Change in Currency

Lately in class, we've been learning about foreign exchange of currency. I was lucky enough to visit Europe this past summer. My family and I went to France, Italy, and spent a day in Germany on our way home. We had such an amazing time, but there was one hassle. When we arrived in Europe, we had to convert all our American dollars into euros. This represented an increase in our demand for foreign currency. To be honest, my dad took care of the money situation, but I can imagine it wasn't easy. I'm not really sure exactly what the conversion ratio was, but I know it took more than one dollar to get a euro. It was definitely harder to find reasonable prices for meals, clothes, etc. in Europe because what may have been reasonable to them was not reasonable to us, due to the fact that we had to pay more to get equal to one euro. My dad was constantly stopping at ATMs to deposit his cash and get more euros. He actually got an excess of euros so we wouldn't run out. When we arrived back in the United States, we had extra euros that we obviously couldn't use anymore. So, he went back to the bank near our house and traded the extra euros for the equivalent amount of American dollars. This left our American bank with an increase in their supply of euros. Maybe next time the United States wants to import something from Europe, they'll use that extra supply of euros my dad gave the bank.