Thursday, March 05, 2009

 

Bank Wank

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.


Comments:
Good to hear from you again. Sorry we didn't tell you when you arrived in NZ but our real official currency is buckets of whale fat --- a weird law from 150 years ago that has never been changed for some reason. The notes and coins you saw here are just used locally since they are more convenient than the buckets of fat but they don't have any legal status so foreign countries often don't recognise them.
Is that photo of the beautiful French woman at the bank?
 
yeah you should have told me. I was even flying back over the US so I could have taken some buckets.
The pic is from "Machine de Ile" in Nantes. Look it up....sound like a dream job for engineers...the building Jules Vernes like robots...
 
I am trying to find someone fluent in German and possibly familiar with Dusseldorf to help me try to figure out if there is someone in that city with my same last name.

I found it on this website:

http://www.buergerstiftung-duesseldorf.de/09-12-08-B-uuml-rgerstiftung-sammelt-am-IN-Treff.8fed0.php

If you are willing to help, please write me at Kesselus@Juno.com or 1301 Church St. Bastrop TX 78602 or call my cell phone 512-940-7897.

Thanks for considering this.

Ken Kesselus
 
Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]