Kissing Guys

I'm a big fan of adopting the local customs when traveling, e.g. drinking mate (though I did go through a half kilo of Starbuck's, too), eating dinner at midnight, speaking Spanish. I also adopted the custom of kissing everyone, including the guys, when greeting or saying goodbye to them. It takes a little getting use to, especially since it's no big deal to everyone else, so they're buzzing along around the circle and I at least want to exchange names. It's an air kiss (mostly), but still the cheek to cheek contact takes some getting used to.

My gay friends in DC do the lip kiss, and it's sometimes odd to be in the middle of a circle and watch someone go around a circle and stop at me to offer a handshake, but I doubt I'll ever be comfortable with that. But here, not offering or accepting a kiss as a greeting is viewed as odd as if you refused to shake someone's hand, it's much more pronounced to refuse the kiss exchange than it is to accept it.

And given my wounded hand, maybe kissing is the way to go anyway.