what's up everybody i'm ollie and in today's video i'm going to tell you 10 practical and
slightly strange things that you need to know about brazil before you move here or before you
travel here number one motels are not for sleeping and if you're from the us the uk or australia you
probably think of a motel as modest accommodation that you'd spend maybe one or two nights on a
small trip or a business adventure it's quite comfortable has everything that you need well
here a motel in brazil is a place there you go if you've got nowhere to go if you know what i mean
wink that's right you guessed it a motel is a place where people go and have sex
and i think these are quite common here in south america because everybody lives with
their parents so if you meet somebody out on a night out and you've got nowhere to go then
you're gonna go to a motel so if you're coming to brazil and you've accidentally booked into a motel
i suggest you change that right now and either go to a hostel or a hotel but definitely not a motel
number two much like most of the world you can pay almost anywhere with your card whether it be the
supermarket whether it be the gym whether it be those traditional places where you pay for things
or even the local street vendor at the beach if you're walking in the park and you see this guy
with a small esky or a cooler and he's selling drinks you can pay for card there so
pretty much anywhere in brazil you can pay with card now be careful because
sometimes places only accept debit and i've had this problem sorry my hair is so bad i've
had this problem recently because i have a wise or transfer wise card and i went to pay for the
gym and they only accepted debit and then i went out and i tried to withdraw from italo in bangkok
brazil like the two big banks and it wouldn't withdraw money and then i went round the corner to
a bradesco bank and i wouldn't couldn't withdraw money again so be careful what card you bring
because it might not work in certain places but in saying that if you have a debit card it works
pretty much everywhere number three and something that i really don't like about brazil is the
fact that 99.95 of beer is served in really small beer glasses and instead of getting a schooner or
lager from the tap which what we normally drink in australia it comes in like a big 600 ml bottle and
i have two sips of this small glass and it's over and that leads on to number four and that is that
brazilians share everything absolutely everything so you might go to a bar and you order a couple
of beers you'll have everyone will have a small cup and you'll end up sharing with everyone and
because everyone's kind of paying the same price you feel guilty not to drink as quick as you can
so you kind of have to drink your two sips and and wait for everyone to finish and i kind of
hate that about brazil so maybe if you don't want to share with people they might look at you and
think oh why you're not sharing um but if you want to drink quicker then i suggest you get your own
beer and your own cup continuing on with the fact that brazilians share everything necessarily in
my personal opinion i don't think this is a bad thing but it definitely took a while to get used
to like i would go to when i first came to brazil in 2018 we would go to restaurants and people
would like offer me some of their food or they would ask to try some of my food and i thought
why are you asking to try my food you should have just ordered it i obviously don't want to eat what
you're eating because i would have ordered that too so at the start i found this quite weird that
like people are offering parts of their food at restaurants and stuff like that but i've come to
learn that it's a thing that brazilians do and i think it just comes down to the fact that they are
so hospitable a couple of my friends actually a friend that i live with she always offers me like
whatever she's cooking and i really like that because it's really nice and i'm still not very
good at like sharing my personal things i don't know why but it's something that brazilians do
and they do it pretty well number five and this one depends on where you are in brazil and what
the vibe is like of that town and it's about going swimming and leaving your belongings on
the beach because if you're in rio or if you're in a big city and you decide to leave your nice
thousand dollar phone your wallet with your credit card and cash inside chances are that
when you come out of the water that it won't be there so if you're alone in brazil just be mindful
of who's around you if you decide that you want to go for a swim and leave your belongings there
i would say don't do it or leave your phone at home if you want to go for a quick swim
but it's not really realistic for a lot of people so just be careful if you're liking
this video make sure you hit that thumbs up button and if you have any more weird or practical tips
about life here in brazil make sure you leave a comment so that anybody who is watching this video
can find out number six tipping at restaurants and normally in brazil you actually don't
tip um because it's on the actual bill so normally at the bottom of the bill you'll see 10 and
sometimes it will be optional other times it's not optional and what i recently found out is rather
than splitting the bill evenly if you're out with a group of friends the brazilians will only pay
10 of what they bought or what they paid for so for example just say that you order a dish that is
20 hay eyes then this person will only pay two hey eyes which is two percent of what they ordered and
then if i buy something that's 40 hey eyes then i have to pay four hey eyes which is 10 of what
i ordered now for me this is strange because we would just normally split the tip evenly because
we're all asking or getting the same service and i was thinking does it actually make sense
and my conclusion is no it doesn't however if you're going out with brazilians and this is how
they pay or if you're paying last and you're paying a little bit more than what you think
then it's probably that 10 bill so yeah take note of that i don't know if all brazilians do it but
certainly from my experience i have noticed that number seven and you might already know this but
brazilians love to kiss hug touch do everything the first time you meet somebody so get ready to
get your kisses out your hugs your touchy feelies every single thing regardless of whether you are
comfortable or not because they are going to make you hug kiss and just you know get to know them
very quickly number eight viagra at the beach and i don't know how i feel about this one because
it's slightly uncomfortable but we all know that brazilians are you know gifted if you know what i
mean in in some cases but when i arrived at the beach for the first time i was kind of thinking
what is going on down there you know you all have a look you want to see who's out and about who's
got what to show but i was told last week by one of my friends that people actually take a
quarter or a little bit of a viagra pill to make their you know family belongings look bigger and
seem bigger than what they are so don't get a shock if you go to the beach and you are sort
of like shocked by what you see because now you know that they you know take a little bit of a
pill and and make everything bigger than what it actually really is number nine is a question
that i have for you and where do you put your money when you go out to the restaurant to the
supermarket to you know the park or to do anything in your pocket right where do you put your phone
probably in your pocket right well here in brazil and i would say in parts of south america and
various parts around the world you need to be careful on where you put your phone now
most people shove it down their pants other people have zip pockets i have zip pockets which
i normally put it in but you need to be safe about where you put your wallet where you put your phone
and if someone comes up and says give me your wallet give me your phone just give it to them
because you know at the end of the day it's just a phone uh there's no way or no reason to gamble
with your life last but not least is brazilian time get used to things happening a little bit
later or a little bit more relaxed than what you would expect in australia and that goes for
being said that a bar like hospitality is not the greatest thing here they're not as quick as what
you get back home if you say hey come over here they might you know do 10 other things before
they come and serve you or if you ask somebody to come and you know look at your fridge or come and
work on something then it's just in brazilian time or if you have a party and you say to your
friend yep let's meet at seven o'clock expect that seven to be seven thirty or
eight o'clock so don't expect punctuality here in brazil most people are pretty good but og
make things not as timely as what they might seem in you know australia or somewhere like that
that's it thank you so much for watching be sure to hit that subscribe button and the
bell down below so you can stay updated with my south american life see you next time guys