SHAKING HANDS IN ROMANIA

This entry is dedicated to all who can’t understand Spanish. I know I gave my blog address to some of you and promised I would write something in English, and here it is. Today I wanted to talk about people in Romania and more specifically, about how people shake hands here. Surprisingly, they don’t do it hard; it’s very weak the way they do it… They actually take your hand as if it was going to break and they hold it as if it was a banana more than a hand. At the beginning I thought it might be a “girls” thing, because I had only shaken hands with a couple of female humans, but up to this time, I’ve shaken many men’s hands and they all do it the same way. It’s generalized. I don’t think this happens in Ireland or Germany, does it? It certainly doesn’t in Spain, and if somebody does it, it means that you’re sissi.

I must say that some men, mainly old men, have kissed my hand here in Romania when saying good bye, and that was a kind of shock for me, because I thought I was treated like some sort of medieval princess or something… but after that I realized that it’s a politeness sign, ¿can you believe it? There’s still a country where men still kiss women’s hands, and that is Romania. Then I thought that any Spanish girl would be disgusted by the only thought of an old man kissing your hand (not me though, hehe, I kind of like it).

That can count as a small detail on how people are in this country: no doubt they are warm and Mediterranean-behaving humans. Very kind and smiley, they make you feel all right, and that’s what counts for the moment, doesn't it? The picture today is the building where our office is located: the place where I will shake the most hands. Doesn't it look like the building that King Kong climbed?


Para los que no entienden el inglés, hoy tocaba, hemos hablado de apretones de manos, sí de apretones de manos, ¿alguien sabe por qué los rumanos no dan un buen apretón de manos y te cogen la mano como que fuese un trapo sucio? Probablemente porque besan las manos a las mujeres al despedirlas…

En la foto el edificio donde se encuentra mi oficina, ¿verdad que parece el edificio que escaló King Kong?