I love how Chileans greet each other, touching cheeks and
sending a kiss into the air. It immediately breaks an invisible barrier I
hadn’t known existed before arriving here. Upon meeting a stranger you
immediately gain a tangible link of acceptance through that simple touch. In
America we’re standoffish, we have standards of comportment, we are
inadvertently taught the proper distances to maintain. However, in Chile we are
all family and so every person receives individualized attention upon arrival
and departure, creating an atmosphere of warmth and sincerity. In America there
is instead an area of isolation that we clutch close, a maintained zone within which
few can remain without burgeoning awkwardness. There are no such barriers here.
You show interest for what someone has to say by settling close to them to express
your focus and respect.
