Stupid (Mathematical) Conversions...

Being an American in a foreign country is seriously a pain in the butt sometimes. And not because of ethnic or political disagreements. I completely understand the prejudices and sometimes outright anger expressed at us for our foreign policies and ways of life.

I'm talking about the math side of it.

Learning a language in a classroom that is being taught in said language is challenging enough, but today we began discussing the weather and how to set up comparisons. Needless to say, everyone was using Celsius and meters/centimeters to measure everything, and being the only American in the entire class made the process of conversion pretty difficult. I never understood why America used feet and Fahreinheit when (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm pretty sure the rest of the world uses Celsius and meters, and dealing with it for the first time was a rather frustrating experience. I came here to learn Chinese, not relearn math!! :/

I still have tomorrow (listening class), but on the whole this week of classes has gone relatively well, conversion problems aside. I hardly ever get homework assigned, but I've been studying at least three or four hours outside class each day in order to review more vocabulary. This weekend is sure to be fun as well, as my friend Tara and I are going to go to the museum in People's Square as well as a local zoo. Will definitely be taking photos for my website if we manage to go!

But yeah, will also be definitely studying up on basic conversions so I can understand distance and temperature better here. :/