Down 24 kg

Well I'm still on my diet and exercise kick.  As of this morning I'm now down 24 kg (53 lbs).  My goal of losing 25 kg is now within sight.  

That's just 1 kg more to go.  It doesn't sound like much except then I remember that 1 kg is 2,2 lbs.  Ugh, this damn metric system!  

The other frustrating thing is while I hit -24 kg this morning, who knows what I'll weigh in at tomorrow morning?  

I just need to remember to not get frustrated and to keep going.  

Update:  I hit my goal weight.

Down 21 kg

Like most people I've been on one diet or another for longer than I can remember.  As I get older it gets harder to lose weight.  Oh the joys of getting older.

I'm currently down 21 kg (46.3 lbs) which is good.  It doesn't sound so impressive when I think that this is over the past six years.  That's only 3,5 kilos (7.7 lbs) per year.  Well, it does sound a little better in pounds but that's part of the joy of metric.

I still have way more to lose and it does get frustrating sometimes.  But I have to remember that I didn't put the weight on overnight so I can't expect to lose it overnight.  

I'm actually not on any particular diet.  I've just changed my eating habits.  I try to eat healthier, try not to eat after 6 pm, and drink more water.  Nothing too revolutionary.  I exercise 5-6 days a week but that's been the case for years.  But exercise and better eating...who knew?

Update:  Now down 24 kg.

Update:  I hit my goal weight.

Metric

When I first moved here I used to joke around that the metric system was just a fad and that it wouldn't last.  Obviously just a joke but it was my way of coping with having to learn an entirely new system of measurement.  I have to finally admit that I am fully a metric guy now.

The British brought the imperial system of measurement to the American colonies and we kept them even after the British left.  Today only three countries in the world don't use the metric system - the USA, Liberia, and Myanmar.  And Even Liberia has finally pledged to move to the metric system. 

In 1975 the USA passed the Metric Conversion Act which was meant to transition the country to the metric system.  The problem was that the law was voluntary and so it never took off.  

I don't think that the USA will ever fully switch to metric for three reasons.

1.  Money.  It will cost a ka-jillion dollars to switch.  The USA is huge and all of the road signs would need to be changed which would be expensive.  Plus speed limit signs, gas pumps would need to be relabelled for litres instead of gallons, car odometers would need to count kilometres instead of miles, household ovens and cookbooks would need to be in Celsius instead of in Fahrenheit, etc.  

2.  Time.  It would take a long time to switch and Americans have a short attention span.  The longer something takes the less interest we have in it.  

3.  Arrogance.  Americans in general are a stubborn group.  Even if we see the benefits of switching to the system that the rest of the world uses, we still cling to our ways because the rest of the world should be the ones to change.

Getting used to Celsius for temperature was probably the one that I struggled with the longest.  I knew that 0℃ was freezing and 40℃ was really hot.  My reference point was that 28℃=82℉ (you just switch the numbers).  

Celsius does make much more sense.  Water freezes at 0℃ and boils at 100℃.  Way more user friendly than freezing at 32℉ and boiling at 212℉.

Normal human body temperature is 37℃ but in the USA we know it as 98.6℉.

To convert ℃ to ℉: Divide by 5, then multiply by 9, then add 32.

To convert ℉ to ℃: Subtract 32, then multiply by 5, then divide by 9.

For weather, I never convert.  I just think in Celsius.  Every week my mom tells me what the weather is in Arizona.  I give the Brno update but then we have to figure out what it is in Fahrenheit.  

The only time that I convert is for Thanksgiving because all of my recipes are in Fahrenheit and my oven only understands Celsius.  

Weight was probably the easiest thing to get used to.  1 kg = 2.2 lb.  Heck, I'm skinnier in kilos.

I've had lots of friends over here who have had babies and birth weight was the difficult part for me to wrap my head around.  I understand that the average birth weight is 7.5 lb which is 3,5 kg.  But the numbers just threw me for a while.

Volume was pretty easy as well.  I think that's mainly because in the USA soda does come in 2 litre bottles.  

Czech beer is usually served in 500 ml mugs which is ½ litre.  So four beers equal a 2 litre bottle (and a big night at the pub).

Length had a few challenges for me in the beginning.  I had to think a bit differently about height.  

For distance, my reference for conversion was that 5 km = 3.2 miles.  Long distances took a while to get used to.  I think the biggest quandary was that meters are bigger than feet but a kilometre is smaller than a mile.

To remember how many feet are in a mile you have to think of "5 tomatoes" because five to-m8-oes sounds like 5-2-8-0 so there are 5,280 feet in a mile.

There's no need to remember how many metres are in a kilometre because the entire system is based on 10's so a kilometre is 1000 metres.  This is because apparently the imperial measurement was based on a drunk mathematician rolling dice.

