A Hong Kong Numbers Game

As many of you know, math has never been my strong suit. Whether figuring out how much something costs when it's 25% off to splitting a dinner bill 4 different ways with friends, I'm never the one to ask for a quick response. I always counted on the smarter friend to crunch the numbers for me. Do you think it's a coincidence that the man I chose to marry was a math major?

When I first started teaching I landed a position teaching first graders in Chinatown. On the first day of school my dad jokingly said to me "Good luck with your first day of teaching. I hope you can handle that first grade math!" That year was filled will shapes, and adding and subtracting using pictures. All of which I could handle. The following year I was promoted to the 2nd grade. My dad once again joked with me about the 2nd grade math curriculum being even harder. Although I have to admit I had some very strong math students the 4 years I taught 2nd grade, teaching the math was no problem for me. This past year I was promoted to the 3rd grade. When I told my dad the news he laughed, "This year the students really might be quicker than you in math." Sadly, he may have been right.

Most of the challenges I've had over the past few days have had to do with numbers.

1. The weather is in Celsius. Celsius means nothing to me. I'm told you have to divide by 5 multiply by 9 and then add 32. That is so not worth my time. Most likely the weather is just going to be hot with 100 percent humidity anyway so what's the point in figuring it all out.

2. After 12:59 p.m comes 13:00. Well im ok with this because I know that 13 come after twelve making that 1:00p.m. but by the time it turns 21:00 I find myself counting up on my fingers like I did in grade school. Maybe getting a digital alarm clock wasn't such a good idea.

3. The conversion between the American Dollar and the Hong Kong dollar is giving me nightmares. You actually have to divide by 7.75 to figure out how much the price is equal to in American dollars. D had to make me a cheat sheet which I walk around with in my hands ALL day. The store owners punch numbers into calculators to tell me the cost of something then I have to look at my cheat sheet and then punch in my own numbers to figure out the amount in American dollars. The vendors must think I'm crazy because I can't add a few numbers in my head. D starts work on Monday. Thankfully he will be getting paid in Hong Kong dollars so I can stop worrying about the conversions of everything.

Thank goodness the time difference is 12 hours between here and the US, switching AM to PM is something even I can handle!