Weather and Technology

It is a cloudy day; the clouds invaded the gray sky earasing any sign of the sun. The weather this week has been just like this; giving signs of rain in the morning to midday, and then the sun comes out. Of course with the exception of Thursday, which was the day that rained very hard making driving very perilous for everyone. That day, the rain lasted almost the whole day (I do not know how long it lasted in Las Cruces because after my class ended I left for El Paso). I enjoy weather like this since it rare when it rains. It is 10:30 am when I arrived at my field cite once again. The smell of greasy tacos and quesadillas filled my nostrils the moment I stepped inside. I did not order any food because I had breakfast at home, so I just took a seat in one of the tables in the corner, and pretended to read and do homework, while in reality I was just observing.

The place wasn't as full as the last time, but there where still students there. They were placing their order, and the cooks were very busy making the food and getting the orders ready. From just one glance I could see that the most ordered food was the burritos. Even though students where there, the place was not chaotic. It is usually a relaxing place to eat and visit with friends. Of course there is always chatter and laughter, but it is still very enjoyable.

I do not see the group of seven that was here the last time, they probably went to another place today; I do not think that this is their normal meeting place. They were fun to observe the last time, because they kept me entertained with all their laughter and jokes. They seemed to be different from everyone else.

There are people seated in groups of two and three. All of them do not seem be very energetic or in the mood to do much. They are talking to their friends in quiet voices, and from the way the people look I come to the conclusion that there is not a lot of gossiping. I am guessing that the weather has a lot to do with the moods of everyone. Usually when the days are very cloudy people do not feel energetic, and it seems as the day is just dragging along.

I also notice that the students are not doing any school-related work. I am guessing that the reason for that is because it is in the morning, and if I had to any work to do I would go to the library or to a similar quiet place. Many students also seem to be very entertained in their phones; they rarely look up from them. It is sad that our generation can not live without this technology. We are so engrossed in it that we miss a lot of things in life. We do not know how to live without it, Sometimes we can not even pay attention to what a friend is saying because we are so busy texting and sending snap chats. We do not give people our full attention when they need us to, but then we complain when they do the same thing to us.

It is time for me to go to my next class, and I leave the place. It was an uneventful morning in the cafeteria. I saw a lot of people in their phones, but that is just the way that our generation is, and probably that is something that I can talk about in my ethnogrophy. That is very common in our generation and it does not vary from different groups of people.

The More The Better

It is 10:30 on a Wednesday when I walked in to the food court, and the smell of greasy, but delicious food greeted me. The sweet smell of tacos, quesadillas and burritos was in the air, and everyone had the look of hungry wolves waiting to devour their meal.

I took a seat in an empty table and started observing the people. I tried to look as normal as possible, but when you constantly stare at people for a whole hour it gets creepy, and people start to give me annoyed looks. I did not let it bother me, since I was the one who was gathering data from them, and not the other way around.

The place was full of students from all ages who had just gotten out of classes. Apparently everyone was getting their breakfast at this hour. I imagine the majority woke up late for class and did not have time to eat early.

Everyone was seated in groups of two or three people and were talking quietly among themselves, some even paying more attention to their food than to their friend next to them. I saw nothing unusual about them.

There was this particular group that caught my attention, they were a group of three boys and one girl: Pancho, Carlos, Pepe and Risitas; just by looking at them I knew they were Mexican. They acted very different from the other people there. They looked a little bit more friendly and open than the others because they were the loudest and funniest people there. Risitas laughed for everything they guys said. They could be heard from the whole place. Apart from being the loudest, they also were the ones who kept laughing over and over.

A few minutes later two girls and a boy arrived at the place. They immediately approached that group and said hello. Immediately they pulled three available chairs from other tables, and the seven squeezed themselves to all fit in a table that was meant for four people. It did not look very comfortable, but they did not mind squeezing themselves, in fact they seemed to enjoy seating like that. This also caught my attention because the biggest group apart from them were of three people, and they did not act the way they did.

Now that their group got bigger, the louder they got. They laughed for whatever story one of the girls was telling them, and all of them got along very well. Their voices clouded out any other noise. There was not a time they stopped talking. They were even sharing their food, eating from the same plate and biting front the same burrito. They were so entertained by their conversation that they did not notice that I was staring at them for the whole time. I do not know how they could not feel my stare, but I am glad they did not notice. I was very entertained by just watching them.

After an hour passed, all of them got up and left as group. Outside they separated each going a different way to their classes, but I am sure that once they had another opportunity they were going to hang out again.