I'm a US citizen!
June 14th, 2024
An American I already was, having been born in Brazil, South America. But now I’m also a US citizen, after eight years working in this country, the last five of which as a permanent resident. I didn’t expect it to be emotional, and I didn’t expect anything to change after the ceremony… but it does change things.
First: my green card got confiscated at the ceremony (like everyone else’s), so… I’m stuck in the country until I get a US passport, which will require me to fly to Minneapolis in three days, just two days before I need to fly to Europe for work, and hope for the best. You’d THINK that, having everybody’s ENTIRE HISTORY documented, along with ALL their papers at hand AND a photo, they WOULD give you a US passport already at the naturalization ceremony and spare their new citizens the hassle, but… that would be too simple 🙄
Second: walking out of the elevator into this organized line of enormously diverse people, stemming from no less than 27 countries, all bounded by the same grit and commitment that only immigrants know that they share, was quite the powerful sight. I had no idea how large the ceremony would be, and there were 60 of us, many toting family along. Sixty unrelated people, but all understood something major about each other. Better than that, only the smiles we shared as I walked past them and their relatives, taking pictures, on my way out of the building. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Third: the Department of State officer representing us was SO nice and helpful. Sadly, one doesn’t necessarily count on people being warm and welcoming to a roomful of immigrants in this country. It was 90 minutes of checking documents and sitting people and briefing us on how the ceremony would proceed once the judge walked into the courtroom (for it was a proper courtroom, with all the pomp and circumstance, including the Hear Ye Hear Ye and the gavel strikes by the court officer, or whatever he’s called). It flew by: I was people-watching, wondering where they came from, and also checking out on Wikipedia the words for the pledge of allegiance. Some dude sneaked in “under God” after “one nation, undivided” seventy years ago, and it stuck… but fine, since words are human conventions, I thereby declared that since which god had been left unspecified, my God was Fernando Pessoa’s No God (“Não ter Deus é um Deus também”, he wrote, and it only took me reading it once at age 16 to never ever forget that line). Problem solved.
Fourth: we had a BLACK JUDGE presiding in the state of Tennessee!!!! Perfection. His great grandfather was enslaved and freed, his grandfather strove to give his entire family an education and a good life. He knew grit and hardship and could relate to the 60 of us. So I let out the fan girl and asked him for a picture to remember him by. What an honor to shake his hand.
And finally: I feel… weirdly empowered. This is MY country now as much as all other citizens’. I already registered to VOTE.
And I noted with great amusement the part on the voter registration card that required one to declare if one was a convicted felon. I am not. But I have a fellow citizen who was just convicted on 34 counts AND now cannot vote on… himself - because, go figure, he CAN run for president as a convicted felon, including if he is imprisoned.
It’s on us, citizens, to change that. And I have every intention to be part of that movement.
June 18th/19th, 2024: Minneapolis, there and back
Ok, with TONS to do for work and a two week trip to prepare for, I had to put everything on hold to go to the one place where I could get an appointment to have a U.S. passport issued to me in time, and preferably on the spot, to travel abroad. Minneapolis it is.
I usually fly United, so I had a backup flight booked in case Delta canceled as delta is known to do often, but everything worked out and the delta flight was direct. “Intelligence is flexibility” is my motto, and though it was delta, the direct flight had less chance of leaving me short of Minneapolis with no time to spare than two flights to get there.
The plane landed, parked, and… NOBODY got up. Whaaaaat? On a United flight, everybody would have been up already, standing in place, guarding their positions to exit the plane. Everybody in the back of the plane was just… chillin’ in their seats, waiting for their row to come up. I checked if there was somebody organizing the deplaning, but no. Does Delta put something in the water and soda they serve? In the cups, perhaps? I commented to the flight attendant on my way out: “man, I usually fly United, Delta passengers are SO nice and we’ll-behaved!”. He laughed and agreed.
Then the same happened again in the rideshare pickup zone, which had not a line of cars at the curb, but instead a row for the cars to park at 45 degrees while we check their plates and approach the correct one. Wow.
Which was when I realized: maybe it’s not Delta, but… Minnesotans. Fargo had taught me that.
June 20th, 2024
Headed to FENS in Vienna, with a pitstop in Berlin on the way then a quick vacation in Budapest and Prague with Mr Medved 🤗 I moved all my meds and supplements to this neat organizer that my daughter gifted me.
Also: first time traveling as a U.S. citizen! Of course this means that for the time being until I come back into the country and update my name and documents at immigration, I don’t have TSApre or global entry… so I got to observe the first time traveler who placed nonchalantly her water bottle in the tray to go through security, then stepped AROUND the conveyor belt to go “fetch” her bags that got set aside for secondary inspection. The lady who was inspecting my own (I was pulled aside for having a stack of laptop plus two iPads, which of course looks suspicious…) stopped on her tracks and ran to grab the young lady and escort her back to the right side of the security machine. It’s fun to watch people learn 😜🤗
Plans for the flight: prepare my talk On Dogs, Dinosaurs, and Diversity for FENS, work some more on my funcional Neuroanatomy textbook that I’ll start using in the fall, watch the cute dresses in the third season of Bridgerton (while I root for the weirdo geeky naturalist over cute dumbass Colin), finish my new crochet shawl/jacket so I can wear it in Europe! 🤗 getting some sleep would be nice, too… I got the doxylamine ready (that’s the antihistamine in NyQuil, MUCH better than Benadryl for purposes of inducing drowsiness!), rolled up neck brace and eye mask in the bag… we’ll see. We arrive in Berlin at 7 am and of course the hotel checkin starts at 3pm, so am hoping for some sleep prior to some 7 hours of forced touring the streets of Berlin 😉