broke

I'm broke. Was, actually.

I walked around Paris with no more than a few 20 centiemes in my porte-monnaie. I suppose I could still buy a plain baguette for 38 centiemes, but other than that-- it isn't much. Of course, my parents would be horrored at the thought that their daughter wouldn't have the -just-in-case- money- of more than 20 euros in the pocket. But hey, walking without money proved to be quite fun :)

I'm a hard person to tempt. I could see, for example, a state-of-the-art gadget and find at least 5 different reasons why I wouldn't need it. Those are quite fundamental reasons, too. Besides, I am afterall a student, and living in Paris is already a priviledge on it's own. It's expensive living here, I'll tell you that.

The French TVA (value added tax) is 9.6%, which means that everytime you spend your euro in France, a little less than 10% of the price goes to the government. Whereas for those who earn salaries, social benefits (i.e. unemployment and social security) and income tax account for 33% of your salary. It's huge.

Anyway, back to me being broke. Well in fact, I never was broke. Deep inside me I was always assured that I have something to take out from the bank by just punching a 4 digit code from any ATM. So I guess it's true what one of my cousins told me as a synical comment on another cousin of mine who is a total idealist, "[dia] gak pernah tau rasanya gak bisa makan soalnya" (he never knew how it feels to not be able to eat).

She's right. He doesn't. Neither do I.