I see students always greeting each other with a kiss on the cheek or an arm around someone's shoulders. Girls often walk together, arm in arm. Most students talk to each other, rather than sit quietly on their phones before class starts like I usually did. I feel more friendly with my coworkers here, and we talk more openly about our lives outside of work than I feel like I did in the U.S. By sharing more physical space, we tend to also open ourselves up more, verbally.
One very important thing that I took away from my orientation seminar, however, was that although this is a new norm to get adjusted to, it does not mean that what I experience is always normal. We might experience something that we misinterpret as normal, or misinterpret something normal as abnormal. Regardless of cultural norms, it's always important to say something or report an issue if something makes you feel uncomfortable. I've kept this in mind, and have become able to recognize the difference between someone getting in (what I perceive as) my personal space for creepy reasons, versus well-intended reasons.
