Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Side note

Sorry I haven't updated yet, and I promise I will with pictures and all this weekend, but this week is a little hectic. :P

However, there was a small culture shock I wanted to share before I forgot it.

So Spaniards love to give besos (kisses). When you meet someone, when you say goodbye, when you say goodnight, when congratulating, you give two kisses, one on each cheek. Actually, I had someone just give me one kiss. Don't know how that works, or what that means. Anyways, see, this "kiss" isn't a kiss at all. It's more like putting your cheeks together and making a small kissy noise. Or "attempt" to kiss the other person's cheek, fully knowing your lips are probably not going to touch the other person's cheek.

But needless to say, growing up in a Korean household in America, kissing each other on the cheek as a greeting gesture rarely ever happened. I'm now a little more accustomed to kissing my host mom on the cheek as I leave for school in the morning, when I go to sleep, and such, but today I had a slightly different experience from the normal. My host mom's grown son (near my parents' age) came to visit, and when we greeted each other, we naturally gave each other a kiss on each cheek. But I was slightly startled because he's cheeks weren't as soft as my host moms. Rather, it was prickly! I should have expected as much since an European man's face would be prickly should he had decided not to shave all that well that morning. Nevertheless, internally, I was making this face and saying, O.O woah!! Haha

And that's all. (Haha, I know someone out there is thinking, "cool story bro.") That's a snip bit of my life in España.

PS am I a fifth grader or what?! Writing words like "kiss" and "man's face" and "cheek" and "lips" makes me think I'm writing about something that shouldn't be shared. It makes me want to giggle. -_- I am mature.

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