When I was in junior high school, there was a huge push for the US to adopt the metric system. Lots of arguments and push back led to the Americans sticking with the current system. I spent a couple of years in school forced to learn conversion rates. I can remember wailing to one science teacher that if the US adopted the system, we wouldn't have to convert ANYTHING!
I am now in that boat.
I'm living where meters, liters and a completely different temperature scale is the norm. Do I want to convert? No. Would I like to recognize or understand what I'm hearing or pricing? Yes.
That means, when the news says it's 27 outside, I'm not going to convert to degrees Farenheit. I'm going to step outside and see if I feel hot or cold. That's my method. I don't want to convert, I want to understand the reference.
Instead of trying to convert the price of gasoline from dollars per gallon to Tunisian Dinar per liter, I just want to look at the numbers and make a note of which gas station has the lowest price. It may sound lazy, but I'm not that good at math.
In the US, I had a habit of going to the ATM every other week and getting the same amount of money out. I kept that cash and spent it. My spending money lasted me two weeks, and I could easily budget my cash purchases based on the knowledge that I generally had that much money to spend each month.
Here, I'm going to withdraw Tunisian Dinar and see how long I can carry it around. Determine how long it will last me. I don't expect my buying habits to change that much. I've always been an online shopper, and that purchasing will continue to be done electronically. The cash money I carry is for eating out and small purchases at local shops.
At some point, I'm going to "know" how much ground beef costs, how much for a jug of milk. I just have to get in the stores and do weekly shopping for those valuations to sink into my thick skull. It's all a matter of mindset. And trying to avoid exercising my math skills.
--Sandee Wagner
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6 comments:
Here is a trick I still use. 82 = 28
So 27C would be a bit cooler then 82F, and I would guess it to be 80-ish. On the average I subtract about 1.5 degrees 'converting'
It isn't scientifically sound, but it'll get you in the right ballpark.
As far as metric is concerned. Welcome to my world! The US system makes NO sense at all!
Not logically divide everything by 10 to get to a smaller unit. Oh no! Lets sometimes divide by 16 or then again it is 4... Yeah, so much easier. NOT! After 14 years, I still hate it!
So I have a Metsher kitchen. This is much like a kosher kitchen, having everything double, but then for metric ;-) And a scale that does double duty in ounces and grams, so I can cook both of my favorite recipes.
I have no grieves/advice on the Dinar. I would guess you can't compare it anyway to your US spending habits. Even if everything was prices in $. Some things will be much more expensive while others will be cheaper. And you'll have to get used to new brands and figure out what is good and what is 'to local' to eat.
Speaking of foods: please go into that Salon of The Fast Food. Inquiring Minds needs to know what they sell!
Since you do a lot of online shopping, you should get an outdoor thermometer... then you don't even have to learn a new baseline--you can stick with the one you've already got!
Emmanuelle,
I love the 28=82 hint. That's GREAT to know. I can't really do too much math in my head. Give me a paper and pencil and I'm dangerous, but I'm a little too left brained for arithmetic in my skull.
Bert long ago collected tools that are both metric and US standard. I guess I'll have to rig the kitchen to do both also. But I don't really have too many recipes that do metric measurements yet. I might be able to get by with a scale and a conversion app for my iPad.
I think you're right about the costs of things. I just have to get a feel for what's cheap and what I need. There are some commodities that we buy regardless of price...
It will be fun to see what's cheap over here... maybe it's gold jewelry?? spw
EmmyLee,
Maybe if I got one of those indoor/outdoor thermometers that had both metric and US standard on it?? That might work.
Why the celsius conversion is attractive is the news/weather. Most of it is BBC and they do all the weather in metric anyway. So it will be actually more useful to know what 28 feels like so I can dress appropriately.
spw
I think you need this... http://www.threadless.com/product/2425/37_Celsius_98_6_Fahrenheit#zoom
Emm! What a great t-shirt. If I had that one, I'd know exactly what temperature it was all the time!! What fun. spw
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