Official Business

Since I got here, I've been wondering when it would all sink in. The answer, as it turns out, is today.

Today, we applied for our ARC (Alien Resident Card) and opened bank accounts at the Bank of Taiwan. Pretty boring stuff, if you think about it, especially when you consider that we began these two apparently simple processes at 9:30am, and didn't finish until after 2pm. Apparently, marching into official offices with 12 people all needing the same thing takes a VERY long time to coordinate.

Still, as I sat in the sticky vinyl seat at the immigration office and the officer passed me my temporary permit with my Chinese name printed oh-so-officially at the top, it hit me: that IS my official name here. I DO live in Taiwan. Later, as I typed in my new PIN and received my bank card and bank book, I envisioned depositing money at the BOT ATMs.

The process, of course, was still incredibly long and boring. We had along wait in the overheated basement of the immigration office to get pictures taken, and once  in the booth, the lady running it spent a good while poking and prodding me so that I perfectly fit the regulations, and trying to get my bangs to stay out of my face using only her fingers, repeatedly shaking her head when I held up the bobby pin I had, choosing instead to plaster my bangs down using the natural grease on her hands, I guess. Let's just say I am NOT fond of the greasy-looking picture it produced, a picture which will now appear on my ARC, health insurance card, and drivers license. Ohhhh joy.

But the worst was the wait at the bank--there was only one clerk working the counter for opening accounts, and even though the process did not take very long, it took probably 2 hours for my turn to come, during which time I had time to change my Hong Kong and US money for NTD and sit around for ages playing cell phone games and talking to the other ETAs. And I was just seventh of the 12.

We took public transportation home, at rush hour, and I was incredibly impressed with it. The bus was pretty empty, and the MRT was amazing. It's fantastically clean, cool, airy, and, even at rush hour, relatively empty--none of the crowds I expected after my experiences in China and Hong Kong. In fact, lack of crowds has been a major surprise for me in Kaohsiung in general--a wonderful development, and one that may even coax me onto a scooter at some point.

Look how empty!

Also, here's a picture of the "Dome of Light" in one of the subway stations--famous Kaohsiung sight, apparently.

Once we got back, went out for fried dumplings tonight, and they were DELICIOUS and fantastically cheap--for my 8, which completely filled me up, I paid $36NT, or about $1.20US. I can get used to this.