NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER
I just don’t have the worlds most easy name when living outside Scandinavia. In addition to my parents influence from Anne Cath Vestly’s cozy books about Guro, I guess my parents’ plan for lil’ Guro was for her to always live in Norway..
I’m not embarrassed by my name. Understand me correctly. It’s just not that easy to pronounce for Americans. If I go across the border however, Mexicans actually have a pretty good pronunciation with their strong -r. I have to add a side note to all my American friends: after some exercise they’re all doing a good job 
But I just don’t have time to teach my name to everybody I meet. Especially in the coffee shop. When the cashier finally gets a hang of it, the poor person who’s making the coffee has to say Guro out loud. Dju – Dju – Djuroow.
The ‘difficulty’ with my name have made me make some changes.
Every time I go to the coffee shop, or somewhere where they need to know my name, I’m ending up with spelling it, and telling the cashier ‘my story’; I just moved here from Norway…. Guro is a very Norwegian name etc etc. So to make everyone’s life more easy, I’ve changed my name to Frances whenever I go to stores like described above, or when I meet people I won’t see again. The name was a easy pick, since Norah’s full name is Norah FRANCES. And of course, who wouldn’t use baby’s name – baby from Dirty Dancing? Nobody puts baby in the corner….. To call yourself baby in the coffee shop is just not suitable for a woman almost 30 (!) years old. So I decided to stick to Frances.
And maybe someday I’ll dance the fox trot and have the time of my life. At least that’s what I’m thinking every time I say answer Frances with stars in my eyes.
