New hospital bills for 866.54 €. I don't have that amount in any of my bank accounts on either continent besides on my credit card . Does the Algemeen Ziekenhuis Sint-Maarten accept Mastercard?
Ironically, although my income has nearly bottomed out, MBNA finally upped my line of credit up to almost $2,500 last year--the maximum line of credit in Belgium. The American habit of spending money before you get it is foreign to the Belgian mindset. Everyone's bowled over when I tell them of people who worked themselves into over $20,000 of credit card debt. Even a graduate student at Yale did it to pay his way through school, although if he hadn't been an idiot Yalie, he would have had the common sense to take out a federal loan rather than use his credit card and then carp about Yale's financial aid policies to Yale Daily News interviewers. (And no, I'm not linking to the YD'N', because I have beef with them. Another story for later.)
On Wednesday, Koen Cosaert asked if my leg had been particularly painful for the past week. "Yes!" I exclaimed in surprise. "Me too," he said intently with the particular glint in his eye that warns that he's gotten an idea. "I think it's the weather."
It's also possible that as I've grown accustomed to using it again, I've returned to usage habits that are still beyond its capabilities. I really don't like the idea of my leg serving unwittingly as a weather vane, especially if detection involves sudden unexpected shocks of pain.
Speaking of spending money you don't have, while the US happily operates on a deficit and refunds more surplus than it can afford, Belgium closed out 2005 with a 0.4% surplus, "an improvement on the 0.1 percent deficit in 2004."
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