Unexpected Differences

When you travel to a foreign country, you expect a lot of things to be different. Like here in Ecuador, of course I expect most things to be written in Spanish. I expect temperatures to be given in degrees Celsius. I expect there are different foods in restaurants and even some of the foods I think I know won’t be quite the same.

But there are unexpected differences too. These aren’t like “Wow, I never would have imagined!” It’s more of day to day things that I never would have imagined, because why would I think about it?

Let’s take an example: Coca-Cola. The Coke here is much like the Coke at home, but they don’t use high-fructose corn syrup. And they use less sugar. It says so right on the bottle: Original Taste, Less Sugar. But this isn’t Diet Coke. It has sugar, just less.

Check out the volume?

 

At home you could look at the nutritional information and get a lot of details you probably don’t retain or care about. Here, the nutritional information is only three things: Sugar, Salt, and Fat. And they don’t give you a precise measurement (not a ratio level of data for my statistician readers), but just a scale: Alto (high), Medio (medium), Bajo (low), or "no contiene" (Doesn't have any). For those keeping track, that is the ordinal level of data. You know, for your edification.

Not the healthiest, huh? Buy hey, no fat!

 

What’s more, you can buy Coke in a 3.05 liter bottle. You can’t do that at home! Incidentally, why are beverages the only things in America that we measure in liters? And it isn’t even consistently all beverages. You can buy Coke in 12 ounce cans but also in two liter bottles. Weird.

Here’s another difference that, had I thought about it, would have been apparent. Ecuador, being situated as its name might imply, on the Equator, does not have Daylight Savings Time. Why would they need it? When your days are always twelve hours long, what would be the point?

I think this difference is leading Google to a savior complex. I was looking at my Google Calendar, and I noticed that these classes I teach at 8 PM Eastern Time were listed at 8 PM Eastern Time up to a point. After that, they were listed at 7 PM Eastern Time. In fact, all of my appointments from a certain date onward were shifted up an hour. I puzzled over this.

My first realization was that the shifted calendar appointments begin in March, just after Daylight Savings Time begins. I think Google is trying to save me! Certainly my Android cellphone knows I am in Ecuador. So Google knows. And it wants me to realize that 8 PM appointments in Eastern Time in the US will really be 7 PM appointments if I am still here. (At least after Daylight Savings Time begins.)

So now I am curious what will happen when I return the U.S. Will Google automatically move all those appointments back? Or will I have to shift them myself? I guess only time will tell. (Pun, get it. “Time” will tell. The time. Of the appointments. Have I over-explained it?)

At least my bad puns haven’t changed. Ah, consistency.