The Name Game

Day 101

So I realized there are about a million and a half things that I wanted to post about but just never got around to.  So here is me trying to fit it all in the next week.  We'll see how it goes.

So Italy, like most non-English speaking countries, has its own variation for the names of cities.  Some of them are totally understandable (we say Rome, they say Roma; we see Naples, they see Napoli; we know Venice, they know Venezia; ect), and then you also get some less understandable changes (at least to me) things like Florence vs Firenze.

Anyway, the point of this little rant is that this semester I decided to participate in this little name game challenge.  Whereas everyone at home calls me Jackie, here I've convinced everyone that I go by JJ. (The notable exception is my professor Jan Gadeyne who, when I told him to call me JJ, gave me a long look and decided that my name would remain Jacquelyn.)

It all started at the airport, when I met another girl on the program and my self-decided moniker rolled off my tongue before I realized I had even made a decision to actually do it.  The funny bit is that now, after having my sister and my friend from school visit me, and having them call me Jackie again, I have to look around and go "whose that?" before I realize they're talking to me!

Just to be clear, I have no problem with the name Jackie.  In fact, I love it.  I will probably never be anything but a Jackie for the rest of my life.  But what other time in my life do I have to try out this kind of thing?  If your semester abroad isn't the time to shake things up, then when is?

Ciao
J