Before I journeyed to this land, handshakes were my default "Hihowareya, mynameisHannah."
Pero ahora, I greet with a kiss on the right cheek.
At first, I found this incredibly awkward.
Should I kiss everyone?
Which cheek do I kiss again?
Does my breath smell?
Should I make the kissy noise?
Where do my arms go?
Does this person have the swine flu?
What are my odds of incubating a contagious disease?
My most awkward cheek-greets?
A mouth full of kiwi at the breakfast table
Missing the cheek and performing an "air-kiss"
Kissing an extremely short host parent on the eye
Now that we are in December, this form of greeting has become second-nature.
Of course I am going to kiss everyone I meet on the cheek.
And I will kiss everyone on the cheek as I leave, too.
Sometimes the cheek-greet does get cumbersome or time-consuming or over-whelming.
"Great. I just walked into a room of 40 strangers.
Now I have to introduce myself 40 times and kiss 40 cheeks.
By the time I am done with those tasks, I should be leaving.
So I turn around and re-kiss and say goodbye."
But overall, I really enjoy this custom.
It is more intimate than a handshake.
It makes me introduce myself to everyone.
And in turn, I think it builds a special kind of camaraderie.
The blanket, sterile statements "Hello everyone! and "Goodbye all!" just won't cut it anymore.
I should also mention that there are different greeting between the sexes.
Women always kiss women.
Men always kiss women.
Men shake men's hands.
Unless those men are very close, in which case they fully engage in the bro-kiss.
(The latter is my favorite, especially if both men have mullets)
...
Revelation: maybe the x-rated Chilean couples think it is okely dokely for them to kiss in public because everyone around here participates in the cheek-greet!
I am here to put a stop to that false assumption.
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