differences

liz came here and we had a lovely vacation together. we only took pictures with her camera, though, so a blog about that will have to wait. to hold you over i am posting about something i deal with daily. just thought you should know. :)

things are different here. more than just the language, you know. like...

celcius and fahrenheit: i never know the temperature and if i ask someone they say stuff like 4 degrees. sounds really cold.. and i can tell from being outside that it IS really cold, but exactly how cold.. well, i have to look on my computer to find that out.ű
when i want to cook something (who cooks any more, right? well i do here!) i have to go to the computer to convert the instructions to or from celcius so that i dont burn the flat down. so far, so good.

time: not only do we use the 24 hour clock here (and i am not a military person) - which causes me enough trouble because i always add or subtract 12 from the time and sometimes i do it... well, wrong... BUT hungarians tell time differently. if it is 5:15 we would say it is a quarter after 5. they say it is a quarter on the way to 6. we say half past 6 they say half on the way to 7. then things that end in 45 are the same. yeah!

the keyboard: if i didnát alter the waz i tzped here, this is what zou would be seeing. instead of dollar sign ,there is !, instead of ! there is ', instead of @ there is ", and all the numbers are moved over to the right one because yero is next to the 1. oh, and itás virtuallz impossible for me to get the @ without looking because i have to push ALT V to get that little guz. and there are some key we donát have, like ö ü ó ő ú é á ű.

the metric system: that means kilometers instead of miles. "how far do you live from school?" "oh about 50 kilometers"... that means nothing to me. "how tall are you?" "174 centimeters."... that means nothing to me. "how much cheese do you want?" "a decagram will be fine." ... a WHATgram?? "my new years resolution is to lose 10 kilos." ... uh, are you talking about drugs?

floors: it's not that big of a deal, really, but in europe they call the first floor the ground floor. then the (american) second floor is called the "first floor" because it is the first raised level. (the hungarian word for floor - when it isn't the ground floor - implies elevation, so i can understand them calling it that.) so if i lived in the flat i live in now but in america, i would live on the third floor. but here i live on the second floor. that's all just fine until you go somewhere and they say oh you're on the second floor, just take your suitcases on up. you might be thinking you only have to lug your junk up one flight, but in reality, it's more like 6. here's how i figure. in america there is usually ONE flight of stairs between floors. i have noticed here that there are two flights and a platform between two floors. so, flight-platform-flight, FIRSTFLOOR, flight-platform-flight, SECONDFLOOR, flight-platform-flight, THIRDFLOOR is the way to the second floor... good luck with all your stuff. there is no such thing as elevators in buildings with fewer than 5 floors - as far as i've seen.

clothes sizes: i have no idea what they're measuring here. but the clothes i've seen while shopping have numbers in the 30s and 40s. i just try things on until they feel right. this may take up to 10 tries. luckily, i have a lot of time.
i wear size 40 in shoes. 40 centimeters maybe? that's 4 decimeters, you know. oh you DON'T know? you must be american like me. but, it might not be what we're measuring. just a guess.

bags: BYOB... bring your own bags... to the grocery store. if you don't, you gotta buy one there

toilets: they have a shelf in them. there is not a lovely pool of water, but a shelf to display to all the world your most recent work. to flush, do not look for a handle. instead scan the toilet room (which is separate from showers and sinks in most cases) for a chain to pull from the overhead tank, or perhaps a button on the top of the waist-high tank, or even a lever to press into the tank. really, your guess is as good as mine.


i don't think these differences are bad. just different. i think the US should push metric and celcius again. we are one of like 3 countries who aren't metric and who aren't celcius-thinkers. in america it doesn't matter, but we are at a disadvantage in the rest of the world. unless we memorize some silly 5/9 + 32 formula or remember some conversions. or carry around calculators and sliderules and notecards and abacuses and and and...