Who am I?

OK, so one of the most important things while Traveling is probably your Passport. I should probably preface the rest of this post with what happened last time I was traveling.

... Over Christmas break last year I was going on a study trip to Visit Taiwan and Hong Kong. About a week before I was scheduled to leave, I realized that I left my passport up at School ( 9 hour drive away... 600 miles) OK, so how do you get it without a Massive road trip for 1 item. Within 1 hour of realizing I had left my passport up at school, I made 26 phone calls and connected with someone up at my house in Illinois, used the keys and got into my room to get the passport. Now... as I HAD to have iT 5 days later... Do you Risk mailing it the week before Xmas?

... NO, I found a friend in Chambana ( Champaign-Urbana; For those not up on the lingo) who was headed up to chicago for Xmas and could do a Hand off for me. So lucky for me I was able to connect with him and get my passport picked up for my travels. Awesome... Now to being in Taiwan .

My travels this time were much more smooth. Had a passport and all. Now in order to get the " Alien Resident Card" to allow me to be over here for so long, They had to have my Passport.. OK, so a week without a passport no big deal. But when you realized that you have also lost your Drivers License.... perhaps lost is not the right word...

In order to get my Cell phone they needed 2 forms of ID, Passport and Drivers license. OK, had a digital scan of my passport and they made a copy of my DL. I left the store and I ended up leaving my DL on the copier. OK, so a week later I realize my DL wasn't on me. ( so I'm sitting with no ID other than my Illinois Student ID... and that doesn't hold any weight with anyone). I make some calls ( luckily my phone worked at least), and one of my Taiwanese friends picked up DL and I now have it back... and Fortunately today I got my Passport back. So I have an Identity again... Both of them.

Soo the Short Version... if you are going places...Keep stuff as close as possible.. not 600 miles in a Safe locked room... or on a Copier in a Foreign Country.