brand new woman

Some big changes have happened in the last two days: I had my immigration interview, civics and English test, which I passed (yay!), and finally my swear-in ceremony. After living in this country for twenty years, I am now a US citizen. The civics test consisted of about eight questions of this nature: "What do the stars on the flag stand for?", "Who is the Vice President?" (I did enjoying enunciating "Dick" with a gusto) and "What is the capitol of the U.S.?"

The English test went something like this:

Please copy the following sentence: "It is very smart of us to learn this." Hmmm... a slightly awkward sentence if you ask me. Then I had to write down the sentence the officer dictated, which went something like this: "My brother said they would visit her." Phew!

The day after my interview and tests was my swearing-in day. We were running a few minutes behind, and when I came in to the building, the guards in charge of the metal detector already knew who I was and told me: "They are waiting for you." How embarassing, I thought. Little did I know then that when I would make my way upstairs, there would be about fifty people gathered waiting for the ceremony, all eyes on me. I had forgotten to fill out the last of the forms and had to do it right there in front of everyone. Of course, in the hurry that I was in, I didn't read the instructions right and checked that since the previous day when my interview happened, I had gotten married and left the country. The judge remarked about it and all the fifty people in the room laughed at my foolishness.

Throughout the ceremony I could hear Jonah's little voice from the back of the room: "What's that lady doing there?" and "Want the lights on!" when they showed us patriotic videos of flags waving and George Bush welcoming us in God's name.

When George appeared on the video screen as I held an envelope entitled: A Message from the President of the United States of America, I couldn't help but think of the satirical President's Weekly Radio Address podcasts that Tim and I sometimes listen to. My mind also kept wandering to the back of the room, where two Iraqi men getting their U.S. citizenship sat as George's army continued bombarding their kin. I kept returning to the images of the Vietnamese refugees in the video montage on U.S. immigration throughout the ages that we watched that day, thinking about the wars this country has waged that forced such migrations and the Chinese Exclusion Act and other U.S. policies that cast a shadow on such a momentous occasion as this ceremony.

Here you can see a picture of me swearing I will be faithful.

Below you can see a video of Jonah and me after the ceremony. He really enjoyed waving the miniature flag.

While in the process, I also decided to change my name to match Tim's and my kids'. I did keep my former name as my middle name. I am very happy about that. This means not only that I don't feel like I'm losing my heritage and erasing my past, but also that my initials don't stand for a disease (i.e., TB). Since there isn't a big tradition of middle names in the old country, I now feel so special having a middle name!

Today I ran around a whole bunch of offices, putting in my name change. Jonah was so patient with me. The first thing I did was register to vote, which I was thrilled about. Signing with my new name takes some getting used to.

Do you think Tim loves me more now that I took his name? Just kidding!



When I finally got home that night, Tim and I celebrated with some bubbly apple cider and a documentary called El Inmigrante about Mexican migrants trying to cross the border and come to the U.S. for work. What a powerful film. It reminded me of how privileged I really am.

P.S. Thank you John & MaryAnn for the flowers! What a sweet gesture. They are beautiful!!!