Ethnography

Ethnography

October 26, 2014

Friday night cramming

It was Friday evening when I decided to head out and do my fieldwork. I found a spot on campus, in a building that will not be mentioned, with a perfect spot overlooking the stressed and anxious students trying to cram. All around me are people of different races. Here is what I saw.
Across the seating area was a fairly young Middle Eastern man who appeared to be in his early twenties. He had multiple empty cups of coffee arranged around him and what appeared to be many napkins, all waded up and used. This young man sat behind a very large laptop and had papers with equations written on them, cluttered on the table. I could tell that this man was very stressed because he would occasionally sigh and run both hands through his curly hair just after rubbing his weary eyes. Also, it sounded as if he was getting sick because I heard constant coughing and sniffling. The man kept to himself in his study and wore large headphones so he wouldn't be bothered.
To my left was a girl, probably still in her teenage years. She had light brown skin, long, straight hair, and big glasses resting atop her nose. She sat at a table with two seats as if she had planned to meet someone, but the person was running late. She mainly kept to herself aside from the occasional "hello" from someone she supposedly knew. Every time I looked over, she had all her attention put into her phone as if she was checking instagram or refreshing her twitter page in hopes of something interesting popping up. This girl appeared bored and her patience seemed to be wearing thin.
As I looked over my shoulder, I noticed a group of three people, all appearing to be from the same country. In this group were two males and a female. If I had to guess, I would say these people were from Saudi Arabia because the female wore a hijab and the males both had light brown skin with an abundance of facial hair. It appeared that each person was in their early to middle twenties and they were forming a study group. I couldn't understand a single word they spoke but it had to have been funny because they were all laughing and smiling. One at a time they would read off questions from what I had assumed was a study guide. The girl was hard to hear since she wore a veil but sounded confident in her answers. One of the males, on the other hand, sounded hesitant but raised a fist when he answered correctly.
The last person I observed was an Asian women that appeared to be in her thirties. Her hair was tied up in a bun and had chopsticks poking through. She wore large glasses that covered most of her face, along with a striped shirt and yellow sweater. She sat alone at a table where she hid behind her macbook. Every now and then she would reach down and grab her bagel, that had been resting on her lap, to take a bite. After every bite she quickly dabbed her lips with a napkin and once she was finished, she wiped the crumbs off her jeans. I couldn't tell what she was doing behind her laptop but whatever it was must have been frustrating because I heard curse words in broken English. Also, she would bang on the table and put the draw strings on her sweater in her mouth to bite on them.
As I prepared to leave, I noticed the girl with the big glasses sitting next to another girl. Her mystery date had finally arrived and they were both giggling. The middle eastern man was still behind his computer but cleared up some space on his table to fit another cup of coffee and another set of notes. The study group had finished up but one of the males and the female stayed to make sure they knew all the information. Last but not least, the Asian girl had packed up her things, threw away her trash, and walked out the front doors smiling.

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