Student Central

It's a normal Friday afternoon in Las Cruces, most of the college students are done with classes for the weekend. The greeter of the restaurant is easily the sweetest person I have ever encountered. She asks how my day is going and wishes me a fantastic weekend. I order a plate of pasta with meat sauce and sit at a table in the center of the room, clear with a view of the entire crowd. With a pen in my hand, I begin observing.

Automatically, I come to the realization that people of the same ethnicity all sit together. They all wear similar clothing, and all eat similar foods. To my right, a group of African American girls sit at a booth, all wearing shorts, tank tops, and sandals. They begin conversing about the latest gossip. One girl wearing a pink shirt stands up on the booth and begins to jokingly dance around, singing a song from Disney's The Little Mermaid. The rest of the girls laugh at the joke, and switch the conversation to winter fashion.

Farther to the right, a group of college athletes sit at a long table. All wearing spirited clothing, it is clear that the boys are part of the golf team. They all wear khaki shorts, NMSU shirts, preppy shoes, and most of them are wearing baseball caps. I was too far away to hear what their conversation was about. Next to them, a group of Japanese foreign exchange students quietly eat. It is obvious that they're not American due to the style of clothing they wear. The three girls all wear graphic tees, with skirts and low heels. They speak in their native language.

However, not all customers are sitting in a group, a handful of people eat alone. Their mannerisms are all alike. They seem to scroll through their phones while they eat. Some type away on their laptops, others simply sit and people-watch. A majority of the singles sit on their phones though.

One thing that struck me strange, was that I only saw one couple in the entire restaurant. The boyfriend feeds his girlfriend a spoonful of his dish, and she giggles at her boyfriend's flirtatious gesture. They walk off, hand in hand, and exit the restaurant.

After an hour of observation, I see that everybody talks with their hands; some point in directions, others demonstrating motions. I suppose I talk with my hands too, but until I actually began observing the habits of others, I didn't realize how common it is. Slowly, customers began trickling out of the restaurant, continuing their conversations out the door with their group. I packed up my things and decided to leave as well.