…so was the subject title of the email I received from my friend Donna who will be traveling in Europe this summer as well.

Donna is traveling with her daughter, Aubrey…a former student of mine, and Aubrey’s friend, Bryn.

You might be thinking, “What could be so painful?”

Well, if you’re from the U.S. and plan on traveling to Europe anytime soon you’ll be feeling the pain as well…it’s gonna hit you where it really hurts…it’ll start in your wallet, then the pain will gravitate to your bank account.

It’s a delayed pain. You won’t feel it at first…prices don’t seem much different than at home.  But then you return home and go online to balance your account.

The pain hits!  You ask your self, “Did I really spend that much”?  Then you start feeling a sharp sting…”What are all those fees?”

Yes, the “ouch” in Donna’s email was referring to the exchange rate between the USD and the Euro.  She had sent me the page from www.xe.com showing the Euro was now at $1.43.

I try not to think about it too much…it depresses me.  Why can’t the rates be the same as last summer when the Euro was at $1.20 something.  Unfortunately, I think we are going to see a repeat of the rates as they were in the summer of 2009.

Oh well, I can’t let this bring me down…I’ve got a trip to plan.