They Call Me. . . Mrs. Gra-tai

Without any font changes, you'd never know that the title was in reference to Sydney Poitier's role in In the Heat of the Night. Just know that it is.

But that's what the teachers have started calling me on the badminton courts. It's a Thai nickname (a cheu lin) that means rabbit. Everyone here has a nickname and you use it to make yourself more familiar with others. It's much less formal than saying my name is Charish. Where did they get rabbit from? Well, I had a hand in that. I can't say that I've ever had a nickname before; one that was used regularly or one that was pulled from my name. But Thailand is a new start. Here, I can be known as anything I want to be. Nicknaming came to my rescue.

It should also be said that in the Thai language, my name is extremely difficult for them to pronounce anyway. CH's are pronounced like J's, R's are pronounced like L's and they don't even bother with the SH at the end. What you end up with is: Jel-LI, because all names are said with the last name on a climbing intonation. I'm Jelli. *sigh*

But where did rabbit come from? It's really goofy, but I just love rabbits! So much so, that Noah started calling me rabbit. I'm his rabbit and I like carrots, nom nom nom. I don't really like carrots, but I ask you, what is cuter?

So does it fly in Bangkok? Cheu lin's are usually monosyllabic. My roommate's cheu lin is Nam, which means "water." I asked my new Thai friend Nut what he thought about rabbit. He laughed as though he forgot his nickname was Nut.

"Rabbit?" He shook his head with tears in his eyes. "The translation is gra-tai. I guess it will work."

So now when we're on the courts, I'm a leaping rabbit! "Gra-tai, set up the shot!" "Gra-tai, it's yours!" "Gra-tai, you're up, stop eating!"

What? Sometimes even rabbits get hungry on the courts.