我叫姚斯宜！

I've been here a while now and have never really had a need for a Chinese name. I had one or two given by acquaintances and students but nothing that was formally my Chinese name. I am very honoured to say that my closest friend here has thought about this very seriously and given me a Chinese name which is very beautiful and has a couple of very cool meanings. Nettie chose 姚斯宜 (pronounced yáo sī yí). In Chinese the surname goes first... yáo 姚 similar sound to my English surname, sī 斯 is the last character in pòsī 珀斯, bósī or Peisi which are all Chinese names for my hometown Perth and yí 宜 is the first character in Yíchāng 宜昌, where I live now. Very well thought out AND it gets even more interesting because it has a double meaning...without changing the tones or pronunciation...it actually also means "to miss Yichang from a far away place". The characters would change to 遥 yáo - means far away 思 sī means miss 宜 yí means Yíchāng but as I say, the pronunciation is the same. How lucky am I to be given such a special name :-) and I'm sure to miss Yichang and my friends when I come back home in a couple of weeks for my holiday. It will be nice to relax at home, see Mum and Dad and recharge my batteries though before heading back here to Yichang for next semester.