A Splash In The Pond: USandA

Here are the pictures from my Citizenship ceremony. I became a US citizen on 12/17/08. Ugh what a pain in the ass this process was! It took about a year and a half to get this done. I applied for citizenship in July 2007 and I thought that was enough time since my Green Card expired in April 2008. But no, I didn't get it all done until December 2008!

So finally it is ceremony day! Now what are the chances of rain in San Diego? Oh about 5% chance and of course it rained on Wednesday. So I'm supposed to get there at 7:30am sharp. I get there on an empty tank of gas (with the light ON!), park and walk out to the LINE. Walked in the rain without a coat or an umbrella. I expected there to be a fair amount of people but what I didn't expect was to have to stand in line in the rain! Once we got inside I had to stand in another line to register. That line took at least 40 minutes. I get to the front of the line and am told I'm in the WRONG line! ugh. Get in the other line and get up front. The guy doesn't understand at first what i'm trying explain about my expired Green Card and how it was taken away already and that yes i have traveled outside the US and yadda yadda yadda. So FINALLY I get signed in and get my US Citizen's Almanac (whoo!) and a flag (Flag!).

So now i'm sitting waiting for the ceremony to start but nope, they decide that now is a good time to bring on the Polish folk dancers on stage. Um.

Ok, you danced now let's get on with it. The judge comes on stage and talks for a while. We then have to stand when our country is called. There were about 10 Canadians. He skipped Mexico but at the end said "so are there any people from Mexico here?" and about 75% of the room stood up and people were cheering and clapping...ok fine yay now can we move on? In the end I walked away as an American Citizen and I should be getting my passport in 1 - 3 weeks.

This doesn't mean that i'm not a Canadian! I will always and forever be a Canadian and I will never give up my Canadian passport!!