In Spain, people greet each other by kissing both cheeks. Technically they touch cheeks and air kiss. This is the way they greet old friends, new acquaintances and Americans who are just sitting on the sidelines watching a radio program take place. I have been kissed by more strangers in the past 12 days than by family members the first 25 years of my life. And I have a very affectionate family. I have kissed people whose names I was never to hear. If a strange person leans in toward me, I am socially obligated to lean in to meet them and squish my face onto theirs. It’s culture and sometimes it has a beard. Sometimes culture means having another person’s lotion on my face. Or aftershave. Or lunch (that hasn’t happened yet, but it might!). I learned something important last night: always go left first. It’s a tacit rule universally observed. Going right first could result in an awkward meet-in-the-middle, which is the kind of thing that happens to Americans who try so hard to NOT be awkward yet, sadly, rarely succeed (this hasn’t happened to me yet. But it might.) This is also how Spaniards say goodbye, so if you barely made it through the first encounter without embarrassing yourself, guess what?! …..
Well, you can always strike first and shake hands when meeting people. No caballero espaniol will bother you with kisses and they will think for themselves “what a damn fine educated lady!”.
So are you going to kiss us all when you get home? I have actually experienced the same thing for way less time – I was in my friend Yvette’s wedding. she’s half Cuban and half Mexican and her whole wedding was full of the stranger cheek kissing and Salsa dancing – two things this white girl isn’t very skilled at.