Supermarket Success

I don't like the metric system, the euro, every clock going on military time, the way people write the date (day/month/year ex. today is 24/2/10) and every other thing about Europe which seems to be backwards. However, over the course of past month and a half I've become quite adept at converting euros to dollars (even though I still get pissed every time I look at my online statement), kilometers to miles, etc. So, the first time I went up to the deli at the supermarket I asked for a quarto kilo thinking I had correctly asked for some portion of meat. Five minutes and a lot of confusion later, a passerby kindly ordered me "un etto" of proscuitto. I was thankful and later looked up the word in my Italian phrase book to find out that "un etto" means quarter of a pound. For a country that does everything in metric system, why on earth does Italy use quarter of a pound to order sandwich meat? Turns out that it's pretty much equivalent to 100 grams so they actually haven't deviated from the metric system but the phrase book puts it into American deli shopping terminology so we can understand. Since my breakthrough on how to order sandwich meat I have successfully ordered a different "etto" of salume nearly every day. I actually had about a five minute conversation with the deli lady the other day because she knew I was American and wanted to know where I'm from and how I like Parma. In addition to my success in at the deli, I've learned how to deal with the ladies at the register now... Always say no. While I don't understand word for word what they are saying, I know the three questions they are asking me and no I don't have a COOP card, no I don't want a bag, and no I don't have correct change.