Genly's struggle to see Genthenians as they see themsleves.

Genly has a pretty difficult time seeing the Genthenians as they see themselves. One of the many reasons for this is by the way they live their life. On Gethan it is almost cold all the time there, so the Gethenians are adapted to that living style, whereas Genly is most likely used to warm temperatures. Also another reason for Genly's struggle is that the Gethenians are all androgynes meaning they can either be male or female. It is also possible for siblings to be kemmering with each other, so either one of them can sire and bear a child. To Genly, his views on the Gethenians are that they are unusual but to the Gethenians, Genly would be the unusual one. On Gethen. even the days of the months are different. Each day of the month has a unique name and the days are not grouped in weeks but the month is evenly divided in two halves of thirteen days. The Gethenians also divide each day into ten parts or hours and they start this time at noon. And this is strange and would get extremely difficult because back on earth where Genly is from, the days repeat themselves in the month and they would have the same names for the seven days of the week. Also on earth the days are pretty much grouped into weeks. Also another life style Genly had to struggle and get used to was the fact that the Gethenians only adopt sexual attributes once a month, whereas Genly can do it whenever.