Schwelmo's Welt

Life is getting greener in Europe as we are approaching spring. That means in the Southern Hemisphere it will get darker. I hope for the Southern Hemisphere that is not also true for the financial crisis (or whatever you want to call it...crisis of the system would be truer I guess). However, most of my little money is still there...so please don’t fuck it up too much!
Just to give you an idea, about how high regarded the NZD in France is. I am not getting paid here at the moment, so every little money has a higher personal (but lower communal) value as it had a few months ago. Therefore I decided I change some 150+ NZ dollar and some Czech Crones into Euros (well yeah, not much but everything counts). In France banks don’t have casch or deal with cash.....cash is deal with only by (supposedly) bulletproof machines which are also very stubborn towards violent threats (so no income source for desperate like me). However, you can make an appointment to change money. Which I did. You have to tell them how much and what kind of money. Which I did...ah...Anna did as her French is more suitable for that. The date or shall I say rendevouz went like that :

After waiting 30 min we got asked to come into another room. In an air tight bomb safe room somewhere in the back of the bank there was me Anna, the woman from the bank , about 150 NZ$ and a few thousand Czech Crones. All conversation is how I remembered, but might have been changed through translations or is partly guessed.

“Bonjour!”
“Grrrrr!”
“We have an appointment to change some money into Euros.”
“Yes, I see. How much money you have.”
“A it is not that much.. it is some 100reds NZD and a few thousand Czech Crones....and actually five Sloty.”
(I take the money out of my pocket, and but it on the table)
“Ah...je suis desolee. We don’t take it. “
“Oui...ah what?”
“We don’t take that. Au revoir!”
“Au revoir? We called you to change the money and told what we have.”
“Oui, we only take dollars. Au revoir.”
“Yeah, you mean American dollars??? Those are dollars ...we told you on the phone when we made the appointment.”
“No, only American dollars, or Canadian and Australian dollars. Or the English pound. Au revoir.”
“ Ok. So where do we go to change second class money then? “
“Je ne sais pas. Try a different bank. We don’t take it. Au revoir.”
“...but you are a fuckin bank...” (Just a thought....and also thought in English).

Since New Zealand doesn’t seem to be a real country with real money (at least from the French point of view) I missed out on 50 EUR. Guess I need to find a new hobby as trying out all the different beer in the world might be appropriate for jobless people, but is too expensive. Who knows...I might do some more frequent blogging instead.
, originally uploaded by Schwelmo.