The Golden Eggs

Sina and Nate have been telling me how expensive everything is here and I didn't quite grasp exactly how bad it was until I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things yesterday. I filled my handheld basket with my purchases and walked confidently up to the checkstand. I may not speak French, but I know how to shop at the grocery store. The cashier scanned my purchases and said a bunch of numbers really fast. I can only count to 10 in French so I didn't even try to translate. I used my survival skills and looked up at the screen next to her for the bottom line. Much to my horror, the botttom line said 187.23! I immediately went into shock mode and lost all common sense. I racked my brain trying to determine which items I could put back to make up the difference in price, and to figure out how to tell the cashier I was short on cash. Finally I took three 50 euro bills out of my pocket and held them out to the cashier with my best "please understand what I can't say and help me figure this out" look. She carefully removed one of the bills and pointed to, not the bottom line, but the top line. Suddenly my purchase was only 27.50. Who knew they tell you your cost in Euros and Francs???