I never know which country of birth to put on all the forms I get to fill out.
Should it be USSR or Ukraine?
Country of Birth
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
I never know which country of birth to put on all the forms I get to fill out.
Should it be USSR or Ukraine?
Clarissa's Blog 
What does your passport say?
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Ah, good question!
I just looked and it says UKR. So I guess it should be Ukraine. Although I wasn’t really born there. 🙂
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That is so interesting – I never thought about that!! I would put Ukraine – it sounds less scary for gov’t-related documents. 🙂
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That is an interesting dilemma for people born in places that officially no longer exist.
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Ukraine!
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Ukraine, of course, especially since you are not one of those “Soviet patriots”…
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Oh, the Empire that we lost. . . 🙂
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Clearly the only logical solution to this would be to toss a coin every time that you have to fill a document in. Heads for the Soviet Union, tails for Ukraine. Or visa-versa if you’re that way inclined.
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Put “Thessaly, land of witches and grapes”. Just like that.
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Or “Romania, nest of Draculas”.
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I personally prefer Thessaly, esp. after the Neil Gaiman’s doodle-pals drew the witch in Sandman. Minus the specs, I think you could look like her, Clarissa.
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‘the’ Neil Gaiman’s? NOT ‘the’ Neil Gaiman’s.
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I don’t understand half of the words in this comment, actually. 🙂
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It’s a comix! Neil Gaiman is a British dude who wears all black and is good good friends with Tori Amos apparently. Back in the Nineties Neil wrote these “graphic novels” or whatchoucallem for the DC Vertigo comic book line with the basic idea of what if like supernal powers of the universe and ancient gods and fairy tales and shit were kicking around in 20th Century America. Then a whole bunch of artists and writers who worked with him did a whole bunch of spin-offs and one was about this ancient super-powerful witch named Thessaly who was from Ovid’s idea of Thessaly. When I was like nineteen I was really into all this but I really can’t stand the guy or anything affiliated with him anymore. I saw the Doctor Who episode he wrote and he apparently just cannot let go of his favorite crazy-prophet-oracle-godlike-precocious-Goth-woman trope. Imagine Ophelia crossed with Jane Eyre with superpowers and that’s more or less every female character Neil Gaiman has ever wrote.
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But he’s a pretty good teller of freaky stories and fun to go back to when I’m feeling all nostalgic. I feel the same way about Stephen King and Harlan Ellison, who were big inspirations for Gaiman anyway.
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Anyway, the point was that you should claim to be an all-powerful witch from ancient Thessaly on your passport. Do that.
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Haha! This is a great idea!
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Of course, I’d really want to put USSR because it’s what it was then … and also it’s so much more exotic and intimidating sounding, it’s more fun for freaking out Americans.
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At this point, I’m really past having any fun with Homeland Security. I had to testify that I had never been in the Communist party and that I committed no crimes against humanity. N. wasn’t asked these things, mind you. He was asked whether he ever engaged in prostitution or prostituted others.
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Filling immigration papers sound like a nightmare… Prostitution? Member of the Communist Party? Ukraine vs USSR?
I am so happy with my easy-going TN status right now.
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You have no idea, my friend. We will have to pay $500 per person on Thursday just for the medical. It’s a constant drain on resources and a constant source of aggravation. But it will all be over in a year or two when we finally get the green cards!
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Does that mean your green card application was finally approved?
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One stage of it has been approved. There will be two more stages. If everything works the way it should and we are very lucky, we’ll get the cards maybe next summer.
I don’t mind because I have work visa with my school. N. is the one who suffers.
But we are getting there.
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