The metric system & other conversions and translations.

Ever since grade school, think 1960’s, teachers have been telling me that the metric system is coming, so we’d better learn it now. Well, 50+ years have passed, and we’re doing fine without it. Fine, that is, unless you venture outside of the U.S. where the metric system is alive and well.

If you run, then you’ve had a little experience with the metric system. Most races are in kilometers, or km. 5K, 10K , etc. A little basic math, like multiplying the km’s by ‘.6′ will get you pretty close to the truth. But that’s distance. Around the world they use the metric system for measuring liquid, weight, etc.

In a lot of situations the metric system can work to your advantage. For instance, I currently weigh about 77. (That’s in kg’s.) That’s a lot better than 185 lbs., right? OK, let’s be honest, I have lost a little weight since the trip began, so the 77 kg. is really just shy of 170 lbs. I didn’t try to lose any weight while travelling. It just happened naturally. First off, there’s no decent beer to speak of in Asia. Secondly, there’s no Mexican food around anywhere. By attrition, both those things have been eliminated from my diet. I’ve gone from wearing “relaxed fit’ jeans to comfortably fitting into the “skinny” version, and even down a few sizes in the waist.

The kg’s also come into play at the market when you’re buying any fruit or veggies as it’s priced per kg. You’ll need to be able to convert that to pounds, then quickly be able to convert the cost into local currency. The currency, unfortunately, is not on the metric system yet. You’ll need an app on your phone for the first couple days until you get comfortable with doing the math in your head. So, in Malaysia, a .7 kg lily mango at the market, at 13.80 MYR (Malaysian currency) per kg., well you can see where we’re going here. There’s an app, XE currency converter, that’s been a big help too. Especially since we’ve lived with 6 different currencies over the past 9 months. So once you’ve converted from local currency to USD and kg’s to pounds, then you’ll need a google translate app, with the local language installed, to tell the mango seller than the price is to high.

With the metric system you can drive a lot faster. Cars are sometime going over 100 (kph) around here, not to mention they’re driving on the wrong side of the road. And I still don’t get why they bother to move the steering wheel to the other side of the car. That just complicates things, right?

Liquid in the metric system can also be a little intimidating. If someone says the drink you ordered is 500ml, then later in the day someone tells you they’re going to take 10ml for your blood test, well you’d better be up on your ml’s.

One area the metric system has not invaded is “time.” If the metric system were really that great wouldn’t they use it for time too? Having 24 hours in a day is just as silly as having gallons, or feet, or miles, isn’t it? With the metric system there would be 10 hour days, 10 days to a week, 10 months to a year, etc. It would be easy. No more April, June and November poems to remember. No more leap years. We’re already halfway there if you think about it. We have 10 years to a decade, 100 to a century and 1000 to a millennium. Somebody dropped the ball and stopped halfway through this job. It’s time to finish it.

So we’re constantly converting. Kilometers to miles, kilograms to pounds, rupees to dollars, milliliters to ounces, Hindi to English and so on. In the background of all this, everywhere you go, has been the constant din of 6 foreign languages being spoken, most of the time loader than need be. Sometimes the solace of our apartment is really what we crave. A sometimes, quiet place where we can enjoy some occasional silence. That’s one of the few things I miss about the U.S., our quiet home in the woods. You know, the one with the bathtub. The one where you can drink the water out of the tap. The one where you can flush TP down the toilet. The one that’s 10 miles to the studio.

Anyway it’s hot here right now, around 37 C. Of course that’s in metric too. So just multiply 37 by 1.8 and add 32. So it feels like 99 F. And we’re quite used it. So, from 13000 kilometers away, see you in November 2018. You know, the month with 30 days.