It's scorching in England at the moment. Not a dry, Californian heat, but a humid, muggy East Coast/Hong Kong kind of heat. Having lived here for over three (!) years now (see how I've even adapted the quintessential British passive tone: "Having ..."), I've learned to adapt to the measurements used in this country; bought myself a scale to measure baking ingredients (rather than using cups as all recipes here go by grams), but one thing I'm still kind of unsure of are temperature measurements. Even though I know 30 degrees Celsius is pretty damned warm, I sometimes still have the urge to convert it back to Fahrenheit.
I don't know why.
I think when you've always been familiar with a certain type of measurement, you relate everything back to those increments - so I can think of exactly how 40, 70, and 80 degrees Fahrenheit feels, but am still a little unsure of how 12, 18 and 25 feel (and those are big differences, I know, but I can't seem to pinpoint them). Is 18 actually warm? Or is it cold for the summer? Is 12 really, really cold? Or is it warm in the winter?
Another problem I have is with meters (or, "metres"). I still think in feet. When I get out of the car to direct John into a tight space and he asks, "How much room have I got left?" I automatically size up the distance and say, "About a good two feet." I know that doesn't mean much to him, but he good naturedly guesses anyway and skillfully backs into the spot.
I just might never adapt (by choice).
This is well good.
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