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On the question of whether friends from my culture have "like, hand signs and stuff when you meet each other."

 No. There isn't much elaboration in our greetings with friends. For one, we have more physical contact than here in general anyway, so a particular physical greeting does not feel imperative.

Also, in my culture (all the disclaimers, culture is not a single thing; bear with it for the purpose of saying something), we are rather more submerged in the social, so meeting a familiar, the moment of encounter with another person, is not that remarkable. Unlike where it is a meeting of strangers—where the social must be conjured, expressed, brought into play, inaugurated even—each time.

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