The City by the Bay

Next up was passports. For first-time passport applicants, you have to appear in person to apply. You need your birth certificate, a photo I.D., 2 passport-size photos, a completed passport application, and a check or money order for the application fee.

My friend, Craig, is also going to Taiwan to teach for a year, so we decided to apply together. You need a visa if you plan on residing in Taiwan for more than 30 days, and in order to receive a visa, you need a passport.  So my aunt found an address for the U.S. Passport Agency in San Francisco, there specifically to get you your passport quickly.  I was unsure how long it took to be accepted for a visa, so I though the sooner I apply the better.

So we made appointments with the agency for December 1st and set off. San Francisco is a mad house to begin with, pedestrians not following the traffic signals, bike messengers darting in and out, and all of those darn one-way streets!!! We drove around trying to find the building for a bit (my trusty iPhone was not so trusty today), and finally found the building. It has its own side entrance and an elevator that only goes up to the top floor. Once there you have to go through a metal detector and have your bag checked on the x-ray conveyor belt thing.

It was like getting into an exclusive club, but instead plush booths and attractive waiters, you have cracked orange plastic chairs and a surly man with a comb-over at the window telling you to hurry up.

It turns out that our travel time was too far in the future for them to accommodate us and then gave a map with the directions to go to city hall and apply there.


Seriously, people. If you have to apply in person and can get to SF to apply, go to city hall. The building was beautiful and there were 0 people in line ahead of us. We were in and out before Craig's appointment time at the agency had even begun. It was fantastic.

After our long day of bouncing around, we went to Mel's Drive-in for some burgers. It's supposed to be an amazing place, but I wasn't that impressed. We kept missing the turns to get to it , and were stuck having to circle around a million times because of those darn one-way streets.

We peaced out and made it back safely. Adventure complete.

On Pins and Needles

I immediately started reading up a storm about traveling to Taiwan on the interwebs. I've found lots of different sites about what to do before moving abroad.

Most mention getting up to date on your shots and finding out if there are any special vaccinations you need to get that are area specific to where you are traveling. They say to get into see your doctor 6-8 weeks before departure. They (the blog experts ) said this is due to vaccines taking time to adapt to the body as well as the fact that it can take some time to get an appointment with the travel nurse. The travel nurse is the person who will know which area specific vaccines you will need.

I scheduled my first injections appointment for Tuesday morning Nov. 29. I got shots for the flu, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (commonly known as whooping cough) Hepatitis A, and also got a TB skin test. Lucky for me the tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis were all in one shot so I didn't need to get stabbed a million times. The TB skin test was kind of weird. They stick a needle under your skin, then push air in making a slight bubble. It was a little creepy staring at this bulge in my arm.

Also make sure to get an up to date immunizations record of all the vaccinations and immunizations you've had thus far to take with you. This way you'll be able to let the foreign doctors know what you have and have not been given.

My immunizations record.

Along with getting poked with a needle, I also got my first breast exam. TMI? I thought so, too. There's something very disconcerting about carrying on a conversation while a stranger has her hands on your chest. I texted my sister and said, "Surprise breast exam!" She replied, "Too bad you didn't know about it, you could have studied." She's all heart, that one.