"What's up?"
"Not much. What about you"
"Good. How's your family?"
"All OK. How's work?"
"Just fine. It's been a long time!"
"Yeah, true."
"Where have you been hiding?"
"I'm around. Busy though. You?"
"Oh, I'm here."
But once that's all finished, the pace of conversation changes. In fact, it might slow down to a standstill. If you don't have anything to say, you can sit in silence. Or if you have something to say but don't know how to approach it, you can sit in silence. Or, if you know the person you're talking to has something to say but you want them to bring it up, you can sit in silence. Or, if the person you're with doesn't feel like talking, you can sit in silence. Or if you're tired, you can sit in silence and close your eyes.
But the conversation might turn into a giant group back and forth, like volleyball teams tossing around a conversational gambit. I once sat at the airport waiting for a flight to arrive, and listened to a 45 minute discussion about pork. The dozen or so taxi drivers who were also waiting for the plane became quite energetic in defending or deriding pig-eating. Mainly divided along religious lines, they hugely enjoyed the rhetorical exercise.
"Pigs! They're dirty animals." (collective laughter)
"Why do you say they're dirty?"
"The Koran says they're dirty. I can't believe you eat that." (more laughter)
"Better that you don't eat them, more for us and they're aren't enough pigs around." (laughter continues) "...Plus, I bet you do eat them. I think I've seen you ordering roast pork at a dark corner of the bar." (roaring laughter)
Then when the jokes of pigs and pork died down, the taxi drivers sat in a a comfortable silence. Till the talk of dogs started up.
