Canadian at last!!!

Yesterday I had my Canadian Citizenship exam and interview. I was so surprised at how nervous I was beforehand. Since it's been a 5 1/2 year process to get to this point, it felt like a big thing. It took me 1 year to get my Permanent Residency, then you have to be in the country for at least 2 years before you can apply for citizenship and then it took over 1 year from applying before I was summoned. It doesn't seem like a big deal now, but in those moments of trying to figure out paperwork, waiting, waiting and waiting it seems like FOREVER! However, today I had to give up my Permanent Resident card in exchange for Canadian Citizenship!

 I had to go to Sudbury (3 hours away) so we also had the chance to see some of David's cousins and aunt and uncle. The exam was 20 questions and I had studied lots for it so I got 20 out of 20, which was a relief. The swearing in ceremony was held today in Sudbury, which was nice to just make one trip. It was quite a neat thing to be a part of as there were 98 of us sworn in! I sat next to a guy from Columbia and lady from Pakistan! The guy is working in Fort Albany (by Hudson Bay) so he had to take several planes just to be there! There were people that have been in Canada for 7 years all the way to 43 years before getting their citizenship today.

 Nathan was all ready to raise his right hand and reaffirm his allegiance to the Queen:

"I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen."

I will admit that as an American it is extremely strange to be swearing allegiance to a monarchy!

 This was most of the new Canadians getting ready for the ceremony.

 Me, my citizenship paper and the Queen.

Celebrating my new citizenship with the judge, MP (Member of Parliament) and College Boreal Dean

So now I'm all ready to run for President of the U.S. and Prime Minster of Canada at the same time! The thing that I'm probably the most excited about is a Cultural Access Pass granted for 1 year to new Canadian citizens that will allow me to go to museums and places across Canada for free! (Bonus that I didn't know about until today!) I'm super excited to take advantage of that! Getting a Canadian Passport will also be pretty sweet and never getting kicked out of the country or paying to extend my stay. And I can now cross off "Become a dual citizen" off my childhood bucket list that I never thought would actually happen!