I had my naturalization interview about a month ago. On Sunday, I went to Gaithersburg for the next step: the ceremony.
The ceremony was part of the opening of the annual Celebrate Gaithersburg in Olde Towne event. The town(e) was kind enough to send good directions and a free pass for the parking garage nearest the festivities.
The instructions sternly declared checkin time to be 10:45 (am). I arrived at 10:15, followed the clear signs to Naturalization, and found that 10:45 was the start of checkin. So I wandered around in the sunshine as the festival was set up, and got myself a coffee at the railroad station cafe.
Checking in involved surrendering my green card, and checking, but not yet receiving, my naturalization certificate. I felt rather foreign and naked during the next couple of hours. But I sat down in front of the stage where the ceremony was to take place, read the book I’d brought, and enjoyed the vocal group who performed (or rather, soundchecked, since they were due on the stage after the opening ceremonies).
The opening,which started at noon, was a mixture of the local and the global. It was local, in that it included introduction of town officials.
It was global, in that it included a welcome for new citizens from a wide variety of countries. I know that, because each country was called out, and the people from that country invited to stand, one by one. The thing I liked best about this was that middle eastern countries, and people in Islamic headgear, were warmly applauded; I feared that it might have been otherwise, but Gaithersburg seems a civilized place. It seemed rather appropriate and American that the announcements had to wait once or twice for train to huff and whistle by.
Once announcements were over, we collected our naturalization certificates. I’d have liked to stay for the festival, and I think my kids (6 and 4) would have loved it, but they were elsewhere, and so I had to be elsewhere. Maybe next year for the 30th Annual Celebrate Gaithersburg…