Shekels. I brought back a few that were given to me on my last trip to Israel. They were nothing more than an interesting souvenir at the time. My wife and I did not do any monetary exchange before entering Israel, and it proved not to be a hindrance at all. Now as I prepare for a return to Israel, I find myself desiring to take a substantial amount of native currency. Since it is not a requirement, one might wonder why this is so.
There may be a couple of things motivating me to do this.
One might be a sense of adventure. It might be a little more exciting to have to think in unfamiliar terms regarding the purchases that I make rather than to simply have the vendor do the translation for me. Another reason might be a slight sense of guilt. I might be exaggerating things, but I feel a bit presumptuous going into a foreign country without temporarily surrendering some of my "Americanness." I don't speak the native language (and let's face it, how irritated would we be with people who would come to the United States and expect to interact with us without speaking any English?). On top of that, many of the vendors simply rounded off the purchase amount when converting my purchases to dollars, and I'm confident that they did not always round up! It just seems like a small but reasonable gesture to offer them their native currency in doing business with them.
Whatever the reason, I will probably be making a visit to the most convenient Travelex booth at JFK before taking flight. Maybe...
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