One of the pitfalls of moving from one country to another is having to get used to a different currency.
In my short life I have suffered no fewer than four such mental monetary realignments: moving from England to Germany (pounds sterling - deutschmarks), from Germany to France (deutschmarks - francs), European Monetary Union (francs - euros) and now the move from France to the United States (euros - dollars). Each time I was confronted with a new currency, it took about two years to start "thinking" in the local currency. In the meantime, I went through something like the five stages of grieving:
- Denial (0-3 months) - My brain refuses to accept that I am in another country. All prices are automatically converted into the old currency in my mind;
- Insanity (4-6 months) - The new currency means nothing and is essentially Monopoly money. Everything therefore seems incredibly cheap. Stage 2 is the most dangerous part of the cycle, since I spend willy-nilly (this is where I am now);
- Depression (7-15 months) - Having lived with the new currency for some time, I start forgetting the reference points (the price of bread, alcohol, DVDs, etc.) in the old one. However, I still can't really get to grips with the new one. As a result, I don't understand anything anymore. This is theoretically the best time to move to another currency;
- Schizophrenia (16-24 months) - I have got used to the new currency and can more-or-less move from one to the other, though still reminisce about the one I have "left behind"; and finally
- Acceptance - The point of no return. I think only in the new currency forsaking all others.
Given that we're due to be in the States for about three years, I'll just have time to get used to the dollar before I'm back to square - and stage - one again. Unless, of course, Euroland is so smitten by President Obama that it decides to adopt the Greenback.
1 comment:
As Mum has quite rightly pointed out, I have in fact witnessed *five* currency shifts, though my only memory of the decimalisation of 1974 is of going to a friend's party with a bucketful of oversized, obsolete pennies.
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