Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Registered Marriage in Beitou 婚姻註冊

The doorbell rings. Who should get it? That's kind of moot at this point since Mark doesn't yet know enough Mandarin to say more than "Dung yi shya!" which means "Just a minute" and then go get Ping.

So when the doorbell rang around noon today, Ping answered it. Turned out to be a nice lady on a scooter. She delivered the special marriage gift we were promised when we registered our marriage the day after we arrived here. Special, indeed!


Registering your marriage in Beitou is kind of interesting. It took us a couple of trips to various floors, and we had to have several documents with us, including Ping's family residency paper. They keep track of who lives with whom where. Mark is now officially part of that family record. Very different from in the States where the government basically assumes there was no previous history.

Even though we've been married for years in the U.S., we were brand newlyweds in Beitou! Because of that, we get the special gift delivered by the nice lady on a scooter. Better than the ol' "Welcome Wagon" or a visit from the Chamber of Commerce, I think. :)

It all comes in this pretty pink and white bag that actually snaps shut in the center! Still useful, even after the stuff is removed. It's a keeper.
Here are the contents of the bag. The letter on the left came in the envelope on the right. It has our official Chinese names on it.

At the Beitou District office, Mark had to quickly learn and practice signing "Coh," his family name in Mandarin so he could place his signature on the official papers. He already knew how to write his first name, "Mah-Kuh."

Three very nice people helped us out at the Beitou District office. They had a heck of a time figuring out what to do with the fact that Mark also has a middle name. This was perplexing. There was nowhere to put it in the computer forms. Somehow, Ping made it all work.

Nice letter from the Mayor of Taipei. Beitou is considered part of Taipei City.
The top sheet is the inventory of what you get in the bag. I think we got everything...

The bottom one tells how rare it is when a single lotus stem produces two flowers, and how wood ducks mate for life. In the U.S., we have the birds and the bees. In Taiwan, it's the flowers and the ducks.

...which leads us to...
Ok, this brochure is all about the best way to make money in Taipei: MAKE BABIES!

Yes! Babies are worth money! If either of you have lived in Taipei City for at least one year, and then make a baby in Taipei, you get $NT 20,000 RIGHT OUT THE GATE as soon as you register the kid.

Keep your income low enough and you get $NT 2,500 per month, too. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

We're having sextuplets in 13 months. It's on the calendar. Don't hold your breath.
This pink sheet is the survey asking how well we were served. They did such a nice job and were so polite, getting this particular "pink slip" should be much nicer than the ones you hear about in the U.S.
A beautiful book about...heck, who knows? Ask Ping. Looks great, though, doesn't it?
Ok, this one Mark can read! Herein lies a treasure trove of information, some of it useful, some of it baffling!

For instance, this was where Mark got the details on how lucrative it is to make babies. It even tells you where and how to get your driver's license--very important if you plan to get a scooter anytime in the future.

A few glitches in the spelling, though. There are sporadic references to "trans-natinal" marriages. Is this as opposed to the "mono-natinal" ones? What's "natinal?" Also, every time the word "abroad" was intended, the word "aboard" was used. I guess when you live on an island, lots of stuff happens on ships.

The book also says that "the second day of the lunar New Year is when the wives go back home." Wow. Where have they been all this time? We wonder.

In the "What should I do when I'm sick" section, there was an encouragingly-titled heading immediately below which appeared to offer some good advice: "How to go to the hospital." Unfortunately, the next sentence was "Here are some commonly used words regarding the name (sic) of clinics and descriptions on the medicine package for your reference." The next bit was "Names of departments in hospitals" which was simply a list that started with Gynecology and ended with Social Work Room. After that, there was a heading called "Words commonly seen on the medicine bags" followed by this sentence, and I quote: "Oral administration, topical use, taken once a day, before sleep, after sleep, before meal, after meal, for the eyes, required to store in refrigerator, use for fever."

That was it. That's the whole thing. No Mandarin equivalent. No "if you see THIS character, do NOT take internally on fear of death." Nothing more.

So that's all you need to know when you're sick, at least according to the Taipei City Departments (sic) of Civil Affairs.

There was this box, too.
It turned out to have these plates celebrating the 100th anniversary of 10/10 (Double Ten), the end of the last Chinese Dynasty and the official birthday of the Republic of China.

I think the one on the left is female because the one on the right is clearly male.

Maybe if they make babies, we'll get $NT 20,000.

Maybe not.

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations, you're married again! We will plan to send you guys our leftover babies. Not sure how to keep them fresh for the long trip - maybe pack 'em in ice.

    Is $NT 20,000 similar to USD?

    ReplyDelete