MY PRECIOUS

I'm sure we are all aware of how the U.S. economy has been tanking lately and how our dollar is worth, oh... crap. When I got to Italy, I changed $300 and got back 157 Euro. That's it. Holy moly. From then on, I tried to use credit cards assuming I'd get a better exchange rate. One day, I woke up and all of the Italian morning news headlines were about how the dollar pretty much sucked. In one day, the dollar dropped about 10 cents in exchange and it was all over the news.

Anyhow, back to my precious... What is it? My shampoo and conditioner. The hotel I stayed at, Hotel Zurigo, for some reason didn't provide shampoo and conditioner, although they provided you a dental kit, shower gel and shoe sponges. Ironically, I took all the shampoos and conditioners I took from Mandalay Bay out of my luggage right before I left, thinking I'd get some in my room. Go figure. So I try to make do with using the shower gel for everything, even though it leaves me smelling a bit manly. Italian manly. But really, I can only do this for so long and I go in search of shampoo and conditioner.

La Rinascente, a department store beside the Duomo has some of this stuff, but they are the equivalent of Neiman Marcus, and i just need little ones to last me during my trip. CHEAP little ones. So I try a pharmacy down the way. Italian pharmacies are different from American pharmacies. They have their drugs, lotion, and they have a butt load of anti-aging stuff... and that's it. So, desperate, I pick up some Kiehl's because they have smaller travel-sized bottles. 13 euro for shampoo. 16 for conditioner. If those were dollars I'd already think them expensive, but in euros? OMG. I check my credit card charges online... $40 for my travel-sized shampoo and conditioner. GEEEEEZ! You know I brought whatever was left back with me. I'm going to treasure them foreeeevvver.

Now, you may think the Europeans think it's great that the dollar is low and the euro is high, but they don't. We talked to various people and it makes life harder for them. If Americans can't afford things in euros, then they don't come out for vacations or business trips and they don't buy things or do business with Europeans. The low dollar has hurt them and their businesses as well.