seen and heard

Heard, over meatballs, at IKEA:

Tiffany: "The cars down there are so tiny!"
Maia: "We're so high up!"
Tiffany: "It's like they're toys!"
Maia: "It's like we're on a plane! And look at the view!"
Tiffany: "What a beautiful day to be at IKEA!"

In our defense, IKEA does have a surprisingly gorgeous view of the hills.

Seen, online, googling "where is the best place to exchange money":

What to Do with Leftover Currency
In most cases, you'll have some foreign currency left over by the time you're ready to return home. Here's what you can do with it:
Spend it on gifts for yourselves, friends, or family at the airport dutyfree shop
Donate it to charity. Find a place to do this at the airport or send it to UNICEF's Change for Good program, which helps children around the world
Convert it back to your local currency at the airport
Exchange it when you get home
Keep it as a souvenir of your trip

I can't deal with how stupid they must think I am. "Oh, goodness me, my trip is over, and I still have money in the currency of the country I'm visiting. Heavens, what on earth shall I do with it! It's completely useless at home! I suppose I'll just throw it in this trash can in the Ladies'. No use toting home all this useless paper in my Chanel handbag!"

I continued to follow some links to hopefully find something more useful, i.e., a measured examination of whether one would get a better exchange rate at a bank or American Express, or at an airport, or somewhere in the town we're going in Mexico, etc. Instead, I came up with this enlightening paragraph:

If you are planning to travel abroad in the near future, you will probably need some local currency. That is where a currency exchange service comes in. Currency exchange is when you trade currency from one country to the equivalent monetary value in the currency of another country. A currency exchange service will take your dollars and give you the equivalent value in Euros for example.

Oh my god! So that's what this whole so-called "currency exchange" shit is about. And look at this:

If the currency you are trading is volatile relative to your local currency, it is possible to lose money in the transaction and the values of the currencies fluctuate

Wow. This is like, so complicated.

I'm sorry. Maybe I underestimate the travel experience of the average person. I've heard there are people out there who never travel at all, not even to another state.


Seen, online:

So, I guess everyone reads this blog already, but I did think this was pretty darn funny:

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/05/fugga_herzigova.html

Oddly, I feel like it's actually so close to being pretty, if it just. . . well, was actually there. Instead it's just very amusing.