November 16, 2012 – “BRRR, Celsius”

Note - I haven't posted for a while, but so many good stories have happened...here's one from November - enjoy!

Weather. 

It’s on everyone’s mind.  When you travel to a new place, you notice it even more.  My exchange students certainly do, and it’s part of the adjustments they make.

To complicate that adjustment, we talk about weather in different ways – from using the Fahrenheit scale, to having different cold and hot levels of tolerance.

For Ratu, coming from the tropical climate of Indonesia to the more varied, seasonal climate of Georgia, cold weather is a shock!

For Anee from Pakistan, cold here in Georgia sparks the question “but why isn’t it snowing!!!???”.  And, as teens will, cries of “It’s not fair it’s so cold, and not snowing!!! 

So it goes - as October morning temps in the 50’s (10-15 C) rolled in, the observation comes from Ratu and Anee of “it’s so cold, Mom!!!”. 

Of course, this Mom replies, “this is nothing…”  (Which was not well liked as they trudged to wait at their school bus stop…).

I started taking pity this week, as the temps were falling into the 30’s F (near zero C!).  Now my phrase of “this is nothing…” started making sense as we descended another 10 degrees Celsius. 

And so, bus stop was out… I drove them to school.

Every morning’s discussion this week was about the temperature, and the now daily comparison to the temps in Karachi (in the 20’s C) and Pandang (in the high 30’s C) – thanks to Ratu’s I-phone app.

As Ratu entered the car this morning, Anee from the back seat said “Ratu – what temperature is it???”  To which I swore I heard Ratu reply “it’s Brrr Celsius!”.

I asked her to repeat, and she reported the temperature number faithfully - “Four Celsius, Mom!” 

I told them I thought I heard Ratu say “BRRR Celsius”, not “four Celsius”!! 

We all laughed – it was a great way to describe the weather 

We now have a new temperature scale all our own!