Adventures on the Train

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I have a very long train ride to Basel. It can last between 1 hour and 2 minutes and more usually, 1 hour and 45 minutes. The German system of checking tickets is tricky. For days nobody will ask to see your ticket, then in one week somebody will ask every day. So you may think you'll get lucky if you are going just once to some destination and don't want to pay, but you never know. I of course, am somewhat paranoid, so I make sure that I have a ticket.

Only, yesterday, I forgot my wallet in the midst of waking up at 5am and rushing to catch my 6am train. I didn't realize that I didn't have my wallet until the ticket checker showed up. I checked to get out my ticket and to my shock, I had no wallet and no ticket. Buying a ticket on the train isn't an option...and if it was, I had no money anyway. What's more, I didn't have a passport or any form of ID. Luckily for me, the ticket checker did not really speak English, and I do not really speak German, and he said 'This time it's ok.' So, despite my embarrassment having everybody nearby staring at me, that was a relief. However, I still had to make it into Switzerland and back. Of course nobody stopped me demanding to see a passport as I entered Switzerland (although it does happen.) A nice fellow teacher lent 50 swiss francs to me. (which is sort of a lot) and I managed to buy a ticket home as well as a comfort Cosmo for 14 swiss francs.

Which brings me to another topic...it is sooooo confusing to figure out how much money is actually worth when you try to get your head around dollars, euros, and swiss francs. It turns out that the cosmo would have cost 8.70 in euros (a lot) and 11.75 in dollars. Sadly, I am working in a place where things cost a lot, but I get paid in a unit of money worth less than the dollar. I am still not sure exactly how much I'll get in my pay check, so I'll wait and see.