What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

 

When we compare the life rhythm between Lithuania and Belgium, it seems that it’s quite similar: We live fast, we work hard, people are more strict and they’re not so open minded as people from the south.

There are some funny differences, which makes us to laugh all the time. We’re still trying to decide what we like more: the things in our countries or in Portugal?J

1.    Feel like an alienJ.

When you cross the streets in our countries, nobody cares about you, but here in Portugal, sometimes we feel that we’re from a different planet. Some of the people are whistling, some are staring like we painted our face with a green color, some of them are shouting or they act like people would act to cats (kks,kkkss). But it’s funny! The main rules – don’t make any eye contact, don’t look back, just go straightJ

 

2.    Rain.

We never thought that we would hate rain that much. In Belgium and Lithuania it’s raining a lot. So you would think that you don’t need an umbrella in south. But unfortunately we were wrong. The last few weeks we had a lot of rain. And actually it’s funny to see how the mood of Portuguese people changes beacause of that. In Lithuania and Belgium we’re also sad when it’s raining, but still we keep on doing what we planned. What about people from Portugal? They cancel a lot of things because of the rain. Apart from that, the Algarve truly has a lot of sunshine. It gives us very good emotions when we see the sun shining through the windows while waking up. And we can easily say that the weather makes people be and look happy. And that’s how people act most of the time. We are so jealous about that!

3.    Lunch time.

Oooh, this is the thing we really love. In our countries the lunch time is normally from 12h till13h in the afternoon, but here people have their lunch from 13h till 15h. Can you believe this?J Because of that, we can do so many things during the lunch time (making a good lunch, washing the rooms and still we have time left for a short siesta!) 

4.    Throw your watch away.

When we plan to meet with someone, we always have funny situations. They say: “ Let’s meet around 9p.m., please” Don’t forget that around 9 means that it’s more or less at 9:45. When you meet at 9 in our countries, it means that you come 10-15 minutes before, but here if you see that you’re going to be late to a meeting, you don’t need to feel stressy, because if it’s only 10minutes, you will be the first one who is coming! J

 

5.    Good afternoon or good evening?

In Lithuania and Belgium we say good evening when it’s 17.00h. In Portugal they say good afternoon till 20.00h or even later.

 

CONCLUSION: These are a few of the main cultural differences between us and them seen from our point of view. But however, we love them;)