2/25 Observation Practice

As I walked in to Rita's tonight some time around 7:30, I was the only person there, except for the employee and a man who came in behind me five seconds after I did. Apparently, that person was either a coworker or a friend of the employee on shift, since they both started talking. They first talked about work and then about school. The girl working tonight mentioned something about how she couldn't study like she wanted to. After that, they just had a usual conversation about their friends, and then the man who wasn't working left. I could also hear a machine-like noise, which was probably the custard machine. During the last few moments I was there, the employee turned on the radio, probably because she was bored and by herself.

"Lay of the Land" Blog Entry

In my first blog, I stated that I am writing this blog for my English class. For this class, we will be required to write a blog entry each week in response to a reading. My reading for this week is entitled "Lay of the Land" and was written by my teacher Nicole Williams.
The paper is an example of one that I must write for my ethnographic study. In her paper, she describes the appearance and events that occur in the bowling alley of her hometown. She uses a lot of imagery, which is an allusion to the stereotypical bowling alley that everyone has visited at least once in their life. I was most surprised about her detail, including everything from the people around her to what was on the menu. I didn't expect her to go into detail about the different bowling teams. It also caught me by surprise that she alluded to past stereotypes, such as the old bowler with the fancy collared shirt.
Another thing I noticed was the fact that she made assumptions about the men, such as when she mentions that one bowler must be a fan of wrestling, and that he will probably leave around 8-o'-clock. I don't think you should make such subjective assumptions in a paper like this, which is meant to describe the location. It doesn't seem to fit into the other objective descriptions shown throughout the essay.
I consider this essay a great descriptive essay that took plenty of observation, since so much detail went into it.

Observation Practice

I decided to observe the lounge in DX (Dietrick Xpress) for practice. As I looked around, I saw four tall tables, three small tables, five couches, and two cushioned chairs stationed around. The walls were colored a pale yellow, probably for the intent of calming the customers. There were ten paintings on these walls, and they all shared some sort of abstract fruit theme. The idea must be to instill a harmonious mindset into anyone around. There were also two flatscreen televisions that were playing the Virginia Tech and Wake Forest basketball game. The place was in pretty decent condition, with only a few pieces of trash on the ground and some crumbs in the chairs and couches. That's basically what I expected. Even though it was chilly by the door, it was still a laid back and casual environment,
When I walked in, there were fifteen people at first with an equally divided number of boys and girls, but it grew as time went by. Everyone must have either been at the game or at the neighboring "Deet's Place" for ice cream. However, after I left, many people came from Cassell Colosseum to grab a post-game snack. What struck me though was the fact that at least seven or eight of the people in DX lounge were of Asian descent. This must be a coincidence. I couldn't hear any of the conversations going on, since the game was playing louder than everyone who was speaking. The most consistent noise i heard was the noise of people either talking about the game or cheering on the Hokies. Everyone wore warm clothing, since it was freezing; this is typical for a Tuesday Blacksburg night.