Hugs and kisses

I never was a hugging person. I don't recall hugging my friends very often when I grew up, but I was very annoyed when my sister tried to hug me - our needs in that respect were very different. When I moved to Uppsala to study, however, I "learned" that hugs can be a nice greeting ritual and slowly I got used to hugging at least some of my friends when we met and when we said goodbye, more and more comfortable with it in the years.

To go from hugs to kisses, as in the cheek kisses common in Switzerland seemed a bit too much though when we were moving to the small country in the middle of Europe. Three cheek kisses every time - oh man, how would I cope with that? But my worries turned out to be needless. After a short while the kissing bit came quite natural. So natural that I, without thinking about it, greeted one of my best friends in Sweden with three kisses instead of a hug when we were visiting around Christmas...

How was this possible? The answer is easy. Cheek kissing is not as intimate at hugging since you simply don't come as close to the other person while kissing as you do in a hug. It's easier to keep the distance, so to say.

During our years in Switzerland we met people from all around the world and we greeted our friends in different ways. Sometimes it was tricky to know if a kiss, a hug or handshake was appropriate, but with time we found our ways in the greeting jungle.

And now? Here I am, back in Sweden, re-adjusting to the hugging culture. I think I'm doing ok...