Marrying the Man I Love Part 3.1

Exactly one year to the day after Geoff’s arrival back in Taiwan, we finally managed to get officially married.  If you’ve been keeping up, you’ll know there was a mountain of documents to be signed, and not just by us.  We needed signatures and stamps from about ten different people covering two continents.  But finally, we had all the papers we needed.

Yesterday at about 11:15, between classes, Geoff told me, via Facebook chat, that he got the translation and notarization from the lawyer he found.  He had to pay 1750 NT, close to $60, but he had the document, and he thought all the signatures were correct.  We had what we needed to register our marriage and receive our official marriage certificate.  So we decided to meet at the Household Registry Office that day instead of going home for lunch.  I suppose it was good to not have planned for it, because I didn’t really have time to get nervous.

We found the same man who had helped us before, and we showed him our papers.  Once he determined that we had all the right documents, he took us inside to a clerk who then proceeded to enter all the information into the computer, and make copies of our passport.  For some reason, all of this took about an hour and a quarter.  At one point, I panicked when they told me I would have to sign my newly given Chinese name to a document.  I’d never written it before.  I am terrible at drawing, and I’m pretty sure it looked absolutely horrible.  But it was good enough for government work, as my father used to say.  It counted.  After all that paper shuffling, puzzled expressions on the clerk’s face, and grammar checking an English sentence on some random document, they finally brought out the official marriage certificate.  We had them print it up in English.  They presented it to us in a lovely little document holder.  It’s official.  We have the papers.  I am legally married.  And so excited.  

There is still a lot of paperwork left to go before we can start to plan the next move.  And we can’t even begin to think about a wedding until we know where we are going to be living.  I am completely clueless about planning a wedding, so stay tuned for wedding plan failure hijinx.   There will be plenty.  But I’ll go through it all next to the man I love.

The Loveliest of Friends

This Saturday turned out to be nearly perfect.  It was both productive and relaxing.  We woke up a bit early and lounged around in bed for a while because it was so much warmer in the bedroom than the rest of the apartment.  After watching 30 Rock, I went to McDonald’s to get us breakfast.  A heavy breakfast and Dickens made me sleepy so I took a glorious nap.  I love sleeping in the middle of the day.  It almost feels like cheating.

We braved the wilds of Costco on a Saturday.  We didn’t find ranch dressing, but came home with some other treasures including a big bag of lemons and a huge bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips.  I used those chocolate chips to make peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  I don’t really think there’s anything else that needs to be said about those cookies.  The title of the recipe pretty much covers it.  I boxed up the cookies to take to a little get-together at our friend Gillian’s place, and we headed out into the cold once again.

When we arrived at Gill’s I was surprised to discover that our friends had actually organized this evening in honor of our engagement.  It was so sweet and so thoughtful.  Gill presented us with a scrapbook she had put together with photos and messages from our friends here in Taiwan and some of Geoff’s friends and family from back home.  I have to say it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received from a friend.  I could tell that she put a lot of effort and time into it.  I felt so loved.  I truly do have the loveliest of friends.  Thank you so much for thinking about us.  I had a fantastic time sharing wine and pizza and stories.  Can’t wait to see them at brunch this morning and eat some more.