<blockquote>On Xia they kiss on the mouth. They do it for every possible occasion: to greet, to part, to seal an agreement. They do it at dinners, where normal cultures would have toasts. They do it spontaneously, like a pat on the shoulder, like shaking hands.
John doesn't even shake hands if he can avoid it. In the private depths of his heart, he thinks it's rude: in that way, saluting's always been convenient. On Xia, John keeps his distance: makes the trade, waves, and gets the hell out of Dodge. But Rodney stays to learn about their extraordinary power systems and to teach them everything else, and when he comes back to Atlantis a couple of weeks later, he's picked up the habit.</blockquote>
