Just said goodbye to a german colleague who's returning to Germany for good today. He's a really nice guy whom I could banter with. Like a schoolboy, he would playfully recite those few chinese phrases he knew to me, like "wo ai ni" (to which I'd chirp "wo ye ai ni") or "zhuo wo lao po" (and I'd go "mei wen ti"). I hope to see this colleague again at his wedding end of this year. I'll really miss him.

But though we're more friends than colleagues, I still couldn't bring myself to hug him goodbye, as caucasians are wont to do. No matter how long I've known my foreign colleagues, they know me enough to gauge if I'm receptive to hugs, and even then I don't throw myself whole-heartedly into hugging. It's not that I don't like them enough. I'm just inhibited cos I guess I'm not brought up this way. Actually, I've seldom hugged my close friends, and my best friend not at all. Hopefully, people can sense my good will towards them anyway. *wry smile*