Becoming a Citizen

Yesterday, I got to go to my first naturalization ceremony! It wasn't for me, but for my friend from Russia who is now officially a US Citizen. It was great!

Everyone in the courthouse is really friendly on naturalization days. I've been to the same courthouse, in the same room as a matter of fact, for jury duty, and everyone (I mean the staff, not the people who are there for their duty) was very grumpy. This was a day of celebration, and you could tell on every one's faces from the people actually becoming citizens, to the security staff.

There were speeches and everyone took their oath, some even changed their names to sound more American. My friend kept his, as it is Alexander and when studying for the test, he always remembered Alexander Hamilton's name.

I have one friend now, from Moldova, who is now waiting for his test date and feverishly studying.

In Tsunami News:

As some of you may know, I have worked in Japan on and off for years, and I'm very frustrated with the news. I know that the whole country was not in the earthquake zone, and the tsunami didn't hit every coast, but after listening to CNN, you would think that is the case.

I have been googling Fukuoka to see if my friends are OK, and it seems no one has any information if anything happened there. I've only found one entry that said they had knee high water... Even the Japanese papers seem to only focus on Tokyo.

I've heard from one friend in Tokyo and he's fine, but I'm still waiting to hear about my friends in Fukuoka.

In Favorite's news:

We had one sale from the Friday's Favorites yesterday! Congratulations birdsnestyarns!