Hugs and kisses

Both the head and deputy head of my department are women. The latter has had a position like I now have for almost four years and will soon leave for another job outside of academia but still in research*. The head of department did her PhD at my PhD department a few decades ago and is a proper FSP. I haven't talked much with her, but she was always very friendly, helpful and greeted me with a smile and a hug when I saw her a couple of days after starting up. The hug was - I don't know - unexpected but made me feel very welcome.

Since the department is fairly large there's still a lot of people I don't know and probably will never know very well. Still I try to say hi to everyone I meet in the corridor at least the first time I see people that day. I never thought I'd say this but I somewhat miss the habit of greeting with a handshake or cheek kiss every day in my French postdoc lab. It took me a while to get used to but I started appreciating it after a year or so. It is feasible in a small place but with 100+ people it becomes impossible. There would be more greetings than work done in a day.

*will be exciting to find out who's next in line for that job