In 1998 a young Jason Hanggi traveled across the sea to España with his high school Spanish class. At the time, he had no idea it would lead to a little Absenthe drinking, a penchant for international adventuring, and from time to time, speaking in the third person.
The point is, in the summer of 2008 it will have been 10 years since my first international travel (minus Canada–doesn’t count), and my passport will expire. Or so I assumed. My trip was over the summer, so my passport will be good until summer, right?
As I was registering for my Australia visa when I noticed that my passport expires in March. Not a problem, I come back in December. Crap. Wait. I remember reading somewhere NZ has some rule that requires extra months of validity on your passport after your departure date. It’s too late now to even expedite a passport renewal. Thank you parents for helping me plan that first trip and doing a good job and getting my passport 4 full months before my trip.
I look it up. 3 months. What is that? I depart NZ on December 10. Passport needs to be good until March 10. Passport good until March 26. Whew.
If I had planned this trip for two weeks later or we had been two weeks more proactive in 1998, there would be no New Zealand in my future.
Luckily that’s not the case. Tomorrow I leave for Atlanta for Thanksgiving and then Sunday, it’s off to Australia.
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