The Gum Tree for 2004 October 19

Louise and I are both in tests most of this week. Louise had one yesterday (physical science), and another today (spanish). She had a traumatic experience yesterday owing to the fact that the Testing Center double booked the room that she was supposed to be in. 20 min. into the test another student came in and saw that she had taken the room. His reason was that he was extreamly attention deficit and he just couldn't study when there is noise (even in the usually quiet Testing Center). Louise felt very bad about this, and it didn't help her on her grade. She of course needed the room because of a TV magnifier that is in the room. Yesterday was also our day of interveiws with INS up in Salt Lake. The interveiwer had to verify that we indeed were married not just so that Louise could be a citizen of the U.S. The whole thing is simply a little humorous. One question that he asked is if Louise was a member of the Nazi party before the year of 1950 or a Communist. Well, he had the Birthdate, and I also don't think there are too many communist in russia trying to come to the U.S. now that the Cold War is "over." He also asked us for some documentation that proved that we were married other than our marriage certificate (which wasn't asked for in the letter that we received calling us up to the interveiw). We didn't have any rental contracts or such, and he was eventually forced to accept the credit cards that we had together. When I deal with american bureaucracy I get a little glimpse of what it is like for other citizens of other not so free countries (i.e. Iraq pre-wrong war, place, and time), and I am grateful that there is at lease a measure of the rule of law here and not just the caprice of some interveiwer that doesn't quite like the way you look.