Conversions

Greetings!

So, one thing that’s been taking some getting used to is the conversions for weights and measures, temperature, currency, clothing sizes, and all that fun stuff.

There’s some things that both the Europeans and the Asians have in common: they refer to temperature in Celsius. They’ll say things to me, like, “Last week was so cold; it was 12 degrees!”

Um, well, YEAH, that sounds pretty cold to me! (It’s actually around 54 degrees Fahrenheit.) Or they’ll say things like, “Let’s check out the beach this weekend. It should be about 28 degrees!”

Well, that doesn’t sound very warm to me! But it’s actually 82 degrees Fahrenheit. By the way, I just now used an online converter to figure those out.

Currency has also been strange. It can be dangerous to spend money here, because I’m not always exactly sure how much I’m really spending. I’m purchasing things under the assumption that they’re much cheaper than in the US, but that isn’t always the case. But to make sure I have a reference of how much money I’m really spending, I made a conversion chart that I carry with me in my purse. It tells me how much each increment of the local currency, the Pataca, is equal to the US dollar. It’s a really handy thing to have, and I recommend to any international traveler that they make a little chart like that for whichever country they’re going to. You can go online to a currency converter, like Xe.com, and enter in any amount of money and convert it to all kinds of currencies. I didn’t make one for Indonesia because you can do the conversion in your head. 100,000 rupiah is $10. It’s all in multiples of ten, so even someone who is math-retarded like me can do that in their head.

When we compare the prices in Macau to back home, I use the USD system, which is actually recognizable worldwide. So everyone knows what I’m talking about. But the Europeans use Euros. “Oh, that’s about six Euros back home.” Well, that is meaningless information to me, just like when you say its 28 degrees. I don’t have any grasp on those concepts, so I have no idea how to react when people talk to me in Celsius or Euros.

Weights are in the metric system, so all the Europeans and Asians here can speak to each other with the metric system and know what they’re talking about. But again, I have no idea how much 30 kilograms actually weighs. I don’t have a comparable reference for that in my head, which is not good because the airlines have luggage weight restrictions. When I flew Viva Macau airlines I could take 15 kilograms, and was very lucky when they weighed my luggage at the airport and was exactly that. But coming back I was 19 kilograms (I HAD to buy souvenirs from Bali!), and I had to pay $12 USD for each kilo I went over. I had to pay $8 for checked luggage, plus the extra $48 for being overweight. The good news, they accepted only American dollars (which is strange, since it’s Viva Macau airlines and fly only within Asia). The bad news, I was saving my $100 bill to convert into Patacas when I got back from Indonesia, but they wouldn’t accept my debit card.

Cooking is also an issue. Everything’s in milliliters and whatnot, but I’m used to cooking with cups. Unfortunately, we don’t have any measuring cups. I’ve had some interesting culinary mishaps due to this little problem, like spaghetti that came out more like soup than pasta. I’ve started going online and converting the recipe’s milliliters into cups and tablespoons, at least that way I can somewhat guess how much ingredient to add.

I’m still figuring out the clothing sizes. My dad sent me a conversion chart, but each country seems to have their own system of sizing. I don’t think China has their own system, but I don’t know if they use the Japanese sizes, the Australian sizes, the European sizes, or the American sizes. It’s hard to shop for clothes here because Asian girls tend to be very slender, so they don’t have many sizes for curvy girls like me. That’s why I bought extra-large shirts a few weeks ago, but I overestimated the size difference and now those shirts are too big on me. It’s very hard to figure out. A lot of the time they don’t even put the size on the clothing, and many stores don’t let you try it on first! Well, how on earth am I supposed to know how it will look on me?

Anyway, it’s been an interesting cultural difference, especially for one not really used to the metric system.

Happy converting!
Kati

P.S. I just switched the time zone for my blog to local Macau time. For all my friends and family back home in Phoenix, I'm fifteen hours ahead of you, or +08:00 GMT.

Another strange thing that the Asians and Europeans do is use military time. But they don't say "fifteen o'clock," they say "three o'clock." I don't get it. They just use it in writing. But I have to do some math in my head before I figure out what time I'm supposed to be where, and if I do some wrong adding I could be late to class, or worse, my flight!