Thank You!

I know I am late as hell, however I was busy trying to figure out how to be an American…well, not really.
So, first of all, thank you to everybody that left comments and congratulated me. That made me feel really special and now I’m acting like a stuck-up bitch all the time. So, thanks a lot!

Anyways, life is good. I applied for my passport last week and am waiting very patiently to get it ASAP. Other than that, life has not changed much…YET. Other than constantly reminding people that I am now an American I still feel the same…kind of.

What a day

Ok, I finally have some time to write a little more about yesterday.
I had the appointment for the interview at 8:20 AM. We got there at about 7:50 and by 8:30 I was called up. I guess the USCIS officer understood that my English is pretty good so I didn’t take any kind of English test. She asked me a couple of questions and gave me a sheet of paper with ten questions on it. I wrote down my answers and she checked them and said I passed. That was it. She handed me another piece of paper stating that at 3:30 PM the oath ceremony would be held and we left.
That gave us time to go eat a little something and get my step daughter’s birthday cake since she turned 18 yesterday. We went home waited for her to come home from school and went back to USCIS. I was already seated with the 58 other people who were going to become a citizen that day when a friend of ours showed up. He was trying to make it but we thought he wasn’t going to get in anymore.

Once everybody was there and all last formalities were cleared up the ceremony started.
They played the Star Spangled Banner and we all sang. Then, we all took the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance and then we said the pledge of Allegiance. I thought it was the coolest thing. Then it got “better”. They showed a video with President Bush telling us how much he welcomed us etc. And then came a sort of collage of pictures, but playing in the background was “God bless the USA”. Now I love this song and always have. I lost it and started crying. Great, huh? Just now I went to Google it and I found wav. file and started crying again.
After that each person was called to the front and we received our Certificates of Naturalization. We took pictures and hugged.
They had some people there who let us fill out forms to get registered to vote. I thought that was really neat since me and my step daughter did it together.

Then, to celebrate this special day for all of us we went out to dinner. We decided on traditional American cuisine and went to Don Pablo’s. Well, my step daughter picked it and I had steak so we were all happy!

Tomorrow we have a little party with some friends. Since it’s a big football day we kind of combined the two and the party starts at 4:30. But that’s very American.

All right, I better go check on the cup cakes I just made. The have stars and stripes sprinkles!!!

Almost Done

OK, I passed the test!!! It went really fast and I was out of there before nine. At 3:30 PM I have to be back to take the oath and that should be it.

Nervous as Shit

No, really. I am nervous. Can’t eat anything but at least I can still drink. Oh well, I’ll make. I always get like that. And I know that out of the ten questions I get to have three wrong. That’s do-able. So, now I really do have to go through all of my documents and find the ones I need for tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t take that long.

Comments

Ted mentioned yesterday that my comments didn’t work.
I did activate word verification and also the moderation feature a while back and I think that might have been too much. So, I just turned the moderation feature off but the word verification is still on. Let me know if there are any problems.

Joschka Goes Yankee?

I was surprised at first, but then again…I am not.

- via DW-World.de

UPDATE: Of course, David and Ray are right on it too. I am sure there will be more of a discussion there.

Crunch Time

Just two more days and I have my INS or USCIS appointment.
I am done with studying. Well, I am still looking everything over but that’s it. Tonight I’ll get all the “supporting documentation” out in case they need to see it again. I hope I find everything. If I need copies I can do that tomorrow at work and then on Thursday is the BIG DAY.
The only thing I am not looking forward to is waiting…and waiting…and waiting.

Clarification needed

OK, this is for people in Virginia and Fairfax County.
One question on the U.S. citizenship test is, “Who is the head of your local government?” Since previously it asks for the names of the Governor and the two Senators, I assume it must be the Chairman of the Board of Fairfax County. Or could it also be my District Supervisor? I guess, since the test is not multiple choice but oral, I can just name both, but I thought, a little input from others wouldn’t hurt.
Thanks.

Ask Me

I am studying for my Citizenship test next week, so if any of you have any quick questions about American history, I might be able to help.

Stuffy

Feeling just a little stuffy today.
Must be some bug going around because I hear a lot of people complaining about being sick. They better be staying away from me.

Not Fair

Well, I guess maybe a little bit, but I feel like I am the only person in this country working today. At least I was off all last week, but it feels strange to drive to the metro station and hardly any cars are on the streets. The metro was empty and is on a weekend schedule, of course. Once I was in DC I thought it was the middle of the night. The streets are strangely empty and once I got to my building it was locked.
Now I have an entry card but do you think I could find the swipy-thingie on the outside of the building? No sir! So I walked around since we have a door out back and I know how to get in there since that is the smoking area. I am tempted though to get back outside and try to find the swipy-thingie at the front door. I know I used it before. Stupid, I tell ya.

Oh, I almost forgot.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!