Law’s Blog

Citizenship
exam

As some of
you know, me and my wife, Thea, have been here in

Canada

since March 2002. It is 4
years now that we have been here as Landed Imigrants. And just last March 28,
2006 Thea and I took our Citizenship exam. And boy what an experience it was.

First of
all preparing for the exam was not that easy. They give you this small booklet
to read months in advance. We did not read that booklet until we got the notice
of the exam date. That gave us around 2 weeks to prepare. I was informed by my
brother that there was a good reviewer in the library so a week before the exam
I grabbed the book from the library. And it was a good book. It was a
summarized version of the book. Point for so easy to study and remember the
details. The morning of the exam. Ange, an office mate of mine found an online
reviewer from the

Richmond

library. I took the exam where there were 100 questions and I got 99. My only
mistake was because I did not read the question properly. So after taking that
exam, I felt confident that I can pass the Test.

Now on to
the exam day. We were scheduled to take the test at 2:30 pm. We got to the exam
site at around 2:10. There was a small line up maybe 10 to 15 people before us.
They started letting people in at around 2:20. They had to check everyone if
they brought in their papers and stuff. Everyone got checked at around 2:45 and
everyone is seated and ready to take the exam. The proctor gave a few
instructions before we started. And actually she even scared us a bit. She said
that the exam was a 20 question multiple choice (that was something we were
prepared for) and a 100 word essay explaining why you are a good Canadian
Citizen. This was something we were not prepared for. Everyone in the room got
a bit scared. Then she said that it was just a joke. We were relieved.

Passing
mark was 12. But there were 2 questions that you have to answer correctly. And
3 questions that you have to get 1 right. If you don’t get these even you get
12 you still fail. And even if you perfect the exam, the citizenship judge
still has the last say.

So we
started the exam. They distributed the paper. You will have a different colored
paper than the person beside you. This prevents cheating. And as we started I
cruised along the questions and answer. In 5 minutes I was done. I was
reviewing my answers when I saw Thea walking and giving her papers in. She was
done. It took me maybe 2 more minutes in answering the test then I was done as
well.

We both
think that we did a good job. So we have to wait now for the results. They are
saying that they were targeting mid-may for the oath taking ceremony. So
waiting game again starts.

Hope we
pass!

Training Day Part 2

Count Down:
Days to the event: 47 days
Weeks to the event: 6 Weeks
Training Days left: 13 days (woooot!)

Its day 2 for our training for the Times Colonist 10k. This time we upped the stakes. 10 min run and 1 min walk and repeat 5 times. So it was a just from 36 mins of running to 50 mins of running. That is a big jump. We definetly gone further as we passed the point where we turned around last week. And after the wicked ass training, i felt muscles that I did not know existed in my body. It was hurting bad after running.

OpenSource Programs

I just want to take this space of mine to promote OpenSource Programs. I find it that they are very useful and costs nothing to you. I think in time it will replace some if not most of the microsoft product. I just hate it when you need a software and you go to a store and try to buy it and it costs $100 or something. That is just too expensive.

Here are some of my favourite Titles:

OpenOffice : This a good software to use instead of MS Office

Gimp : This is a good tool for Image manipulation

Ubuntu : Is a Linux flavour. Good OS.

There is still a lot out there. Just explore.

The Times Colonist 10k 2006 is comming up very soon. It will be on April 30, 2006. So I have more or less 2 months to prepare. First I what is my goal for this year. As you may have remembered that Last I year my time was 1:41:16. So this year my goal is to at least cut 1/3 of my time. So maybe 1:10:00 will be my goal.

So with that in mind and the event close by  I have to train. And I am now training mith an office mate of mine who runs in marathons and in triathalons. I am running with an expert.

Yesterday was my first day of training. We did 5 min warm up. 6 min run and 1 min walk (6 times) and 5 min cool down. Being it my first time to run again it was so hard. I had cramps. Could not feel my muscles. And today, waking up. My legs are in pain. Well, as the saying goes. No Pain no gain.

Looking forward to my next session which is on Wednesday. So I hope to be more prepared for that.

Wish Me Luck

Podcasting Again

I just found some new pinoy podcasts. The first one is
viloria.com POD cast. I find this very nice because it teaches filipino words. I find this cool because the host also segments it into practical topics. So I really like this pod cast.
live@usa.ph POD cast. It is a podcast of i guess 2 friends where one is in the Philippines and the other is in New York. I like this because i find it entertaining. Really Funny Show. Although the last show was feb 26 so i am not sure when the next one will be out.