Weight and Volume

After more than five years in Euroland I've pretty much got the metric system down.  Distance wasn't too bad.  Temperature was the one that was confusing on a daily basis.  For everyday use I found that weight and volume were the most useful to understand.

Volume measures liquids and over here that means liters.  The one advantage I had was that all Americans do actually understand what a two-liter bottle is.  In the USA, soda is sold in two-liter bottles so it's one of the only things we understand about metric.

There are roughly 4 liters to a gallon.  A can of soda is 330 ml (milliliters).  Sometimes it is written as 33 cl (centiliters).  A bottle of water can be labeled as 1/2 liter, 500 ml, or 50 cl.  All of the measurements are equal.  I guess it just depends on marketing and which one sounds like more. 

1 ounce	2 Tablespoons	30 milliliters
4 ounces	1/2 cup	125 milliliters
8 ounces	1 cup	250 milliliters
12 ounces	1-1/2 cups	375 milliliters
16 ounces	2 cups	500 milliliters

When I buy cold cuts or cheese at deli, it's common to ask for amounts in deca(grams).  For example, if I want 7 ounces of salami, then I would ask for 20 deca.  It's the same as 200 grams but I noticed at the deli it is common for everyone to use deca.

A pound is less than a kilogram.  It's roughly 2.2 pounds per kilo.  So the good thing here is that when you get on a scale, the numbers in kilos are smaller.  Unfortunately it doesn't mean that you're skinnier in kilos but it's a nice thought.  

In the UK and Ireland, they are really screwed up because they don't measure body weight in pounds or kilos.  They still measure in stone which is 14 pounds (6.35 kg).  So if someone weighs 158 pounds, on the islands they weigh 11 stone 4 (11 stones and 4 pounds), while on the continent they weigh 72 kilos.

Weight and volume become an issue when I try to share American recipes with friends here.  American recipes will often measure non-liquids by volume instead of by weight.  So if an American recipe calls for 1 cup of flour I'm good because I made sure to bring American measuring cups with me when I moved here.

Here non-liquids are measured by weight.  So 1 (American) cup equals 120 grams of all purpose flour.  But that same cup should be 180 grams if it's packed brown sugar, or 190 grams of uncooked rice, or 240 grams of butter, or 150 grams of chopped nuts.  Since things are measured in weight here a kitchen scale is a must have item. 

Distance

Living in Europe has required me to embrace the Metric system.  It really does make much more sense than the Imperial system we use back in America.  It's hard to believe that the USA is the only major industrial country that doesn't use metric.  I've done pretty well with temperature but length and distance is what has taken a while to sink in.

The basic unit of measure is a meter.   The original definition of a meter was 1 ten millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator through Paris. 

A meter is 3 feet, 3³⁄₈ inches.


For length you pretty much use centimeters and meters.  One centimeter is about the width of a fingernail.  For comparison, 1 inch equals 2.54 cm.

Height is measured in meters.  Most adults are between 1.5 and 2 meters tall.  For comparison, 1 foot equals 30 cm.

Distance is measured in kilometers.  1 mile equals 1.6 km.  My reference point has been that a 5 km race is 3.2 miles.  Speed is measured in km/h (kilometers per hour) instead of miles per hour. 

The United Kingdom uses a mix of metric and imperial measurements.  Distance in the UK is in miles.  You can tell when you cross between Ireland and Northern Ireland because the road signs change from kilometers to miles.

One thing that, now I realize, never made sense is how to break down miles.  You could say quarter mile or half mile but that's about it.  No one ever knows that 1 mile equals 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet.  Whereas 1 km equals 1,000 meters which does make sense.  Another reference point I used was that 1 km takes about 15 minutes to walk.

Temperature

One of the most confusing things for me when I moved to Euroland was getting used to the metric system.  It really makes no sense to me that the USA is the only industrialised country in the world that has not adopted the metric system.

With my parents coming to Europe in a couple of days I know that metric will mess with them.  So here's how to deal with temperature.

To convert Celcius to Fahrenheit you divide C by 5, then multiply it by 9 and add 32.

To convert Fahrenheit to Celcius you subtract 32 from F, divide by 9 and multiply by 5.

While these formulas work, I never use them.  I figured it was just better to learn Celcius then always bother with having to convert temperature.  I knew that 0°C (32°F) was freezing and 100°C (212°F) was boiling.  And as a reference point, 28°C = 82°F.  Plus there's always the poem that goes...

30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, 0 is ice.

Metric temperature just makes more logical sense.  For example, normal human body temperature is 37°C.  Why is it 98.6°F?  37 is way easier than 98.6.

While I now have a handle on metric, I do have one crutch still.  Every year at Thanksgiving, I make a cheat sheet for the oven because all of my holiday food recipes are written in Fahrenheit.

