How We Measure

When traveling or living overseas, it is so easy to miscalculate mileage and miss an exit, dress unsuitably and freeze, misidentify currency and pay twice as much, overlook time change when crossing a border, or scorch a cake to death in a Celsius oven.  We know because we have done all of this.  If Imperial-System-of-Measurement minds underestimate the power of Math, we should hope they never travel to a Metric-System-Measurement country: they will pay too much, get lost, arrive late, or eat their own burned food!

Kilometers vs Miles

When we drive in European countries, we ride in near silence.  Why? Our minds are clicking to calculate how many miles to our next destination; to illustrate, 'If a 10K is 6.2 miles, and we are 50 kilometers away then our address is approximate 30 miles further.'  "Yes, that's right," we say, " St. Louis Track Club taught us all the K's.  We should arrive at 2100 hours then."



Celsius vs Fehreiheit
"It's 5 degrees Celsius in Tellinn right now," the ship's public service announcement informed us.  "Let's do the math right now before we get off this boat.  Maybe we should take gloves and  wear a hat." Pause.
"Oh....it's 41degrees F, and it's sunny.  I'm not taking gloves."

"It's 1 degree Celsius in Helsinki right now," the ship's public service announcement informed us.
"Uh...1degree Celsius.  That sounds dangerous!"  Pause.  "Oh...it's 33 degrees F, but it's damp and foggy.  I'm wearing my gloves and a hat."

Oven Temperature Conversion
Take one chocolate cake batter, pour into dish, place into Celsius oven, set at 191 degrees C.
Results:  caked baked for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.  Burned chocolate cake.  Scrape off burned cake top and sides, conceal with icing.  Consult Celsius Conversion Chart next time.



European Currency
This one is always tricky.  We have to remember where we are.  About 19 of the Euro countries use the Euro.  Nine countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden and the United Kingdom) do not accept the Euro.  So, we have to remember what is circulating in our own pocketbooks: rubles, pounds, Kunas, Kronas, or Krones, etc.
Many of the European countries use coins for paper money.  Pockets get heavy and vexation increases when we want to buy bottles of water but do not have a pound to our name.  Or, maybe that coin is a pound...no, it's a Krona!

Military Time
Time in Europe is measured in 24-Hour Time, commonly referred to as Military Time.
The 0001=12:01am and then all the digits through 1200 are easy.  If you like to arrive in time to catch your train, but you have difficulty adding, then you might not want to travel in Europe.  If your train in Germany leaves at 1620 on Platform 8A, you had better think fast, be there, or you may be catching the 1840 train.

Traveling is always a cultural and educational experience.  It forces us to consider how other cultures live and how we can navigate outside our own comfort zones.  Since have been so deeply involved in other cultures and with other language groups for so many years, traveling abroad gives us a reasonable assessment and a slightly different perspective of population dynamics.  We begin to understand the cultural challenges that newcomers experience.

"...but we are after a far better country than that-heaven country... We are truly strangers and pilgrims on this earth..." (Hebrews 11)  Heaven: no time, no currency, no temperatures, no distances...just unity.

Keep Looking Up....and take off in a new direction!

J:m and L:nda