metric

I was just answering a question in comments, when I realized I might as well make it a post. Sassycat asked:
PS: have you had trouble converting temperatures/ measurements/currency yet? I know when I moved south of the border, it messed me up a lot ("what the hell is a yard?").
I'm trying to go cold-turkey - to not convert, but to think in metric. Litres and metres are easy. Centimetres and millilitres, not so much. I don't know them at all.

Kilometres are easy, especially if you don't convert, just drive. Kilometres per hour is even easier, once you're driving a Canadian car with the KpH more prominent in the dashboard.

Celsius is still tough! Every morning I look at the local weather, then try to associate how it feels outside with the number. I often go to my convert anything to anything link to see the Fahrenheit equivalent.

And these Canadian spellings are still killing me. Did I get them all?

* * * *

Lone Primate's comment below made me think of a few more. Like grams! Ordering deli at the Loblaws was tricky at first - we had to ask the counterperson how to order. But now I have it. 500 grams is the rough equivalent of a pound, in deli terms.

Yesterday we wondered about the word "mileage". You put mileage on a car, figure out the mileage from one place to the next. So what do you say, kilometrage? Just plain distance? Or do you use mileage, the way we say "dial a phone," even though phones don't have dials anymore?

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