Translation

After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
-Tom Petty


I ran outside today and went 3.5 miles.  I know this, because the site "map my run" told me.  This site is great.  You just draw on the map where you ran and it spits out how far you went.  And it believes anything you say.  If you tell it that you walked on water and ran across Lake Ontario, it won't blink.  My only problem is a small one - the site assumes that because I am running in a metric-speaking country that I would like my results in kilometers.  Not the case. So I have to make an extra click to get my results in miles - and sometimes I am fooled for a moment and then disappointed by reality.

I was able to run outside today because it was 15 degrees C.  I really don't know what that means.  While the metric system is intuitive on one level, it is also so foreign to me in terms of familiarity.  When I first moved here I watched the Buffalo weather just so I could get the temperature on the right scale (it turns out that watching the weather in another city isn't the best way to know what is happening in yours).  What is really interesting to me is that while all Canadians know the outside temperature and how far they ran or drove in metric, very few could cook or announce their height and weight in metric.  I talked to someone who moved into a new place and the thermostat was set in F and the oven in C and he didn't know how to use either one.  Also you might have more luck getting someone to tell you their weight in stones rather than kilograms.  I'm trying to think if this parallels the use of language - everyone I know can drop an F-bomb in French (I can too now) and get by in a conversation (I can't unless the conversation is about counting or breakfast ceareal) - but most people are pretty far from bilingual. 

Just a few observations that might be important if you want to pretend to be a Canadian while you are traveling.  Not that the world doesn't love Americans.