Long-distance relationships are hard. They're nearly impossible when the love of your life lives halfway around the world and you've never actually met her in person. That's the basic premise of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, the best damn show on TV.

TLC's 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days is a spin-off of another excellent show, 90 Day Fiancé. On that series, real Americans in international relationships apply for K-1 visas to bring their partners stateside. When their partners arrive—many speaking very little English and never having been to America—the couples have just 90 days to wed before their visas expire. Cue culture shock, harried wedding planning, and questions from family about whether or not dad's 20-year-old fiancée is only in it for the green card.

How do couples decide they're ready to go K-1? That's where 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days comes in. The show follows wide-eyed Americans as they travel overseas to meet their foreign partners—whom they met online—in person for the very first time. In the span of an inevitably awkward visit, the couples must decide if they're ready to get engaged.

It's deliriously entertaining programming. One guy, Paul, who's never left the country, takes a two-day cruise down the Amazon to meet the love of his life who speaks no English, and with whom he can only communicate through a translating app.

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Then there's Larry, a Florida McDonald's manager who used part of his 401-k to travel to the Philippines to meet Jenny, a woman he met on FilipinoCupid.com. Speaking over the phone to Men's Health, Larry shared a few things he learned when he travelled overseas to meet his partner for the very first time.

Lesson #1: Propose somewhere that's meaningful to your partner—even if it's a grave.

Larry had intended to propose to Jenny at an old church in a beautiful park, but on the way, they came across the grave of her favorite Filipino martyr. She rushed over, excited to see it, and Larry decided to whip out the ring early. Surely not all of us would like to get engaged while pondering our personal hero's gruesome death, but if your partner's into it, we say go for it.

"She's like, I love it that you're different," Larry says now. "She's like, who had ever thought to ask someone to marry them—as she always says—in front of the grave?"

Lesson #2: If you're meeting your partner's family for the first time, you sure as hell better eat the food they spend five hours preparing.

Jenny's family went above and beyond preparing for Larry's visit to the Philippines, including shelling out for lechon, a pricey pork dish they hadn't had since Jenny was a little kid. But Larry's stomach was a little off. And Larry wouldn't eat the lechon. And everyone was very mad at Larry. Guys, don't do what Larry did.

"I could have just sucked it up and ate it and dealt with it," Larry says now. "That probably would have been the better choice, instead of going through all that drama."

"The best thing would have been to just eat it, and if I didn't feel well—oh well, that's life," he adds. "I think that maybe I would have been, like a superstar."

Lesson #3: You and your partner may be different on the outside—but it's the deeper stuff that really matters.

There was a lot Larry learned about his soon-to-be-fiancée when he met her for the first time, including the fact that she doesn't like pancakes. Can these two eat anything together? Possibly not—but as Larry puts it, the only really important thing is having shared values.

"We were both devout Christians, and that, for me, was the number one thing I was looking for," he says now, adding, "I’ve never had a mental connection with another woman like this ever in my life."

Want to enter the wonderful world of 90 Day Fiancé for yourself? The two-night finale event airs this Sunday and Monday at 8/7c. To dive deeper, check out the show's Facebook page and join the #90DayFiance conversation on social media. You can also download the TLC GO app to watch the full season on any device.

Jordyn Taylor Jordyn Taylor is the Deputy Editor of Content at Men's Health.

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