Now, as I eat my eggs and toast, I give you the second installment of observed differences between living in the US, and in Poland (Warsaw, specifically).

This continues the "Obvious Differences" category with: The Metric System.

Currently only 3 countries in the world do not use the Metric System.  They are, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Liberia, and us Yanks back in the ol’ US of A.

Actually, it’s interesting because some measurements in the US are in metric.  Soda comes in 2 liter bottles.  We measure sodium and fat and other food constituents in grams.  And I’m sure there are many scientists and engineers who use metric.  So some things aren’t so shocking.  Getting drinks measured by the milliliter takes some getting used to.  As does the fact that 50 kilometers per hour is SLOW.  Temperature is another one that messes you up, though we changed our thermometer over a few months before we left the states, so we’ve had some time to figure out roughly where everything is (20 is room temperature, 30 is shorts, 15 is pants, 10 is jacket…  pretty simple).  Though this is pretty easy when deciding what to wear, it makes cooking a bit more challenging!  Luckily we brought some of our own measuring cups and spoons, since all of our recipes are measured in cups and spoons, rather than liters and grams.

It’s still really hard for me to judge distance, though part of the bike trail is spray-painted in 100m increments up to 1km, so that helps.  Weights is another story, though…  When I ordered a half kilo of cold cuts, I didn’t expect to get so much!  But it was a manageable size.  Though next time, I’m going for a quarter!!

Makes you wonder when and if the US will burst from our little bubble and join the rest of the world on the Metric system.  Don’t get me wrong, that kind of change takes a LONG time and a lot of work, so I don’t see it happening any time soon (not like the US is a small place!).  But it makes me wonder if we could start transitioning the little things…  give the weather in Celcius and Farenheit for a while…  Heck, we’ve already got that on most thermometers.  And our cars tell us both kmph and mph, so maybe someone’s already started this…