Ex-pat math

I never expected to need so much math as an expat, but I realized this week that living abroad definitely makes me use my math skills more. Here are a few examples: 

- Butter. All my recipes list butter measurements in cups, sticks, or tablespoons. But the butter comes in 227g chunks. So I convert whatever my measurement is to grams (thanks to the internet) and then make those grams into an estimated fraction out of 227, then eyeball that fraction of the butter block. As you can imagine, this is a highly accurate process...

- Baking size. It's a 9 x 13 pan recipe. My toaster oven only fits an 8 x 8 pan. So I find the area of each, and find the percent/fraction that is my 8 x 8 pan and then try to figure out, which is easier, cut the recipe, or increase it and make two 8 x 8's? I think the answer might be to make one batch but put it in two 8 x 8's and just have it be thin and not bake it so long...

-Temperature. I know a few Celcius benchmarks, but I otherwise think in Fahrenheit. Luckily my devices will convert it, but our textbook is in Fahrenheit which of course my Celcius students don't understand, so they are always asking me how much that is in Celsius...  Also, my toaster oven is only in Celsius and my recipes are all in Fahrenheit, which works out ok because I don't actually set the temp, I just turn it on and off. Really, it's a miracle I can bake anything at all between that and the butter! 

- Currency. Americans in Thailand can divide by 30 like a pro. After a while, you convert less and less in your host country, but you still do it to a degree. And then there's the travel, where you convert both to your home currency and your host currency... 

- Time zones. I make it a point when I set up Skype dates to always set them up in the other person' time zone so I am calculating that in my head as we email to find a time. Luckily either Detroit or Chicago are always an exact 12 from here, then I can go from there to figure out the other. But I still struggle with Buenos Aires and as of July I will need to convert London and California as well... Yikes. 

- Stocking up. I still buy a year's worth of several items every summer in the States, namely PG Tips tea and my hair products. So it's always a calculation of how many days, how long a box of tea or bottle of mousse would last, and then a generous rounding up to make sure I don't run out. I thought I had it down, but I think I miscalculated somewhere because I am definitely rationing both right now to get to June 6th!