Sorry, my wife played that flash for our hostess here and it's been in my head since.
Well, Ben is graduated from Grade 8. It's not 8th Grade up here, I was told by the border guard, who then asked what kind of gift we were giving him. (I think she was asking so that she could catch us in an untruth - "You aren't bringing any gifts or anything to leave behind? What did you get him for graduation?" - but it's true, we didn't buy him anything.) We have since bought him a walkman tape player/radio, since he was planning to take his portable radio (which is 14 inches long, five inches tall, and four inches thick) with him on the plane to Nova Scotia so he could listen to an audio book. Plus, he likes to listen to tapes. The graduation ceremony was short - we dropped him off at 3:30 at Rainbow's house (Rainbow Gray. Really.) for his limo ride, then went to the Port Arthur Hotel at 5 for the "Symposium" (which I still can't figure out). We sat with Adare and her parents and little brother. Ben introduced us to his student teacher, Mr. Fish, and his french teacher, Monsieur Boudage, and his teacher, Miss Knowles. She confided in us that the reason they were making such a big deal out of the event was that 50% or more of the graduating class (of 20-25 students) would never graduate high school, so the school board demanded a big deal for the "Grad".) The program started at 5:30, with Miss Knowles' address and handing out diplomas to the kids, followed by awards (Ben received the Most Eager award and a separate one for having the highest marks in French - M. Boudage told us later that his were some of the highest marks he's ever given in French) and a short address by the Principal. Then the buffet, which was standard hotel food, and a Valedictory address from three students - not the top three students, but three chosen by their class as the ones who should represent them in this regard. The class sang a song (a filk of "Good Riddance"), and Miss Knowles announced that the parents had 15 minutes to clear out so the kids could start the dance. We'll go back in about an hour to pick Ben up.
Along the way, we'll stop at WalMart to pick up the two rolls of film we just dropped off and get some frames for his three certificates.
Passport update: We got hold of someone in the passport office, who told us that they were going to send us a letter on June 8. Seems they don't like Ben's picture, because it wasn't signed by a Guarantor. We need to get it re-taken and signed, and re-send page 1 of the form - but not the form we already submitted, it should be a different form. In fact, under the new form the Guarantor - the person who would have signed the picture - is no longer eligible (a person who has known Ben for two years and can vouch that he is in fact the person in the passport ... and is a member of one of eleven possible professions (including M.D., lawyer, and so on - the other form included a list of fifteen or twenty possible professions, including teachers, which would be easier to get). We think we can get this taken care of tomorrow, but aren't positive ... and failing that, we need to fill out a different form instead. And that form isn't available online. So tomorrow before we leave we're going to the passport office to straighten out what we can. I'm, ah, really pissed about this.
And now it's time to go run more errands. Things in Canada are open much, much later (it's 9:30 and still bright daylight outside, which I'm sure contributes), so we can go to WalMart as late as 11 PM. Whee!
(Later)
We have photos. I'll upload some later. We also got frames for his diploma and two awards, and we'll bring those, his suit and dress shoes, and a pile of miscellaneous stuff with us tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we may not be able to do the LARP after all - turns out it's on Friday night, not Saturday night.
Hey, we just looked at the form and found out that the Guarantor can be a US citizen. Now, where will I find an attorney in the US?
Posted by trent at June 22, 2004 08:28 PM