It all started in late June when I got a phone call from the Taipei Representative Office in Paris saying a position was available for me to go to Taiwan for nine months on a scholarship. Though I had made a request for the scholarship back in March, I had been put on a waiting list. Until I got the call I had pretty much canceled out the idea that I might be going to Taiwan.
I'm surprised that I've actually managed to do a lot of the things I need to do. OK, there have been some technical details. I ordered (and received) my US passport before realising that the scholarship I had applied to is for French citizens, which means that the US passport is completely useless to me for going to Taiwan. Last Wednesday I went to my local mairie (city hall) and filled out the papers to get a French passport. Despite horror stories I have heard about French bureaucracy, all in all the process took about one hour (I should be getting the passport next week).
That's good considering I have less than a month before my flight to Taipei.
