Of course, if you want to fully experience another culture, you’re going to need money! It’s a necessity for everything! Transportation, entertainment, food, knick-knacks! My parents had a lot of money exchanged for the trip. I, myself exchanged 300 USD worth of money. In this day of age, however, we don’t need to worry about carrying just cash. With a lot of calls and information filling, we were able to get a credit card that doesn’t charge a conversion fee. So any huge expenditures (or just running out of money) is covered with one swipe of a card! Still, it’s really cool to look at the paper money used in Europe. It’s really colorful compared to American money and each denomination comes in a different size too. I’m planning on keeping a 5 from both to add to my foreign money collection! (Unfortunately the Francs I have won’t do me too good in Paris, I also only have maybe $2 worth)

Above are the Euros which we’ll be using in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam (hopefully I’ll be planning a personal excursion with new friends once I get to the college). The exchange rate for USD to EURO is 1.1736. In my case it cost me $199.51 to get 170 Euros. While I can’t tell you too much about the landmarks found on the paper money right now, I’ll hopefully get the chance to learn about it while we’re visiting.

Now on to the Great Britain Pound! The Queen is featured on the front of the paper money. (Maybe we’ll get a small glance of her? I’m not going to make the frivolous wish of drinking tea with her… mostly because I don’t really drink tea nor coffee). Anyways, the exchange rate of USD to GBP is 1.341. Took me $100.58 to obtain 75 GBP.

It’s a really good thing that I am an excellent money saver and a cautious money user! I plan to find some good deals over there, especially at any market type settings (farmer and flea markets alike). With the money all settled (which should be done early enough to give time for it to be ordered by whoever you get it from, like AAA). guess I should make sure the rest of my packing is on the right track!

(I plan to have my next post include pictures of when we first arrive, but I will be keeping all social media accounts updated. That includes Facebook (Lily Green), and Instagram @lilgreenmonster666). All tagged with @studyabroadUML and #aifsabroad)