The public place I decided to observe is the New York Presbyterian Hospital lobby. Due to my schedule I was only able to visit at night on Mondays around 11 pm. I walked into the large lobby where there were small tables for people to sit on the left side and took a seat in that area to begin my observation. In the lobby on the right side there is a store where one can purchase food/snacks for people who want to eat. In the middle there’s a large desk where 2 security guards were sitting behind the desk.
Though it was late there were more people than I expected. On the tables there were 10 people sitting eating food from the cafe. Most of the people were sitting alone eating as they quietly looked through their phone. The patterns I noticed were that people were constantly moving in and out. The people in the cafe were constantly walking in and out with paper bags in their hands while there were people entering and leaving the elevators. Another pattern was that most people were alone, keeping to themselves as they traveled out or in the hospital. The few people who were in groups looked like family members who were pushing out the former patients in a wheelchair.
Even though it was so late people were walking in and out the lobby, the doctors/nurses were all in lab coats/scrubs. The doctors/nurses walked quicker than the other people who were moving through the lobby. Each person who entered had to go through a quick security check then go to the security desk where they had to get a visitors pass to go further into the hospital. Due to it being so late you could tell the doctors were going due to their quick steps and happy goodbyes to security as they left.
In the lobby you could only hear the steps of people and the voices of the security guards talking and laughing. Due to me constantly being in the hospital to take care of my grandma the security guards greeted and spoke to me. The security guards were going on a discussion about the coronavirus virus and how quickly it was spreading. Overall, I observed a very fast paced setting even when it was late at night on a weekday where there was just continuous movement of people except for the few who were eating on the tables.

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