So much still unknown

It's occurred to me a lot recently that there are still so many things I don't know about everyday life in this country.  It's amazing all the little things you take for granted. 

For instance:

1.  How tall am I?  In America, I knew I was 5 feet, 6 inches tall for many years.  And then I had to attend a medical exam for immigration purposes and this included measuring my height.  The doctor measured me, said "5 foot 7", and made a note in my chart.  So I  have known for nearly three years now that I am 5 feet, 7 inches.  I have no idea when I gained this extra inch, but I'll take it. 
Anyway, in New Zealand, tallness is measured by centimetres.  I have no idea how tall I am in centimetres. 

2. How much do I weigh?  Similar to above - I know my weight in pounds.  I have no idea how many kilograms I weigh.  When I tell people I gained 50lbs while I was pregnant (it's true - I was huge) they ask me how much that is in kilos.  We're just not speaking the same language here.

3. How does the government/parliament work?  This is basic civics, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I haven't really sussed it out yet.  I have a handle on the general principles.  I know that whichever party gets the most MPs elected gets to have control and their leader gets to be the Prime Minister.  I understand that sometimes one party won't have a majority and so they need to form a coalition.  I know our local MP is Ruth Dyson and that she's a member of the Labour party.  I know that when it's time to vote, I vote for a party (Labour, National, Green, Mana, or some other party) and I can vote for individual candidates.  But there is so much I don't understand.  I hear talk of "list MP's" and I don't know what function they serve.  Also, they're always talking about "MMP"; I don't even know what this stands for.  I have no idea what Ruth Dyson has ever done for me.  And other questions too.  I need New Zealand's version of School House Rock.

It is noteworthy that although Gareth grew up in a country that also uses a parliamentary system, he was initally a little baffled by New Zealand's system too. 

4. How many calories are in this [insert foodstuff]? 
Here's a New Zealand food label:

  I don't know what a kJ of energy is.  Is that like a calorie?   

(footnote: Gareth has just told me that a "kcal" is a calorie.  This particular mystery has just been solved.  Hoorays!)

5. How hot should the oven be/how much butter should I add?  We brought recipe books with us from the U.S. and other recipes cut from magazines and saved on the Internet.  All of them measure the hotness of the oven in farhenheit and the amount of butter by the stick.  I have a celcius/farhenheit conversion chart in one of my cookbooks that I have to consult every time.  And it never really occurred to me before, but how gross is it to measure butter by the stick??  Apart from being a little gross, this form of measurement is not helpful here because butter sticks are not the same shape here as they are there.  Butter is measured in grams.  I do a lot of baking and I am forever consulting http://www.onlineconversion.com/.  I don't know what I'd do without it.  My muffins would be a mess.

6. When is the next public holiday?  I know that we get the day off for Canterbury Day and Labour Day and Boxing Day and other days.  I just don't know when they are (except Boxing Day - that one's easy). And I don't mean that I don't know the exact date the holiday will fall on this year - I mean I don't even know what month.  You would think that something as important as days off work would stick in the head better.  But they haven't.

7. Have I dialed this telephone number correctly? Some phone numbers have 7 digits and some only have 6.  How is this possible?  How does the phone know when I'm done dialling?  This one bugs and perplexes. 

8.  Will I be billed for this ambulance ride?  Ok, this is not an everyday item (thankfully).  But last week Quinn and I had our first ride in an ambulance.  It's ok, he's fine now.  But he was blue and feverish and I took him to the doctor, who then called an ambulance to take him to hospital.  They were worried about his oxygen saturation level; it was too low.  And the blueness.  So we were riding to the hospital and I was sick with worry about my wee boy, but also sort of wondering, "will I be charged for this?"  Don't get me wrong - I would have gladly handed over our life savings if it would have gotten Quinn better quickly.  But I did wonder.  Ambulance service in New Zealand is provided by a private company called St John's.  I'm not sure if St John's will be sending us a bill for the ride.  We haven't had one yet.  Watch this space...

This segues nicely to:

9. Does my child have a fever? Yet another complication arising from the United States' failure/refusal to embrace the metric system! I believe but am not positive that a normal temperature is about 36.6. I think anything in the 37s is a bit high, the 38s is quite feverish, and anything over 39 is cause for worry, I think. But I'm not sure. I don't know the temperature at which alarm bells should sound. I should find that out.



Most or all of these things can be sorted with a quick Internet search.  But sometimes you just want to know things without thinking about them.  This information should be available on demand.  When someone says "how tall are you?" I should be able to answer without thinking.  Thankfully, people almost never ask me how tall I am.