foreign languages she encounters on top of the English quirks or misinterpretations that come about.  

J and I laugh all the time at the lost in translation moments.  Even with Nanny Beer, who also helps correct us or teach us why certain things are certain ways.  Quick lesson.  Thai has two and too.  2 and also.  To is implied, so it doesn’t really exist in the language.  So, you can’t go TO THAILAND, you go AT Thailand (or just Go Thailand).  However, in has isn’t own problems.  In, suggests permanence.  Cement goes IN walls, people meet AT a house.  The dead are IN you, but in this very ancestral way that suggest heart, soul, and memory, but you are AT a shrine or place memorializing them.  Therefore, Kiddo lives AT Bangkok.  See, it’s the quirks and lost in translation moments and examples that really make it stand out.  When you stop to learn and think about it, it’s actually REALLY cool.

It’s a neat thing, exploring the world with Kiddo and picking up the quirks and bits she picks up.  She is, also, still in her learning phase where accent can be affected to a level that it can hardwire into her.  As she speaks with friends and kids at school, for about the next 2-4 years, she will be affected by and pick up on local accents.  After that, you can still pick up accent and have it long term, but the Pre-K thru Grade 3 are the major years for that.  She’s getting quite the mix.

Even asking for market food.  That’s something she was curious about when we first got here and thru the first year, but it was always something J and I kind of had to force her to do or we’d let her balk and then just have PBJ and chips and fruit.  Now, she is the one asking for it.  That’s also cool.  And brave.  And so very unlike the person she was when we got here.  Don’t get me wrong, she proves (constantly) that she is 6 and very very good at that, but sometimes you just get a glimpse of this person inside of her.  This person who will walk confidently through whatever part of the world she wants to reside AT.  

Let’s go, Kiddo…. It’s Saturday and the weekend is finally here.  Tomorrow you get a Dada day and we have some fun planned.  Also, since the three of us can all eat at Plurn Dee any night you want.  Just let us know.  I wonder what little market foods or local foods you will crave and seek in Shanghai.  Guess we will find out in about a year.  

PS.  Pic is of J’s dinner.  Spicy pork dumplings - really good - and quail eggs -I didn’t try - that she loved and I had spicy pork noodles - unpictured as I’ve already posted a pic - and we just watched a movie with dinner after Kiddo went at bed.  ;)