{"id":8952,"date":"2017-11-30T21:56:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T21:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/?p=8952"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:19:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T11:19:34","slug":"livin-la-vida-local-the-money-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/news-nl\/livin-la-vida-local-the-money-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Livin\u2019 la vida Local: The Money Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

In deze maandelijkse column schrijft projectco\u00f6rdinator Megan van der Moezel over haar ervaringen in Quito. Livin\u2019 la vida Local: een beginnershandleiding met een humoristische ondertoon over dit fascinerende\u00a0land. Deze maand een column over the<\/em> Money Game<\/em> in Ecuador.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Door Megan van der Moezel<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve decided it is time to talk about money. After all, it always seems to play an important part in your story no matter where you travel. I remember going to Thailand seven years ago for instance. In a matter of days I managed to lose my bankcard simply because ATMs there spit out your cash before returning your card. In other words: I walked away happily carrying my money and leaving my card behind. Spent the rest of the trip bumming cash from my friend, only to have a small -borrowed- fortune stolen from my backpack at a louche hotel on Koh Pangan.<\/p>\n

In Ecuador, I am facing a whole nother kind of problem. Here, everyone who steps off a plane will – unknowingly at first – instantly become involved in a highly competitive game. The Money Game<\/em>, so you will. The good news, is that you can win your first victory simply by not bringing any large bills. It won\u2019t take you long to realize why. Most likely the first time you try to hand over a $10 bill to a shopkeeper to pay for your bag of apples. The typical tortured expression combined with a whiny \u2018no cambio\u2019<\/em> (no change) that inevitably follows, will haunt you for the rest of your stay.<\/p>\n

So what should you do?<\/h4>\n

Everyone quickly develops their own strategies. Let me share some of mine: Step one<\/strong> is figuring out which locations handle the most money. These will be the easiest victims. My go-to place to break a big bill is the Santa Maria supermarket next to the Local Dreamers office. Get yourself one pack of gum, innocently hand your $20 to the cashier – all the while ignoring the murderous glare you\u2019ll receive as a result – and you\u2019re set for change for at least half a week.<\/p>\n

Step 2<\/strong> is always using the largest bill you think you can get away with for each purchase. Even if you have just successfully completed a \u2018step 1\u2019 and are sporting a wallet chockfull of coins. Just flat out lie if you have to. Lo siento mucho<\/em> love, I really don\u2019t have anything smaller.<\/p>\n

Step 3<\/strong> is never taking no for an answer without sparring a few rounds of \u2018no cambio\u2019 versus \u2018no smaller notes\u2019 first. Remember, you are not the only player in the game. Just as you are trying to break your big bills, your competitors are trying to hold on to their change at all costs. So don\u2019t give up too easily. And don\u2019t be afraid to go into battle to keep your precious coin collection intact.<\/p>\n

Losing the Money Game<\/h4>\n

And finally, come to realize that there actually is such a thing as TOO small currency as well. Quito\u2019s city busses are the most notorious place to learn this lesson. Trust me. I found out the hard way. It was during one of my first weeks in Quito, and I was hopelessly losing the Money Game. Eventually it got so bad, that I had no choice but to pay for my $0,25 bus ride to work with 5 bucks. The largest amount that any bus will accept, and that any experienced player wouldn\u2019t even consider paying. And no wonder. You wouldn\u2019t believe the size of the pennies-heap that rookie move resulted in.<\/p>\n

Luckily, it is a lot easier to get rid of small change, than big bills. Two packs of gum at the supermarket, a five minute wait while the sulky cashier counts my coppers, and voila! I\u2019m back to square one, and ready for another round.<\/p>\n

Saludos,<\/p>\n

Megan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In deze maandelijkse column schrijft projectco\u00f6rdinator Megan van der Moezel over haar ervaringen in Quito. Livin\u2019 la vida Local: een beginnershandleiding met een humoristische ondertoon over dit fascinerende\u00a0land. Deze maand een column over the Money Game in Ecuador. Door Megan van der Moezel I\u2019ve decided it is time to talk about money. After all, it… <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-nl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8952"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9077,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8952\/revisions\/9077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.localdreamers.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}