Lost in Conversion

One would have expected that translating would take up a large part of my brain power after moving to another continent and beginning language school. But one adjustment I did not anticipate was the extent of the other conversions that would be required of me.

Fahrenheit to Celsius -Accepting that I’m going to have to get used to the new systems, I switched my computer’s weather ticker to Centigrade. So, now, instead of being able to prepare for a temperature, I basically have no idea how hot or cold it will be except in relation to how hot or cold it was the day before. Fortunately, It’s pretty much always ~75F here.

Miles to Kilometers - From running in road races I can remember that a 10k is 6.2 miles, 5k is 3.1 etc., but this week when I started car shopping, trying to keep mileage and kilometerage straight in my head was quite a task.

Pounds to Kilograms - Cooking has been a challenge as well. Fortunately, my rent includes meals, so someone is generally cooking for me, but on the few occasions when I've tried to bake I've had to adapt every recipe. So far I haven't had huge success. Plus, the altitude somehow causes baked goods to have little holes in them.

Dollars to Bolivianos - The exchange rate has been about 1:7 since I’ve been here, I wish now I’d learned my multiples of 7 a little better in 3rd grade. The really nice thing about these mental olympics is that I’ve been Christmas shopping, and where usually I would have been acutely aware of every penny I was spending, it’s been much easier to ignore the prices, since converting them isn't second nature.

Feet to Meters - This week alone I’ve struggled to try to explain how tall someone was, what elevation a town was at, and the distance of the swim in a race. I think the other party thinks the man I was describing is a giant, and my swim was a breeze.

Gallons to Liters - Recently, I was trying to figure out if gas was cheap here, but between gallons to liters and bolivianos to dollars, I gave up.

Time, of course, is measured in the same units, but you’d never guess it by the lack of concern for it that people here often show.

After a frustrating week with all of this math, this veterinarian’s sign reminded me of why I’m so grateful for my profession amongst all these unknowns. In English it reads, “We speak the same language as your pet.” This is why you can often find me conversing with perros whether in the office or in the street.