325°F = 162°C

350°F = 176°C

375°F = 190°C

400°F = 204°C

425°F = 218°C

450°F = 232°C

475°F = 246°C

500°F = 260°C

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

On my way to Iceland, I'll have a couple of nights in the UK.  Officially, it is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom is made up of four countries – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Accordingly, the nation doesn't celebrate one particular national holiday.

The UK is between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea; about 50 km (35 miles) northwest of France.  

The country is a little smaller than Oregon and is home to just over 63 million.  London is the capital city.

The country is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system.  Queen Elizabeth II has been the chief of state since 1952.  The head of the government is the prime minister who is the leader of the majority party or majority coalition in parliament.

Video by CGPGrey

 

The UK was a founding member of NATO and the Commonwealth of Nations.  It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.  While the UK is a member of the EU, it has opted out of joining the Euro in favor of keeping the Pound (£).  The UK is not a Schengen member.  Instead it shares a common travel area with the Republic of Ireland.  So, for me, travel between the UK and continental Europe requires a passport stamp.

It was the world's first industrialized country and has the world's 6th largest economy; the 3rd largest in Europe after Germany and France.  The UK is the USA's 6th largest trading partner.  It is the Czech Republic's 5th largest export market.

At the height of the British Empire

They used to say that the sun never set on the British Empire.  During its height in the 19th century, the British Empire was the largest empire in history and covered 1/4 of the world.

The Union Jack is made of the crosses of three patron saints – Saint George (for England), Saint Andrew (for Scotland) and Saint Patrick (for Ireland).

Video by CGPGrey
 

The UK maintains sovereignty over 17 territories which are not part of the United Kingdom.  Three are Crown Dependencies – the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.  They are not part of the country but the UK is responsible for defense and foreign affairs.

Then there are 14 British Overseas Territories.  They are Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, the Pitcairn Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos, the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.  There's also the British Antarctic Territory but it is not universally recognized.

Almost all of these British territories take their cue from the UK and drive on the left hand side of the road.

Measurements tend to mess me up in the UK.  They are not fully on the metric system so some things are metric and some things are still imperial.  So I never know which one to use.  For example, distance is in miles; not kilometers.  Gas, milk and most other liquids are in liters.  Yet, draft beer must be sold in pints.  UK pints are 20 oz where in the USA a pint is 16 oz.  Weight is in pounds, except for body weight which is in stones.  And one stone is 14 pounds.  Confusing.

Update:  The UK has voted to leave the EU.  Once, and if, the country invokes Article 50 then it will have two years to negotiate its exit from EU.

Update:  The UK have issued new £1 coins and are updating the banknotes.

Update:  The UK officially left the EU on 31 January 2020.

Alps Road Trip Summary

Our four-day road trip through the Alps came to an end.  Here's the recap of our little adventure. 

On Friday, at 11 AM, Nat and I caught a train from Brno to Vienna and then another train on to Graz, Austria.  After work Miran drove up from Slovenia, picked us up at the train station and drove on to Innsbruck, where we spent the night.

After a Saturday morning wander through Innsbruck it was on to Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  After a short side trip to Malbun it was then time to take on Switzerland.  Switzerland was the 30th country I've visited since moving to Euroland in July 2009!  First a stop in Stein am Rhein followed by a visit to see the Rheinfalls.  We spent the night in Winterthur but it was dark once we got settled in, and since we left early Sunday morning for Bern, so we kind off missed out on seeing it.  Bern was really nice but I could have done without the freak snow storm we had on the way to Lucerne.

On (Easter) Monday morning we made our way to Zürich where we met up with a couple of Nat's friends from New Zealand.  Ray (she) and Kelly (he) both live in Zürich now and met us for coffee and a walk around the old town.  We had to leave at noon because everyone had to work bright and early on Tuesday morning so we headed made our way to Schaan and Balzers in Liechtenstein.  Then back to Innsbruck where we spent an hour in the mountains enjoying the view of the entire city.

Miran dropped Nat and I off at the train station in Salzburg.  I really need to go back to Salzburg because the only thing I got to see is glimpse of a castle from the main train platform.  Kind of a tease, right?  However, I've been told that I should not be allowed in Salzburg until I've actually watched The Sound of Music.  I know, I know...but I just haven't ever had the time to see the movie but I promise I will soon.

From Salzburg we changed trains in Vienna and made it back to Brno at 1 AM.  Yes, it was a lot of traveling in a short period of time but it was a great way to see a heck of a lot.  There are over 1,300 photos out on Flickr now.  From Graz to Salzburg we drove 1,612 km (1,001 miles) in four days.

In the USA we equate driving to miles per gallon.  With the metric system, here gas efficiency is measured in the number of liters per 100 km.  I don't remember the exact amount but we ended up paying around €250 (~$300) for gasoline.

Wetting the Baby's Head

One of my Ukrainian colleagues and his wife recently had their first child - a boy - David. This is celebrated by "wetting the baby's head". My first thought was that there was going to be a christening of some sort. I'm glad that I asked first.

