First week in Lisbon, Portugal!

I have been blown away by my first week in Lisbon, Portugal! Coming into my internship, I heard many stereotypes about people being lazy, not on time, and very blunt. I am here to say that part of that is true, and part is false. I would not consider people here lazy; they just work very differently than we do in the U.S. For example, many times they schedule meetings to happen during lunch because lunch time is always a very social time. In the U.S., we will rush through lunch to go to the meeting, but here, they will prolong lunch and make that the meeting. My first day on the job, my boss took me and a coworker to lunch and it lasted almost 2 hours! This is very different than anything I ever experienced in the U.S. I have found that the U.S. is more focused on speed at times than growing relationships, while here it is the opposite. To prove the stereotype true, I would say that people are not always on time. In the U.S. I am used to getting to places at least 15 minutes early to be on time. Here, people show up even around 30 minutes late and no one even notices. I believe that this is heightened during the summer months, especially June when Portugal celebrates many public holidays. Lastly, it is true that people here are very blunt. My first day, I had questions about the project I was given. My boss was very blunt about what I should be doing, and I was intimidated by it at first. I have seen that this is the way many Portuguese people interact with one another. The straight forwardness can be mistaken for as being rude, but that is not the case. I have liked getting to understand more about the work culture and am excited to continue to learn more as the internship goes on!