Reading about nonverbal communication made me think about various nonverbal communication habits that I have picked up over time. Specifically, I was taught to always make eye contact or nod when I was listening to someone else speaking in order to show that I was being an attentive listener. I also will smile and wave to people I know when I see them around campus, which has the potential to lead to an awkward situation like the one with Judith in Algeria (where waving signaled that she wanted the teacher to come to her, even though she was attempting to greet him from a distance). Another interesting example was about wearing seat belts in Macedonia. In Macedonia, it means that you don’t trust the driver to get you where you’re going safely, but in the US it’s a common safety practice and required by law, which really emphasizes how different the gestures are for each culture and how normalized (and mandatory) it is in the United States. It was very interesting to read about these codes of nonverbal communication because I’ve internalized mine and I resort to using them in situations in my everyday life without really thinking about it, but I had never really thought about all the different aspects and official definitions surrounding different elements of nonverbal communication.