Not a great week

It took longer than I expected to recover from the flu. Yesterday was the first day I really felt like eating and I still didn't eat much. I felt very tired and couldn't walk up stairs easily. I feel much better today though. I'll probably exercise tomorrow.

I lost my wallet on Tuesday. It had almost no money in it but it has my Alien Resident Card and my health card. It was pure stupidity on my part- I stopped at 7-11 on my way to work and bought this bun with bean pasted in it (yes, a Taiwan treat!) and I was so obsessed with eating the bun (it was the first thing I ate all day) that I put my wallet in my jacket pocket and didn't zipper it. I was riding my bike and a I heard a clunk but didn't think it was me, then I crossed an intersection and thought maybe that was my wallet, and I checked for it and turned around and went back but it was already gone.
The next day I asked at a few of the places near where I lost it to see if it had been turned in, but no luck. I also went to the police station- that was comical. I wrote out saying "I lost my wallet," etc, and read it, and they kept trying to read it but it was in Pinyin... finally a lady came over who spoke English, thank goodness! They were all very nice and helpful though. I had my doubts about the police here but it was a good experience.
Long story short it will cost me about $1000 NT ($33 US) and a little bit of hassle to replace my documents. Doesn't sound like much but I am getting near broke... my first normal paycheck is coming but not until the 7th.
All in all annoying (esp because it's my own stupidity!) but I guess pretty good for losing your wallet.
In good news I got accepted into the above-beginner level for the Chinese classes at Hess, and I start them today. I'm excited. I have to pay 3 mos tuition up-front so that is why payday is so eagerly anticipiated. In reality I still have plenty of money and will probably have several thousand left over when I do get paid... but this is the first time since I've come that I won't have a huge stack of bills hidden away. It's so different from the US. There if I had $100 in my bank account I wasn't constantly reminded of it, but here I get paid in cash (they do pay taxes!), pay rent in cash, pay utilities in cash at the 7-11. People come into Hess with rolls of money to pay their kids' tuition. I kind of like it though- in the US I almost never saw my money so it seemed less real. Here it's really real.