Please Don't Touch Me...Another Odd Observation....

I'm taking time out of a busy school schedule to comment on a weird phenomenon I've noticed here. No one hugs each other here...Ok not no one but pretty close. In Boise, you give out hugs like candy on Halloween. You hug all of your friends regardless of their gender whenever you see them and then again whenever they leave. The campus has people standing out in the quad giving out free hugs during dead week. Here it is almost dead opposite. People don't hug each other and especially do not hug someone of the opposite gender unless interested in or dating him. It just doesn't happen. I wear my free hugs shirt to school here and no one wants one. I've only ever had one person hug me when I was wearing that shirt and he is the only guy to have ever hugged me here besides the guy that I am dating. There is also an assumption that if you are dating someone, you shouldn't hug other members of the opposite sex...unless they are family members. It is like some weird idea of quasi form of cheating. In fact, physical touch overall seems to be much more significant here than Boise. Touching someone of the opposite gender here definitely constitutes interest in dating the person. In Boise, it can mean that too (key word can not always). I'm afraid I don't understand the different meanings of physical touch here so I find it better not to try at all lest I commit some unforgivable sin. Even hugging among the same gender seems to be oddly low here. I think I have given a few of my roommates hugs...that's it. Eric, the guy I am dating, commented a few days ago that he has hugged more guys here than he has girls....That's not just weird that is flat out wrong. Come on Utah...hugging is not the new making out; it does not imply a commitment of any kind; really, it is just a nice, normal thing to do. Get over it.