Recently I made the ambitious decision to move from the UK to Brazil to live with my girlfriend. I just passed the one month milestone so wanted publish something to mark the occasion.
It's my first time living abroad in a foreign country so thought it would be fun to keep a record of any cultural differences or curiosities I observe along the way.
These are written from the perspective of someone from the United Kingdom. So depending on where you're from these may or may not be surprising.
In no particular order:
- It's normal to wear flip flops in the shower
- You have electrical sockets/outlets in the Bathroom (not common in the UK)
- You don't flush toilet paper down the toilet
- There's no hot water when washing dishes in the kitchen
- Knife and fork used in opposite hands
- I tie my shoes differently
- You don't fill up your own gas/petrol here
- Recycling isn't very common
- Every Bus has separate driver and ticket operator (in the UK the same person performs both roles)
- WhatsApp completely dominates the market
- Having a CPF (kinda like a social security number) is important for lots of things (although not 100% necessary)
- Digital payments are very common here (Pix is hugely popular)
- You can pay in installments for everything
- Voting is done electronically
- Lunch is a serious/main meal (in the UK it's common to just eat a sandwich)
- People (mostly in the North) eat couscous for breakfast (kinda like cereal)
- I ordered 'Limonada' expecting Lemonade (like Sprite) but received Lemon juice