Bobalosus wrote:Well, I have a pen pal in Helsinki and he invited me to his place, so i guess I should not hug him when we finally meet
I'd say wait and see what he does. If he's ready to welcome you arms wide open, you may hug back. If he's just standing there and says "hi", do
not go embracing him. If you want to be polite and show friendliness, you can say something like "it's so cool to be here at last, thanks for the invitation!"
Some more tips how to show you think his your friend and you respect him:
- listen what he says, don't interrupt too much (you don't have to be a robot and mechanically wait him to finish every sentence, but if you interrupt every second thing he says, it's rude)
- answer, preferrably with more than plain "ok"
- ask his opinion, eg. "do you want to go to X or..?"
- and be honest: if he asks "do you want to --" and you're cold or hungry or just not interested, tell him. I'm not from Helsinki and I'm not a man, but I think it applies there too. You don't have to accept anything you don't want to, except maybe something that is given to you as a gift or if it's food.
Though usually people expect an excuse why you don't want something, as in "no, tbh it doesn't really sound so cool to me". But I mean, it's fine to say you don't want to do or get something, even if you don't know each other super well.
I think these are quite universal, after all, but these are ways of showing you're friendly without touching anyone.