The Metric System

As many of you who have traveled or lived in Europe (or anywhere outside of the US) know they use the metric system in nearly every other country in the world. So not only do you have to calculate currency conversions (with the even shrinking dollar) you also have to figure out how long it will take you to go 50 kilometers. While normally this presents a problem for me hating math and normally have to pull out my conversion chart and calculator, I discovered one instance today where this was a good thing. I was in the grocery store looking for something chocolaty to eat when I happened upon chocolate chip cookies. This in Latvia is a rare occurrence usually I have to pay three times the US price to get a package of toll house cookies from the foreign grocery store. So I was very happy to find a generic brand from England in the little shop by my house. As a sat down to enjoy them the American in me was forced to look at how much fat this indulgence was going to cost me. However because the fat content was in kJ (whatever that means) I wasn't going to bother converting it. So I enjoyed my cookies in perfect ignorance of how much exercise I would have to do to make up for my indulgence and honestly I don't feel guilty as I might in the US. I guess in Europe fat contents and things like that just don't matter when you are walking everywhere and up numerous flight of stairs every day!