passport photo nazi... need I say more?

Hello world… Hello readers… all five of ya!

Moms and I finally went to the consulate today! TWICE!

Well here’s the skinny or the fatty, whichever you want, so we go to the consulate to renew my mom’s Taiwanese passport and we were able to do that without a problem and…

We got some answers to the questions that we had…

• My mom can renew here passport
• She has to verify her Taiwanese citizenship when we get there
• I do not need to get a travelers visa
• We can buy our tickets with the names on our American passports

The best thing that we found out was that I can apply for a Taiwanese passport!!! I know, right? I don’t exactly know how it’s possible for me to get a passport for a country I’m not a citizen of… but I think it’s kind of like a temporary visa or the first step towards getting a residency visa or even my dual citizenship. ::shrug:: I still need to register with the local department of housing or some shiz when I finally settle in and find an apartment.

So after we renew moms passport they give us the news about me being able to get a Taiwanese passport but they need us to bring my birth certificate and my parents marriage certificate. So we end up running back to Oakland then right back to SF in under an hour! I know, right?!

It’s not till we get back to the consulate that they tell us that they need my dad to be there to sign off on a document. Seriously I wanted to smack my forehead.

The paper that my dad has to sign off on is him basically relinquishing my American name… weird right? He has to sign in front of a notary to make it all official.

There are a couple of other papers that need to be filled out, my mom has to translate some of my documents and her marriage certificate into Chinese but other than that I should be set to get my passport too!

Funny story: The Taiwanese consulate sent us to get our passport photos done at this place up the block. This old Chinese dude, totally a passport photo Nazi (the equivalent borderline on being worse than Seinfeild’s Soup Nazi), was the meanest old man you’ll ever meet and it was WAY over priced!!! Twelve bucks for six 2x2s, yeah, I wanted to smack HIS forehead on that one… well anyway we got our photos done…. And there are all these crazy regulations on the way the photo needs to be taken things like…

• No hair should be covering the forehead
• The hair must be pushed back behind both ears
• Glasses are not allowed to be worn in the photo

AND

• You can NOT show your teeth

(…the rule makers obviously never heard Lady GaGa’s song… I digress)

Well the dude is yelling at us to push our hair behind our ears and to get the bangs off our foreheads. My bangs keep falling over my forehead and he's yelling for me to push it back slowly... NO MORE SLOWLY... NO SLOWER... I SAID SLOWER. ugggghhhh....

Then he tells us we only get three shots and then we get to pick. The dude doesn’t count or anything its all CLICK CLICK CLICK… Seriously, could ya warn a girl?! I couldn't even concentrate on taking the picture I was so worried my bangs were gonna fall over my forehead then he'd run up on me and smack me in the forehead with a light meter or something. We finally pick our pictures and get the photos and head back to the consulate.

End of story… but I really wanted to smack that dude… that big ol’ meanie. Dislike!

Although I didn’t walk away with my passport at least my mom got hers… Its going to get mailed here which should take about 3 weeks. Once her passport gets here I’ll be able to submit my paperwork and it should take about 3 weeks till I get MY Taiwanese passport!!! I’m SO excited, YAY ME!!!

P.S. I also put my Chinese name down on an official document FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!

♥, 艾
俐