Fingerprints in the Sand

Hey all, mammafrog here. Hope you enjoyed the last two - took ages to put on I tell ya! I WILL add the appropriate pictures to them as well, it's just a matter of time, so if you check this site, keep checking them as well.

Now, admittedly this has NOTHING to do with the wee dude directly but something that those of you who used to enjoy my lengthy emails about the nature of living in Taiwan as a foreigner. Here is a little anecdote about me trying to get fingerprints taken for my Canada criminal records check, something I need to get my permanent visa to Oz. I had already done this once, and finally, four months later, I got the result...which was that they couldn't process it due to the fact the the prints were of bad quality. So they (our wonderful R.C.M.P., who don't respond to emails I might add!) sent me the form so I could try again, which happened to be badly damaged in transit and thus probably impossible to use. But what can you do? Write back and wait for another to come all mashed in the mail again? Hell no!
So, a few weeks ago, I tried again.

I went to get my fingerprints done at the police station on Jungjeng road, as that's where I got them done the first time. This also used to have the Foreign Affairs bureau in the same building but early in 2007 the office moved a block away. The officer at the door sent me to the foreign affairs, now on Chenggong road, office on the 7th floor. The people at this office sent me to the 1st floor. The people on the first floor sent me to the 2nd floor. The people on the second floor sent me back to the police station. The people at the police station insisted that I go to the foreign affairs office but when I assured them that I had already been there and they sent me back, this officer sent me to another office. That officer sent me to the old office and the people at the old office gave me an address to another building on Liohe road.

So yesterday I went down to this office. They told me that they couldn't do it there, that I had to go back to foriegn affairs and get a computer scan done. As I was afraid that this would not suffice as the RCMP in Canada provided me with a sheet, I asked that both the computer scan and the physical fingerprinting could be done. After 10 minutes of conversation, and this guy telling me they couldn't get a police officer to take my fingerprints because they don't do it like that in Taiwan, and having a good laugh with me about all the fun I have been having trying to get this done, he called the foreign affairs office to see if they could do it. So I went back to the foreign affairs office and after 30 minutes of this particular customs officer talking to his supervisor they decided that I could actually do both. He took me down to the first floor again, to the third window where they did a computer scan. Unfortunately my hands are too dry and wrinkly so the scan was only 25% readable. (Which is why to first one didn't work). They did another scan to the same result, and then that customs officer took two sets of physical prints, so hopefully that and a detailed note explaining my "condition" will have a positive result. Otherwise I guess I will just have to wait until I go home in the summer. The whole ordeal only took up about three hours of my time. Should count myself lucky I guess.