Getting by in Lyon is becoming easier every day, and it’s sad to think that I only have a week left in this city. It seems like the moment you start feeling comfortable and at home abroad, it’s already time to leave… Over the past few weeks I’ve spoken more French than in all of my middle school, high school, and college French classes combined. I end up practicing the majority of my French with shopkeepers or waiters, who were actually the same group of people I was too scared to speak with when I first arrived here. Because they don’t know right away that I’m a non-native French speaker, people working in stores and restaurants tend to speak very quickly and use unconventional vocabulary or grammar. I’ve had to quickly adapt to this in order to make sure I am paying the right amount, or buying the correct thing. The time it takes me to respond has decreased greatly, along with the amount of “uhhh’s” I’ve had to use to form a coherent sentence.
Right now, the dollar is pretty strong. When I was last living in Europe a couple of years ago, the dollar and the euro were basically head-to-head. That made the conversation rate (of lack thereof) extremely easy. But as of July 24, 2017, the current exchange rate is 1 EUR to 1.17 USD. This exchange rate still isn’t too bad, as I can get a €15.00 bottle of wine here for roughly $17.50 USD. Not too shabby, eh?
I’d say one of the best ways to know you’re settled in your new country is when you start understanding the local currency and value of different things. You’ve really acclimatized when you start thinking in euros, pesos, yen, etc…and not in dollars anymore. It’s dangerous to come to a new country and see your new bills as merely colorful monopoly money, but it happens to the best of us. When I first arrived in Lyon, I found myself readily handing the cashier the crisp euros I had gotten at my bank at home, with zero disregard to how much I was actually spending in dollars. But after a little while, once you’ve spent enough money in your new currency, you start to better understand the actual worth of it. You no longer have to convert every price you see into dollars, because you can now recognize whether or not it’s a good deal in euros.
For example, at the beginning of my Dialogue I used to think that cafés here were very cheap, as an espresso will not run you more than €1.80 ($2.10). In comparison to the coffee shops back at home, all of the €1.00 ($1.17) pastries here are deals too good to pass up. But now that I’ve been living in France for about a month, I am horrified by and reluctant to pay more than €1.50 ($1.75) for a croissant at any given café. But the funny thing is, I would not think twice about paying $3.00 for a Starbucks pastry at home in America. This is an example of learning the true value of your local currency, and worth of the things that you’re buying.
Understanding the value of your local money is also easier to do if you are getting paid in that said currency. I remember thinking that absolutely everything in Australia was so expensive, but my friends who worked as waiters didn’t think much of it. That’s because they were getting paid $20 AUD ($16 USD) an hour, which is an average starting wage for a student! I recently got a part-time job as a nanny for a local family in Paris, for when I study abroad there in the fall. I’ll be getting paid in euros, so I’ll have a lot easier time getting a grasp on how much things will cost in the infamously expensive City of Lights. “Hmm, this dinner costs about three hours worth of nannying…better try a cheaper place.”
