In all my journeys around the world I’ve had to deal with a plethora of currencies and all kinds of moneys. Now in my tenth month of the World Race I sometimes don’t know in what kind of coin I should be paying!
There has been shillings, francs, pesos, baht, riel, dollars, ringget, renminbi, hryvna, and this month its leu! Most days I don’t even know where to begin!
In case you didn’t know, I’ve been put in charge of keeping track of the budget for my team. I’m pretty sure I’ve confused every person on my team at least once by saying something like, “Okay guys, I think we can each spend one hundred fifty dollars for breakfast.”
Usually someone will put me in my place by asking if I really mean dollars or shillings. They’ve learned to double check when I say this kind of thing or they just assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
And don’t get me started on exchange rates!
I’ve actually really impressed myself with how I’ve improved at doing math in my head! (Give or take a few zeros.) The most extreme exchange rate has been 4,000 riel to one US dollar!
And the closest rate to the dollar was 3.13 ringget. And lots of exchange rates everywhere between! No wonder I’m confused!
So that’s just a glimpse into my life on the Race. I hope it makes you glad you only have to think about dollars and cents and not pesos and cens or leu and euros!
