Readers, friends, people I love and miss so much,

I've been blessed enough with the possibility of spending these past 6 weeks here in North Carolina with my friend Luci - someone I've known for a long time and who trained me as an interpreter in my years of Calvary Chapel Sao Vicente, still in Brazil. Before me I have the dream of any linguist: a multicultural home, three languages being spoken and mixed full time - mom Brazilian, dad Spanish, children American. Counting all I've laughed and cried while observing their interaction as a family would allow me to write a thousand books... but before making you tired of reading all this, let me share this little story that still makes laugh to the point of crying. Some points counting for this... never assume that an American child is less smart than you; if you live in a multicultural environment with children of 2 and 4 years old, they see themselves - specially the oldest one - as fluent in all the languages they're around.

While living this dream of watching and listening to all the code-switching inside the house during lunch, Stephanie - the oldest one - starts asking about my life in Atlanta. To everything I point as good about my beloved Georgia, she says Robbins (the small town I'm in) as better. Robbins is better than any big city. Robbins doesn't have thieves. In Robbins you can see bears, raccoon, possums and so on and they won't attack... the list goes on and on. (One thing I name as fact, actually my latest addiction: pineapple soda. Have you ever heard about it? This is the only place where I can find here, and since the day I got here, pineapple soda has been my water and my everything.) Stephanie talks and talks... I listen and listen, amazed by her independence, the beautiful innocence of believing she is a Disney princess and that her hair, as Rapunzel's, has magical power. At some point, we start talking about translation, and Luci starts asking Stephanie to give me a list of words ranging among English, Spanish and Portuguese - note that they can speak and understanding any of the three languages perfectly... I'm dead serious here. Then the moment of crying from laughing so much came from this conversation you'll see here (imagine little Stephanie all excited while going through the translations and displaying to an audience how smart she is):

Luci: What else can you tell Helen about Spanish and English words? What about sodas?

Stephanie: Sodas? I love sodas!

Luci: Pineapple Fanta is the same in Portuguese, English and Spanish... Fanta. (Luci gives an endless list of sodas in Spanish, while I quietly listen). How is Coca (Coca-Cola) in English?

Stephanie: That I know, mom! Of course that Coke in English is Pepsi!

I died. I literally died. I just looked at Luci and tried to keep the laughter, then Luci couldn't keep it to herself and started dying laughing as well. If you live here, you know that Georgia is the land of Coca-Cola and the North Carolina is the home for Pepsi. Consider the irony that, for all cases, here in this hometown I'm not the Brazilian, but the girl from Atlanta. Consider that she mixed the translation of Georgia's most famous soda for North Carolina's most known product - and all by all (and let's say majority of soda lovers who can't change a Coke for anything else, promising faithfulness to it to the end. Period), and that I'm also the girl moving from the same Atlanta to North Carolina. Well... all of this to say... take the word of a child as truth. Next time you come to America and decide to order a Coca-Cola... remember Stephanie and go for a Pepsi. You never contradict a child - and her dreams. In all her cuteness... could I be the monster to say that her translation was wrong when the English she speaks, at her 4 years... is a thousand times better than mine? :D :D In all cases... COKE IN ENGLISH IS PEPSI! Enough said.