The Euro- the Dollar's arch nemesis

When traveling abroad, money can easily be the source of a lot of confusion, panic, and headache. Exchange rates change every second, money exchanging businesses charge crazy "convenience" fees, and, depending on your bank, a percentage amount is added to credit-card purchases for which a currency conversion is needed. And there's always the possibility that your bank will stop your credit/check card despite the phone call that you gave them before you left.

France is one of 16 countries currently using the Euro. The exchange rate as of today is roughly 1 US Dollar equals 0.70 Euros (or 1 Euro equals 1.40 US Dollars), though that literally changes every second.

Using a different currency definitely takes some getting used to. Since I've lived my entire life thinking in Dollars, it's not so easy to make the adjustment overnight. Escalating the situation is the fact that the smallest Euro bill is a 5. Below that, there are 1 and 2 Euro coins. Additionally, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent coins also exist. All of this coinage is definitely noticeable after a while. Since us Americans are bill-oriented people (usually relegating change to our pockets, ultimately ending up in our washing machines, or in some type of coin jar), it takes no thought to open the wallet and hand over a bill every time we buy something. In Europe, this practice usually amounts to large quantities of change filling your pockets in return. And when you actually think of using that mountain of change to buy something, you can never seem to find the right combination of coins, usually resulting in angry people waiting in line...or MORE change.

Certain things are better with this system though. In France, the price you see advertised on a given product is the price you pay--no calculus experience necessary. There is none of this "$11.99 plus tax" business that you find in the United States. Tax is automatically included in the advertised price, which is usually rounded to the nearest 10 cents. This way, you don't have to stand in a store trying to mentally compute the prices of several products with wacky dollar amounts, then needing to add 6% of total price back to the original total.

For now, everything has worked out surprising well. My Wells Fargo check card has proven to be my best friend in all of my excursions abroad so far. They do, however, charge a $5 ATM withdrawal fee while abroad, but it is a far better option than some of the alternatives. Now, about that exchange rate...