With Amanda now comfortably setting down to a routine in Taiwan, it’s time to start planning the trip out there to go see her. The one regret that I have in life is not travelling the world after I finished high school. For me at that time, I wanted to get university over and done with and my career established before I even thought about travelling. Only since about last year with the Trip to Florida with Jo did I actually start travelling. (I don’t count going back to Manitoba as travelling). So this opportunity to fly to Taiwan is laying in front of me and I can’t pass it up.

So what’s the first step in planning a trip overseas? For me, it is getting a passport. As I said above, I’ve never travelled outside of the US/Canada so a passport was never required. So this past week, I took the initiative and got my ass in gear and applied for a passport.

So the first step is to fill out the passport application and on Tuesday I went completed the application online. Thank you to the Canadian government for making this super simple. Anytime I can sit on my ass and fill something in online without having to physically use a pen, I’m all for it.
On Wednesday after work I went and got the passport photos done. The pictures were relatively easy and only cost $12 to get them done. I probably could’ve got them done cheaper but this photo place was right by my condo and I didn’t feel like going all over the city just to save a few $. When the lady was taking my picture, she handed me a Kleenex and asked if I could wipe my forehead and it was a little “greasy”….the Kiazyk clan back home will know what I had to go through.

On Thursday I got everything signed and dated from a friend with a CA designation at work.

So finally on Friday morning, I took a bit of time off in the morning and went to the passport office at 8:30 am. Luckily the passport office is only about a 5 min drive from my place so it took nothing to get there and I didn’t have to drive halfway across the city. When I walked in they give me a ticket with a number on it and as I turned the corner, there was already about 12 people there waiting - at 8:35 in the morning - and they just opened at 8:30!

So I sat down and waited for my number to be called. Now I probably wasn’t sitting for more then a minute when my number was called. I thought it was a little odd that people came before me and yet my number was called first. The lady beside me seemed a little pissed that I got called before her. When I got to the counter I asked the lady why my number was called before others and she said that people who have their application already filled out online they take at a higher priority as it takes less time to process! Sweet! About 10 minutes and $87 later my application was on it’s way to passport land to get printed. I should receive it in about 3 weeks!

So what’s the next step? I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to book my own tickets online or use some travel agent. Problem with booking online myself is that you can’t book your tickets too far in advance. So that is still to be decided. The tentative date for departure is about December 28th and returning probably about 2 weeks later. So what the probably means is I won’t be heading home for Christmas this year!

Only 5 months to go and counting…
-Mateo Laterns