"The Kiss" x 43

To tell you the truth, I have to get up early to write these tales due to a series of factors. Sometimes it's due to work, sometimes it's due to the time-consuming errands which eat up my day with the endless lines and incompetent employes with whom we all must deal! But in the summer, it is due mostly to the cooler ( everything is realtive) mornings compared to the suffocating rest of the day. We reached another record on this past Tuesday with a whopping 43.6C; for those of you not that familiar with the Celcius temperature scale, named after the 18th century Swedish astronomer and physicist who is accredited for its invention,
that is 110F. AND THAT IS HOT!! What also doesn't help is being in a cement jungle like Buenos Aires or any other city which has high degrees of humidity of 80-90%.
I, however, am fortunate that I have a cooling factor which doesn't come out of an air conditioner. 3 times per week, I go to a nearby swimming pool for a class of water aerobics. In my opinion, the water is too warm but as I am at least one generation younger than most who do the class with me, I guess they ask for it to be a few degrees above what I'd prefer. Be that as it may, however, it is a relief to know that I'll be spending the next hour in a pool full of H2O.
 Yesterday by the time I got to my place in the pool, I had exchanged over 10 kisses. NO, this wasn't an aqua orgy! This was simply greeting my new class companions as one does here in hot Argentina.
In my Portuguese conversation class every Friday evening, the teacher goes from seated student to student giving them a kiss and the students do the same to their fellow classmates; this means amongst the 13 of us, 156 kisses are exchanged!
Yesterday, I made it a point to count how many kisses I gave or received and the number was 43. This was on a day when I stayed in a great deal due to the heat but there still was lots of lip action!.
I went to the optical shop next to my building and exchanged kisses with the 3 employees, 2 women and 1 man. Kisses here know NO border for men and women and amongst men and women. Men in business suits kiss other men in jackets and ties thousands of times per day as they prepare court cases and trials or as they count their tills in banks and supermarkets, sharpen their knives in butcher shops or open their"tienda" doors to customers. It's defintiely not seen as a "gay thing".
I kissed the 30 year old grandson of my friends who dropped by their house to pay them a short visit. I kissed the woman who makes me photocopies and her assistant. I kissed 7 neighbours in my building. I kissed the lady who mends my pants as well as her assistant and another woman, a client, who was also there even though we had never met before. I kissed the waitresses at a local restaurant I frequent as well as the male owner and sometimes even the man grilling the meats.
I find this 95% of the time a very welcoming gesture. I, though, do confess that there are times when I tire just thinking of the endless kisses I must give when I attend a social gathering.

I have lived in many countries which have various levels of "puckering up". In the land of 1000 smiles, aka the Czech Republic, when a kiss is given, it is done with one on each side of the cheek as in most European countries. But these kisses are not given out easily and it is, when done, generally not done often between men unless they are close friends or relatives. In Poland and Russia, the kiss is offered and received 3 times.
And in most English-speaking countries, if given, it is once and not common amongst men. Even Brazilians comment on the male-to-male kissing habits of the macho Argentinos and are initially surprised by it. But as you know, we here  love those surprises and to surprise in the" land of 1000 surprises" known as Argentina.
We love the kiss so much that we even commonly send kisses over the phone to our friends, their families and anyone else who'd like one.

So before it melts in your purse our pocket, apply that lip balm because there's going to be a lot of kissing going on.

Besos,
SES