"Quid Pro"

(Or…  Euro, and Pounds, and Bucks… oh my)

We found ourselves sorting through the coins in D’s purse again the other day.  It was interesting to watch the inspection process… you pick up a coin and examine it and then slowly recognize the denomination and the currency and then throw it into the appropriate pile only to be mixed up again with everything else later.  The paper currency situation is as funny.  In having American charge and debit cards, there is always an associated fee from the various British / Continental merchants and their respective banking systems for the use of good ole US plastic. In order to avoid this, we go to the American banks on base and stock up on cash.  (…and no we’re broke at the moment so you can forget about looting us).

This would be a manageable process if it were only Pounds and Dollars we are talking about.  In that I regularly visit the “continent” we also have a constant ebb and flow of Euro to go with the bucks and quid.  We now have three compartments to keep whatever cash is on hand as the UK doesn’t do Euro and they don’t take Pounds on the mainland.  The problem is remembering who gets paid what and what all of it looks like when you pull it out of your pocket.  As a mentally spry 30 year old, this would have been second nature but beings that I have a hard time remembering which pants I wore last, sorting through the jingle becomes a larger problem… so, dollars, quarter, nickels, left front pocket, check!  Pence and breath mints right front pocket, double check!! Euro coins get put in a Ziploc sandwich bag until they are needed after the tunnel on the other side. OK!  Then we open the wallet and dollars are in front followed by euro which I couch in the middle cause I usually work from both ends.  D at least has appropriate compartments in her wallet.  Money segregation is a good thing…

I won’t even discuss the various bank accounts we’ve had to establish to manage this mess.  Suffice it to say that I am quite happy that I have very good on-line banking (I’ve even managed to pay tithes and offerings online).  Thus all we have to deal with is to make sure our local purchases become manageable.  Which they are for the most part unless you can’t convert pounds (the weight not the money) to grams, or sizes in cm to inches, etc…  Did I mention electronics and power cord conversions yet?  How about the regulator on my BBQ grill?  No?  Well, you get the point.

So, while D and I are “adapting” to living in Europe we hope the rest of you stay in touch… as far as I can tell, our Skype connections and Face book pages seem to adapt quite nicely.  Hope you take care and enjoy.