Calling Taiwan for Clarifications

Today (3/11/2010) I wanted to make a phone call to Taiwan asking for clarification. I went to the CSS website and it says later on after the applicant finishes the online registration, he needs to mail the verified/authenticated diploma & transcript (translation needed), along with other required documents to the agency.

Translation needed? Crap.

When I was in Taiwan, my friend told me he just translated on his own. But I forgot to ask him what the translation is for! I did translate my diploma and I did send it to TECO, thinking that’s what the translation is for. But when the TECO lady called me, she didn’t know what the translation was for. She told me TECO doesn’t provide any translation service and if I wanted TECO to verify/authenticate the translation (that I did myself), TECO couldn’t do it because it had to be a literal translation. It sounds like TECO requires it to be notarized.

So when I read about the “(translation need)” on the CSS website, I got anxious. Was I suppose to have my diploma notarized first before mailing it to TECO? That’s what I wanted to find out.

I called the agency in Taiwan and ask whether the diploma needs to be translated first and then authenticated by TECO or authenticated first then translated.

He told me authenticated first then translated. (whew!) AND he told me I could just translate it myself.

PTL!!! (So, that’s what my friend meant! haha… would have been help to know!)

So I printed out the whole instruction on the CSS website and now I’m waiting for the online registration to open on 4/1/2010. (of course, waiting for my diplomas and transcripts to be authenticated by TECO and mailed over to China too, but that can wait a little bit.)

4am phone call

So after filling out the forms that I need to get my diploma & transcript verified/authenticated by the TECO (Taipei Economic & Cultural Office -- the equivalent of a "Taiwanese consulate/embassy" in countries where Taiwan is not officially recognized as a country), I FedEx'd them to Los Angeles, CA. (man... over 200 RMB! that's about 30+ USD) oh well.

At least the documents arrived.

How did I know? On Wednesday morning around 4am, my phone was ringing. (actually it was vibrating, but good thing I still woke up by it... now think of it, that's kinda miraculous, PTL!)A very helpful lady from TECO called. She told me TECO had received my paperwork but they were unsure what exactly I wanted them to do.

At first I was a bit irritated. On the application I put down I was applying for CSS, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first one to do that. So what do you mean by you don't know what to do?

Then there's the 4am phone call. She knew I live China because I wrote it on the application (she mentioned it too & apologized for waking me up). But com'on... I gave her my cell number, couldn't she have called at a somewhat more reasonable hour? OK, there's a time difference and maybe she's more concerned about this process than I am (she sounded like it). But I bet 99 out of 100 people would still be sleeping at 4am. How about a 5am call instead? :)

And then she was really helpful and good at explaining why she didn't know what I wanted them to do. But she kept repeating the same thing when I wanted to ask her a couple clarifying questions! She just kept going and going. So I was starting to get irritated. Good thing I didn't blow up.

Finally she was able to figure out what I wanted TECO to do and she was able to tell me what my next step is. TECO needs to verify my UCI diploma & transcript. If I want TECO to do it, they can but I would have needed to send them the required fee (from UCI) in cashier's check or money order. I hate going to banks in China because it's so inefficient and the service isn't very good.

PTL we can do it another way. I can request UCI to send TECO an official transcript. The only thing is the registrar's office at UCI doesn't accept debit/credit cards so students or alumni can only request an official transcript in person, by mail, or by fax. So fax is not a bad option, but I'll need someone to pay for me at the registrar's office. PTL a friend of mine who works at UCI is going to do me a HUGE favor by paying for me first. Today (thursday, 3/11/2010) I faxed the form and emailed my friend. We'll see how it goes.

This whole process is making me stressed... even though in my mind it's not very stressful. I'm really OK doing whatever. But I think I'm stressed over not wanting to go through all the work only to have me disqualified because I didn't submit the right paperwork, or missed something. I think I would be more OK during the lottery process I got a "bad" assignment. I think part of the stress is also from my "J ness" (myers-briggs). I just want to have closure, to finish the application process, and not leave things hanging or unfinished.

Anyway. A 4am phone call didn't help... I couldn't fall sleep after that. (but I did manage to have some reading time. PTL for that.)

a BIG surprise!

I know I could count on my roommate Zhi to come up with creative names for this blog… (or for anything for that matter. Except this time it’s a bit too late! haha… maybe I will change it, but I don’t think I can change the URL) Here are some possibilities:

-Boys N Guns (Okay…)

-Boys N Toys (hmm… nah… it rhymes though!)

-Guns N Toys (like Guns N Roses)

So if you have any [creative] ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

*****end of public service announcement*****

Alright. So one of the first things I found out about Civilian Substitute Servicemen (CSS) when I went back to TW is that even though there’s a boot camp for CSS, there’s no weapons training involved!!! What the heck?! No guns, not even knives! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Seriously, what kind of soldier is this? (who doesn’t know how to fire a gun or doesn’t know how to use weapons?) Just as I was starting to look forward to this CSS thing, I felt all gypped and ripped off – hey, if I’m going to serve in the military, I want at least some weapons training, OK? I want to at least do something manly and violent, OK? So what do CSS do? Run laps? Push-ups and sit-ups? Man… seriously disappointing to find out from my friend (who has been through). Worse yet, we don’t even get camouflage! All CSS get is something a uniform like this: (I don’t know these guys… just found the photo online)

I also told my friend that I have some chronic physical condition that may prevent me from serving in the regular army, but what about CSS? He assured me there wouldn’t be any problem as the CSS are full of “incapable” soldiers like us. In Chinese it’s 老弱殘兵 (“old, weak, disabled soldiers”). People with worse conditions than mine – like heart diseases and diabetes are serving in CSS. Darn, there’s no way I can avoid military duty I guess.

Actually there may still be a possibility that I only need to take part in the boot camp, men who were born in 1980 or earlier whose physical conditions is less than a “grade A” (haha… like Grade A meat?) may only need to take part in the boot camp. This is unconfirmed, however. Guess in what year I was born? Bingo. 1980. But no matter what, I’m going to proceed with this application process and see what happens. Physical checkup is not until way later down the road. I guess I’ll find out when I get that far.

After this conversation with my friend back in TW, my thought is – is my country for reals? Are you serious? (I still can’t believe no weapons training for “military service”)

Blog Names Considered

So I think it would be kinda fun to start a blog on my journey to the whole taiwanese military service... i'm sure it will be full of adventures & misadventures. maybe it can even serve as a help to a couple people later down the road.

Titles I've considered (thanks to my roommates for some of these ideas):
1. The Never-Ending Journey of One Fool (from our unsuccessful blogs)
2. [Useless Mutant] The WANDERman... where the heck am I? (special thanks to Savage Chicken)
3. The Breaking of the Fellowship

...i forgot the others.

you're welcome to follow this blog via RSS. If you don't know how to use it, here's a video that I've found helpful (and started my own journey of using RSS)

i hope this will be a more successful blog.