About four seconds after introducing myself as Elizabeth here in the Philippines, the name was discarded and the group I was with started ferreting around for an alternative.
'Elizabeth is too long.'
Now I see why. Everyone here goes by a nickname, and I can barely remember one name per person, let alone two. The most outrageous nicknames encountered to date: 'Carmz', 'Doodz', 'Cocoy' (that one was a guy), 'Ching', 'Bim', 'Dong', 'Dongkoy' (that one was the Mayor) and 'Marz'.
I feel like I'm describing cartoon characters (and I flinch every time I write a name ending with 'z').
