People

I have been in Belgium for about four months now and I would like to write about the feeling I get when socializing with people here.

Belgians are really good people or at least this is the feeling I got from the Flanders region. I always receive a kindness and willingness to help me. Possibly, because I'm not from a northern European country, I am not used to the way Northern Europeans behave and treat other people. It can be also possible that I receive some kind of different attitude because I'm not from around. I have seen the same in my county and it is a common characteristic in human behavior

Some examples:

I have colleagues that have never refused actively or passively to help me and some of them the have really gone out of their way to help me.

Whenever I have asked for help in English, most people really try to communicate with me even though they don't speak always easily English. In shops they always try to provide you with a solution even if they redirect you to another shop which is antagonistic to them.

Besides examples like the above, I always feel a vibe of kindness. If I could express this differently I would say that people here have a gentle and kind heart and never leave you with an impression that there is some kind of "exploit" scheme hiding behind the scenes.

A dutch colleague of mine gives me also the same vibe and for the few days I've been in the Hague, I would say that I felt the same from people there. I understand that it is different and no comparison is valid between living and visiting but when I visited Lille, I certainly felt the exact opposite to say the least.