In order to immerse myself further in the Spanish language (Castellano), I've started taking Spanish classes! I take night classes with seven others, who are mostly students and auxiliares (teachers from countries other than Spain that teach their native language) from Australia, Norway, Germany, Ireland, the Philippines and China. It's a really great mix of people, cultures, and language levels, so I'm never bored.
The euro is the official currency of the European Union, but not all countries in the EU use the euro. Right now, the United Kingdom is in the midst of potentially separating from the EU (Brexit). When I visited London over Christmas break, I had to exchange my euros for British pounds. Like the euro, I liked using pounds because they're more colorful than U.S. dollars, have images of women on them (like Queen Elizabeth II) and have convenient one and two-pound coins. The 50 pence (half of a pound) coin even has a cat on it!
As I've said before, you can buy three or four water bottles for one euro in Madrid. Other drinks are also cheap. For example, every grocery store has a self-serve orange juice machine that squeezes oranges as you use it. A small, single-serve bottle of the juice (250 mL) only costs .75 euro.
