https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohIisKwUvsYSo anyways...
Recently.. there was a bday celebration I was at...
And so the bday girl was hugging folks..
So you know, I don't really hug folks...
I'll shake hands and even with the girls...
So she's hugging folks and thanking folks with hugs I guess...
I get trapped in the kitchen...
She hugs a girl... then I'm in the kitchen too...
And then she comes to me...
and then I'm going through the same thoughts that guy was going through..
Like.. I don't know this girl like that... we aint close...
So she just close her arms around me and hug me...
and while she's hugging me.. I'm thinking
"Should I hug her back too with like a squeeze too? because if just kinda do a light touch hug I might come off like I don't care about her or that it might be weird because she'll feel like she's just hugging a pole, today's also an emotional day for her as well so should I hug her back so she I don't dampen her mood? She may need this 'I care about you' feeling that comes only with a stronger tighter hug because it'll come off as though I care"....
So then I made the decision to hug her a little tigther, I squeezed her in a bit and did the weird hand rub up and down on the back...it's funnie because when she was hugging other folks, I was observing how other's were hugging her too so that I would know what I'm doing if she does come and hug me.
So yeah! Hugs, handshakes, kissing on the cheek(you know that European thing) is all such a lost art for me.
Story number 2! So anyways.. we had this Italian lady come train us on a new machine...
I mean.. I never met this women before...
we got done training and part of the Italian culture is to do the kiss on the cheek thing when you greet and say good bye..
So I walk her to her car...
and she's like standing there and points to her car and say "that's my car"....
And then she just stands there in front of me...
And I'm just standing there too...
And I was thinking "why she aint walked over to her car yet? are we suppose to do the kiss thing on the cheek?"
Like I said, I never met her before..
So I'm standing there... and she's just looking at me...with laser beam eye contact...
So in my head I'm thinking "man... maybe she's waiting for the cheek thing?"
And I've seen this look before too with a different European girl! But the last time I had seen that look, I just shook the girl's hand.
So I had to make a decision and I was like "well, I don't wanna offend them"...
So I leaned in to do the kissing cheek thing... and low and behold, she returned the favor...
To me personally, that seems like an intimate thing... I know for their culture it's just something normal...