Okay, we're gonna make this quick, y'all. I lived in Barbados for four months. Here's 10 things I wish I knew before moving there. Number one, groceries are very expensive. Yes, I got passionate when I said that. However, I realized at the end of my trip, I know it took me a minute. US brands are expensive. If you can figure out what the local brands are to buy, like do whatever you have to do, ask the people in the restaurant, in the restaurant. In the supermarket, who are local, which brands they recommend, buy those and you'll be good. And if you want to see pricing examples, go ahead and click this video in the cards or in the description below to watch my full vlog going supermarket shopping or grocery shopping. Okay, you'll see all the prices of like 50 plus products. And the cheapest places to shop are popular and apparently cherished, which I never went to, but popular supermarket versus messy supermarket. It's going to be a lot more expensive. But in Massie, you'll find more US products or products that we're familiar with in the US. Number two, driving in Barbados is extremely hard. And it's not just driving on the left side. That's like one battle in itself. Once you get over that, you have to figure out how to go through the round above. You've got to figure out which lane to stay in when you're in the round about. There's narrow streets. There's no street lighting and there's no handbook that they give you when you sign up for a permit to understand these things. But if you want that information, go ahead and click on this video up here or the video below and you will get a rundown of my personal advice to you if you are driving. But the main thing I will say is make sure you get a hired car. A hired car has an age on the license plate so that people know you are not from Barbados. And what usually happens for the most part is they might give you like a little more grace. You know what I'm saying? Or people might be willing to help you more because they know you're not from here. Versus you getting a private car that doesn't have the age, they'll just assume you're a patient driving. And you're not granted that grace. Number three, if you're heading out, especially in the night, most things have a special day where or popular day where most people are there. So for example, Mojo's. I went there for the first time. It's on Hastings Road. And it was good. A friend took me there. Said it was their favorite place to go and I was like, okay, you know, it's nice. It sounds cute. And every time people wanted to go to Mojo's after I was like, oh, I don't know. I've passed. I've been there already. Come to find out Wednesday is when they have live reggae and it is pop pen. Yeah, like a ton of people. Q to B, B roll. Ton of people come out. And I was blown away by how different it was from the time that I was there. But I had no clue there was a popular night. Well, here's the thing. Most places on Hastings Road and St. Lawrence Gap, at first and second sheet, the three popular or three of the popular places to hang out in the night have a special popular night. And if you want to know a little bit more about those, go ahead and click on the video. You already know the deal. It's in the cards and it's in the description. And you'll get more detail on some recommendations that I have for y'all. This is how full thus far, y'all. Like, are these some tips that you really had no clue about? Go ahead and click the like button. That's your way to repay me and drop a comment below. It lets the algorithm know, hey, this is a good video. Let's share with more people sharing its caring so that they can get the information. Alright? Thank you. Number four, ladies bring your heels. And I don't know, someone somewhere is probably rolling their eyes at me because of whatever reason. But in most of the Caribbean islands, when I visit, especially if there's no special event going on, I don't really need to bring more than one pair of heels. And I kind of keep it kind of low-key in terms of my attire. Especially if people are American or British, there tends to be this tourist Caribbean attire that most people wear not here. Okay? If you go out to one of those popular nights that I mentioned, you're going to want to do it up. You don't want to do it up big. Trust me. Just don't play yourself. Don't play yourself. I have said it before and I'll say it again. To me, Barbados is like the New York of the Caribbean. If you would not come to New York in your basics, don't go to Barbados in your basics. This next one is basic, but say good morning and good afternoon. Good evening to everybody because that's pretty much the practice there. Yeah, you don't want to come off that's rude. Not at all. And while we're on that note about not looking like a rude, if you're going there during the pandemic, as soon as you walk into any building, you have to have your mask on, of course, or maybe not, of course, to you knowledge that you would have had, but yes, that's something that you need. And then they're going to spray your hands with hand sanitizer and you're supposed to check your temperature. If you start walking past that temperature slash hand sanitizer machine, people gonna be