What this means is that the proud father takes people out to consume large amounts of alcohol in order to celebrate the new arrival. It's kind of like a baby shower except that it takes place after the baby is born, it is more for the father than the mother, and there is a lot of drinking involved.

Dmytro rented a private room in a pub, for last night, where there was a continual loop of baby photos playing on the video screen. We all brought baby gifts for little David. Then every five minutes or so someone made a new toast to the baby. Since I had to work this morning I knew to just keep nursing my beer and not get too wrapped up in the hot chilli-infused Ukrainian vodka shots.

I've gotten much better at this whole metric system thing. Except for last night. In the USA, if someone says their baby is X lbs Y oz and is however many inches long then it makes sense to me. But when Dmytro said how many kilograms and centimeters his son was, I just wasn't able to make the connection. Oh well, I guess I just need to keep at it.

Last night was a lot of fun. I even got the opportunity to use my Russian again but I'm sorry to say that it has turned to complete rubbish. I don't think that I'm smart enough to handle two Slavic languages. The more I study Czech the more my Russian slips away. At least it was fun to try to use it again, and it never stops being fun for me to see the look of surprise on people's face when they come across an American who can actually speak more than just English.

Bled, Slovenia

The good folks at the hostel I stayed in arranged a small group tour for a few of us to Bled. It's about an hour (55 km) from Ljubljana and is a major tourist attraction. The town is over 1,000 years old. It is best known for the island in the emerald green lake, its castle, stunning scenery, and some sort of cream cake.

The place is so beautiful! The glacial lake is surrounded by forests and the Julian Alps. Slovenia only has one island and it's here. The only way to get to it is by row boat. Somehow I ended up rowing the six of us over to the island. I'm still not sure just how that happened but oh well.


From the dock there are 99 steps up to the top. The local tradition is that the groom must carry his bride up the stairs to the church and the whole time the bride must be silent.


At the top of the island is the 15th century Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church. Inside you can make a wish and then ring the bell three times.

Slovenia's oldest castle overlooks the lake. It dates back to the 17th century and it offers some amazing vies of the lake and the Alps. We planned to skip the castle and just hike up some paths to get a better view of the island. Well, we ended up charming one of the maintenance guys and he let us all in the back door of the castle. So we got to see everything and save the €7 admission. Sweet!

The only thing that we didn't do was go hiking along the Vintgar gorge. I'll for sure be back to do some hiking there. And to try that cream cake (somehow we missed that too).


After Bled we drove about 45 minutes to Lake Bohinj, inside Triglav National Park. It is the country's largest glacial lake. It's 4.2 km long, 1 km wide and 45 meters deep. Also known as 2.6 miles long, 0.6 miles wide and ~148 feet deep. Dang metric system.

Bohinj was far less touristy then Bled but just as beautiful. A few of us actually went in to the water for a bit. Let me just state the obvious. Glacial lake...in the Alps...YES, it was cold.

These Slovenes have it really good when it comes to beautiful scenery.

Thanksgiving 2010

The 2nd Annual Brno Thanksgiving was a success. It's a lot of work putting on Thanksgiving in Europe. Trying to find all of the ingredients is a chore...thank goodness for care packages from home. Plus cooking in metric is not fun for me. There is no 350°F on my oven over here. It's work, but it is oh so worth it.

Friday was spent baking and starting almost all of the side dishes. I was up on Saturday morning at 5 AM to prep the turkey and have it in the oven by 5:30 AM. A short 8 hours later and Tom was done.

People are shocked that my oven is large enough to cook such a big turkey. I guess it's a matter of perspective because I think my oven here is tiny. At 12,6 kg (27.7 lbs) this is the 2nd largest bird I've cooked, only slightly smaller than last year. I called it "Frankenturkey" because it was larger than my nephew. Somehow we ended up naming it "Tom".

Kamila, Tomáš and Ross came over to help with the last minute details and to sort out the music. After everyone arrived and we had been warmed up with enough wine, I explained what Thanksgiving is all about. We went around the group and each person said what they were thankful for.

The food was a big hit. It is so cool seeing all of the reactions to the different items. To Czechs, our holiday foods are very unusual.







We had Tom (the turkey), cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, glazed carrots, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallow, broccoli cheese casserole, cranberry sauce, corn bread muffins with honey butter, macaroni & cheese, marshmallow fruit salad, black beans & rice, deviled eggs, red velvet cake, pecan pies and pumpkin pies. Plus, Claudia made her famous pumpkin soup and Rose hooked us up with some real Mexican queso dip. Yummy!!

Claudia and Tomáš were the only ones who were here last year. I guess that's what happens with a big group of expats...people are always moving on. But on the bright side, a whole new group of Euro-folk discovered what a "turkey coma" is.