Somehow 35C doesn't sound hot, while 95F is very hot. And a comfort zone of 22-27C (72-80F) just doesn't work either.

Besides, when I was in chemistry class, about 100 years ago C stood for Centigrade (100 degrees in Latin, I think) not Celsius. So who is this Celsius and why should we prefer him or her to the Venerable Fahrenheit?

These are questions that the inquiring minds wants to know.

Nevertheless, unless the Confederacy rises again, the chances of me ever living in America are slim, and everyone else uses Celsius, except of course for those primitives who don't give a darn what the temperature is.

So, in the same spirit that I accepted that the letter Z might be pronounced Zed instead of Zee, I decided to take the metric plunge–so I changed my electronic weather station and every one of my internet weather links to Celsius. I do. however, keep a conversion cheat sheet under the glass on my desktop.

But how the heck do you convert between the two?

If you solve calculus problems in your head for fun, or are just plain anal retentive, you would want to do it this way:

To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32 degrees and divide by 1.8.

To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32 degrees.

Another less precise system that some people use is this:

To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 30 degrees and cut in half..

To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, double and add 30 degrees.

That will get you pretty close at most temperature to which you will be exposed, unless you are an arctic explorer or work in a blast furnace.

If, however, those doesn't appeal, you might try the system that works for me:

I start by remembering that 68F=20C. I then simply add or subtract 2F for every 1C. Consequently, since 70F is 2F higher than 68, it must be about 21C.

What I like about it is that it is so simple that I can do it in my head, even when drinking. It is about 10% off, but who among us can tell the difference between 70F and 69.8F?

There is one final system to consider, as it breaks the temperature down into even more manageable units:

Way too cold,
Too cold,
cold,
cool,

nice,
warm,
hot,

too hot,
Too damned hot!

Which system do you prefer.

Fortunately almost all computers and peripherals works on both major electrical standards. For laptops you just have to put an adapter onto the plug so it fits into the wall socket. For most other things there is a switch somewhere you need to change. By the way, the electric plugs are Western European with two round prongs roughly the same size as a US plug, not those big clunky British ones that look like they belong on an electric furnace.

Television is an entirely different standard from the US. It is called PAL–the same as that used is most of Europe (except France; what a surpise). So unless your TV or VCR is multi-format, don't plan to use it here. For details on the different formats see World Television Standards.

There are other little things that, I'm sure are perfectly normal here, but a little strange to the gringo eyes of the Southron:

the hot and cold water faucets go from on to off in less than one turn–so adjusting the water temperature for a shower is accomplished by micro-turns and is best done before you get in unless you have scald-proof skin.
the hot water heaters are hung upside down on hooks and are hidden in cabinets.

the electric, water and gas meters are all inside the front gate, so you have to let the meter reader into the yard to get your meter read.
the doorbell is hidden on the inside of the gate pillar next to the mail box–everybody can find it but me.
the water in the drain swirls clockwise, not counter-clockwise (because we´re south of the equator).
barbecues are cooked with wood, not charcoal that's for amateurs or slackers.
they sell meat for the dogs in the meat section of the supermarket.
even though the signs say “No Dogs Allowed”, everyone takes their dogs on the beach.
the garbage is collected at 11PM instead of 6AM.
they don´t have canned soup.
salad dressing, if available at all, is only in tiny bottles, oil or vinegar and oil is the norm here–Caesar salad just means romaine, croutons and cheese, the dressing could be anything.

the English they do speak here is British English, not American English–so they go “in hospital”, you lounge in the sun in your “garden” not your yard, and they have various insurance “schemes” from which to choose.

Thinking about these little things here brings up a few memories of more interesting quirks from previous places.

In the West Indies 240 volts is the standard as here. But some places also have 110. In my house in Grenada I had both 240 and 110 with British plugs for the forme and US for the latter.

However, some places in the islands use British and US plugs indiscriminately. I found that out the hard way when I fried a printer by foolishly thinking a US plug would have US electricity–more fool me…

Then there is Costa Rica…of course you stupid gringos should know that C stands for Caliente or Calor — in other words, Hot Water stupid… maybe the H is for Helado: ice cream… The best part is that they are not consistent–sometimes it's hot , sometimes it's not…

But I digress from the adventure I
planned to divulge.

Chris and I needed to put out a
limited number of brochures for the business—some people in South America don’t believe you’re “Real” unless you have
brochures—websites mean nothing to them. I quickly wrote and designed a couple
of brochures based on website information, and a few more addressing
specifically Latin American needs. Since we only needed limited quantities,
commercial 4 color two sided printing seemed a bit over the top—so we decided to
do it ourselves.

All we needed was a decent color
printer, which we have; a means to “fix” the ink on the paper, which we did with
a normal household clothes iron; and standard size A4 coated (shiny) white paper
(a bit longer and narrower than US letter-size), which became a nightmare.

No one we called seemed to have
two-sided glossy coated A4 sized paper! They had A4 shiny photographic
paper—1-side only, they had A4 regular paper, they had A4 colored paper, they
probably even had A4 crepe paper; but the paper we needed obviously did not
exist in this universe.

In desperation Chris visited a
bigger papelería (paper store). They didn’t have what we needed, nor did they
know anyone who did. What they did have was A3 two-sided glossy coated paper,
but that was way too big for our needs. Chris suggested they cut it in half for
us and he would bring it back and we would try to make it work—they told Chris
that was an odd request, but they would do it.

He returned with the paper and said
I should see how close it was to what I needed. I took one of the sheets he
brought and held it up next to a piece of A4 printer paper—low and behold they
were identical. We were dumbfounded.

I went online to check this out and
found out the A3 is exactly twice the size of A4, so to get A4 you simply cut A3
in half. Boy did I feel stupid; but relieved.

I guess I should have known, or
found out in advance, that A4 is 297mm x 210mm and that A3 is 297mm x 420mm.
This illustrates that metric is more than just a different system of
measuring—it also has spawned subsidiary measurement systems that apply to
specific uses such as we encountered with paper.

Another lesson learned. I am sure
this will not be the last.

If you care about metric paper
measurements, save this link: http://www.inkjetart.com/weight.html.