like, excuse me. They do not play y'all. Now, if you are looking to do cabs, know that there is no Uber there. All right. And if you're going to book a cab, you most likely have to book it at least a day in advance to be safe. It's probably better to even book it a couple of days in advance to make sure your driver is available. But that's something different. If you're from the US, you might have to get used to. There's no Uber or anything of Uber nature. While we're on the topic of transportation, they have buses there like regular buses and then they have ZR buses, which if you've been to New York, I would say it's comparable to a dollar van. So those run much more frequently on main roads. So you'd have to figure out depending on where you're staying on the South Coast, you can catch those pretty often and pretty regularly. And when I say regularly, I mean, like literally probably like every five minutes, there's a ZR passing and they will on their license. It'll say ZR on the license plate. But that's how they pronounce ZZR. Now for the buses, they run on a schedule, but like not really. So I'm just for warning you. Next tip. So some people, if you're going to be an expat there, they often ask me about how you make friends. Now if you watch my stories, you already know God just came through, you know, and introduced me to some bomb people. But one thing that was helpful is I met a few people before I went to Barbados. So I met some people on vacation there. One, and then I also met some folks via Facebook groups, via Instagram and YouTube. So what I would encourage you to do, like if people are talking about going to Barbados and they say they're down there, I would definitely hit them up and just ask them a few more questions. See if you guys vibe and who knows maybe a friendship gonna occur. If there is someone on Instagram, let's say I work in production, right? I'm a video producer. I would do a search for video producers in Barbados and try to see if there's some sort of connection there. Let's link up, you know, and then see from there. You never know. So I think it's always worth a try. But I think in life period, right? When you're networking, it's always great to figure out what y'all have in common, what's relatable to that person. And that's like a great starting point. By the way, if you've never watched my video on networking or the masterclass and effective networking, you can find them here in the cards or I'll tag it below in the description. Key key key points that I've used in this industry working in production. And honestly, I feel like they translate unknowingly to creating friendships as well or they can be useful for it. Once again, if this is helpful, let me know. Go ahead and click the like button. Let me know. And if you want me to do a part two or three, let me know and drop a comment below. If you're planning to buy clothing there, it's very expensive. Like, you're gonna pay a lot. It's almost not worth it unless you really need something. My personal advice is either buy things overseas and have someone bring it to you if they're visiting you or get the clothing made. Okay? If you're a female, you're looking for a clothing store to go to. I did enjoy Atlanta and small vibrant. I think the store is called vibrant boutique. They have some nice things there and actually bought two things there for my birthday and look cute and pop them in here. And yes, if you are deciding to bring things into the country or the island, I highly recommend you remove all packaging because once customs kicks back in, they are going to charge you extra for anything that they know is new. And if it's still in its new packaging, then they know it's new. All right? That's the tip for you all. Okay, here's a no on tipping. So tipping is not required. It's actually incorporated in the bill in the service charge. But something I learned recently is if you're going to tip someone, I would say do it with cash and make sure you put it in their hand because what happens with the service charge is that it gets split by all the workers in the restaurant or in that location. And so it doesn't just go to your person that served you or your waiter that served you that night. Now, if you do a tip, I'm not 100% sure, but I would assume that if you do a tip via card, the same exact process is happening because it needs to be given back to the person through the owner. And I would assume they would just split it would take too much to like figure out everything. Remember, this is a different country, different island. So if you want to guarantee that your person who gave you great service gets a tip, give it to them cash and put it in their hands. But tip is not required. More is it expected. And there you have it. Those are some pretty important things I wish I knew before I came to Barbados. They were helpful. Drop a comment below and let me know. Go ahead and send this to somebody else and let them know too so that they are not in the dark because it took me four months to figure these things out. Click the like button if this was helpful and if this was helpful, I got another video for you and my Barbados series with a ton more things that you can learn. See y'all later.