Canadian Numbers

I enjoyed our week long stay in Canada, I felt like I was back in school what with having to learn a new way to look at numbers. You know they use metric, Celsius, liters and different looking money but finally, after a week, I feel a little more comfortable with them.

First, it is a little disconcerting to see you can go 110 on the highway, until it sinks in as kilometers/hour. A lot of the roads we took were 2-lane local roads that are 60 km/h and the sharp curve you see coming ahead, you only slow down to 50. Josh drives 99% of the time but I drove in the campground and saw the speed limit was 20, thought I was fine until I look at the conversion and I was speeding (closer to 12.5 mph) Saw on the news one day that they stopped “a man doing 252 on the C401”. That sounds fast and it is- over 156 MPH. The price for gas was also in liters so that was always a big question mark?? Needed gas while here but luckily it was only for the little Kia and not the big rig.

Also, the temperature is in Celsius degrees so I always laughed when the person on the radio said “the high today is going to be 12, the low 4”. Some days they would say “high 8, the low Plus 1”. Temps were not as bad as it sounds, lows mostly 41-45 degrees and highs low 50’s to about 60. Cloudy and blustery most days so not great outside weather, you just put on another layer!

The money also makes me smile, so interesting. They do not have pennies or dollar bills. They use $1 coins that have the national bird, a Loon, on the back which is sometimes just called a Loony. They also have a $2 coin that has a round center the color of our penny inside a coin the color of our quarter. The dollar coins make it easier to feed the laundry machines with 3 coins rather than all those quarters I normally need to carry. The bills are unique also in that they have a see thru strip on one side and a clear maple leaf on the other edge, and are plastic. Each denomination is a different color. 

Back in the states now so I can go back to driving without thinking about it (no comments!!) and spending money with ease (really should watch that more). Was a nice challenge to try to figure some of the differences. Josh was quick to help me with the conversions since he used these measurement systems when teaching science.