Ethnography

Ethnography

September 21, 2014

time for lunch

Another lunch rush here at the same food court that I previously posted about. The lines are long and the people are still pouring in threw every door. There is a pair of men sitting a few tables away from me near one of the northern facing exits. Both of them are drinking coke out of a can which I assume they may have brought from home. Another guy in yellow has decided to sit at the table in front of me alone. It is the table closets to the Chinese restaurant. He is dressed in what appears to be full workout gear, a yellow shirt, some sweatpants and some running shoes. He has a reusable water bottle with him also. He begins to sip his water while he waits for the food he ordered. The guys drinking the coke cans carry little conversation and stare at the ground a lot while they are eating. Yellow shirt seems inpatient as he waits for his food. He bounces his left leg up and down while waiting, occasionally drinking some water in between what appear to be texts. Today many of the woman who come in for food are quick about leaving. They order, stand impatiently by the pickup area and then leave quickly. While the men eat with each other or alone. I look around to find only one woman opting to sit in here alone while eating her food, while the other 3 woman inside are eating with a male friend which may be a significant other. It has been about 10 min and yellow shirt has received his food, he has gotten a burrito and eats it with chili. He still seems to be moving his leg though, which may also be due to anxiety caused by classes instead of by what I thought was impatience. The coke men are finishing their food and pack there things. They leave and have not even reached the street in front of the food court before a lone woman quickly grabs up their table. I make another interesting observation as I look around, almost all the men seem to be wearing pants although the weather does not seem cold enough for that. I see only one man in the room wearing shorts, two if I count the one wearing basketball/workout shorts. After this observation I look around and notice that the women in the room range drastically in clothing. Some wear pants while others wear short shorts with none in-between. I turn and behind me a man in a flannel shirt has his stuff spread throughout the table giving the illusion of being busy while he eats, but I have not seen him touch anything but his food. He eats his burger quietly while looking out the window. Yellow shirt has finished his burrito and sits for a minute on his phone. He then pulls out a quesadilla, takes a picture with his phone, and takes a drink of water and then drinks some of his soda. I assume the photo could be either for a social network or for snapchat. He gets more chili before returning to eat his quesadilla. Another man sits near me with glasses on. He eats his burger alone while he stares forward. I just notice that yellow shirt is also wearing a purple bracelet with gold edges. Glasses has finished his burger and now eats his fries while staring at the attractive females in line at the Chinese restaurant. On a side note the coffee shop actually has some business today. Workout dude finishes his food and leaves out of the eastern door even though the northern door was much closer. Mr. Glasses is now finishing his fries and is packing up to leave. I watch him leave out of the northern door and decide with most of the people that were here when I arrived gone, I too should finish up for the day.

No comments:

Post a Comment