Thursday, June 04, 2009

Becomming Native: Part 1

I was working in a rough part of town tonight and I heard a gun shot right by us. The funny thing is, I didn't get scared and neither did any of the people I was with, and we carried on with what we were doing.

I'm becoming a native aren't I?

Talking of which, I printed off the "Guide to Naturalization" document from the government's immigration website and it's 58 pages long. Reading it will be akin to pulling my fingernails out I'm sure. The process will be extra painful because we are English, and I'll tell you why in a little story ...

A few years ago, after three years of bureaucracy, vaccines, aids tests, interviews and $5,000 in lawyer fees we got our green cards. On the night we celebrated our Somalian taxi driver told us he got his green card free in the green card lottery. English people can't apply to the USA green card lottery. Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Commonwealth people can, just not English. I'm not sure why we can't, but isn't that strange?

So anyway, you'll understand why I have a feeling this blog title might go as far as "Becoming Native: Part 78".

2 comments:

MikeH said...

If seems we made the right choice; me becoming British was a lot easier than my wife becoming an American. Best of luck to you!

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

Strange old world Pam. Perhaps it's still something to do with the "Boston Tea party"! A x