Currency

Since I've been here, I've generally NOT paid attention to the exchange rate. I just figure that 1,000 Won = $1. That works for me. Until today.

I wire money home once a month so that I can pay my bills. All I ever hear on the news is the glorious state of the American economy, and I think "Well, I'm here, so why stress about it?" WRONG AGAIN!

Long story short, the economic plague that is now affecting America has come to Korea. Korea exports something like 75% of goods to America, and now, it's becoming harder for them to do so, therefore, less exports, resulting in the rise of the Korean won. Or something like that. I'm not claiming to know much about any of this, I'm just saying...

ANYWHO, I go to the bank today and wire money home. I wire a total of 1.1 million won home, which is sort of the equivalent of $1,100. In order to do this I change the money from won into dollars, and then wire the full amount home. She gave me my receipt, and this is about exactly when I felt the strong urge to shart my pants... My 1.1 million won translated into $690. Exactly. I'm sure your jaw just dropped, so don't worry, cause that's what my stomach did when she handed me that paper.

The exchange rate is apparently the worst it's been in 60something years, and only expected to get worse. And even though it's technically money I never had, I feel like I lost about $400 in that transaction. A friend of mine wired $8,000 home to Canada last week and only ended up sending $6,000 due to the exchange rate.

All this shit going on over here, and they don't even have Chipotle.