These don't really have to do with travel, but they're from Slovaks, so I'm saying they count. From class and reading students' homework today.
A third year on To Kill A Mockingbird:
"I saw how much Calpurnia helped Atticus with breeding children."
A fifth year on the teenage years:
"This period is a passage from childhood to adultery."
Another fifth year on scientific breakthroughs:
"The proof that scientist are also useful..."
And in class today, a first year, when I asked the class what happens when you're beheaded:
"You get shorter."
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Now Entering the Eurozone
On the first of the year Slovakia began using the euro. The conversion rate for euros to crowns is locked at 30.126 SKK to one euro; it's about $1.40 to one euro, or was the last time I checked. When I went to the bank to exchange some of my money, I had about 2400 SKK (about $120), and I got about 78 euros. The notes are the same as they are in all the other euro-using countries (known as the “eurozone”), but the coins are unique to each country. Other than the new Slovak euros, I've gotten mostly Austrian and some French, German, and Cypriot coins.
I got some change the other day and took pictures to show what our new coins look like. The pictures have been cartoonified a bit to better show detail. One- and two-euro coins are silver and gold, like the one on the left; 50-, 20-, and 10-cent coins are gold; and 5-, 2-, and 1-cent coins are copper. The front of all of the coins is the same, with a map of Europe and stars around the edge. On the back of the one- and two-euro coins are the Slovak double cross and the three hills, representing the Tatra, Fatra, and Matra mountains. The .10, .20, and .50 euro coins have Bratislava castle, and the smallest coins have Kriváň, one of the peaks in the Tatras. (I had to look up what mountain it was on the European Central Bank's website, which has better pictures of the coins.)
For me, changing currency is not particularly traumatic. I've used the euro in Austria, and I'm used to using different types of money than the one I've used most. I do think it's a little sad to leave the Slovak crowns behind, though. I liked them. Besides, I felt rich when I paid hundreds of crowns for something that in my frame of reference only cost 15 or 20 dollars. Now I have to watch myself, because things seem less expensive. It's also easy to use the two-euro coins and forget that they're worth about $3.50.
I got some change the other day and took pictures to show what our new coins look like. The pictures have been cartoonified a bit to better show detail. One- and two-euro coins are silver and gold, like the one on the left; 50-, 20-, and 10-cent coins are gold; and 5-, 2-, and 1-cent coins are copper. The front of all of the coins is the same, with a map of Europe and stars around the edge. On the back of the one- and two-euro coins are the Slovak double cross and the three hills, representing the Tatra, Fatra, and Matra mountains. The .10, .20, and .50 euro coins have Bratislava castle, and the smallest coins have Kriváň, one of the peaks in the Tatras. (I had to look up what mountain it was on the European Central Bank's website, which has better pictures of the coins.)
For me, changing currency is not particularly traumatic. I've used the euro in Austria, and I'm used to using different types of money than the one I've used most. I do think it's a little sad to leave the Slovak crowns behind, though. I liked them. Besides, I felt rich when I paid hundreds of crowns for something that in my frame of reference only cost 15 or 20 dollars. Now I have to watch myself, because things seem less expensive. It's also easy to use the two-euro coins and forget that they're worth about $3.50.
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