On Sunday afternoon, I came to a small Korean restaurant in Queens. Compared with the Korean restaurant next door, the space I went to was only one-third of the space next door. This restaurant is a bit old-fashioned. The environment in the shop is not that well, and the walls near the kitchen area are covered with soot. The tables and stools in the shop are old, and the menus on the glass are worn out. Compared to the good restaurants in the city, this place is more like a small restaurant deep in the street. The ordering boss is a middle-aged uncle. When I went in with friends, he greeted us warmly. He put the two tables in the corner together because we have three people. All the tables in the store are the same size and only two people can use it. When he finished ordering, I watched its kitchen, which is open and visible to all guests. There are only two cooktops, a younger chef and an old lady wearing an apron are employees. When he finished ordering, I watched its kitchen, which is open and visible to all guests. There are only two cooktops, a younger chef and an old lady wearing an apron are employees. The chef is in charge of cooking, and the other grandmother is in charge of making some sushi. This grandma brought kimchi and miso soup when she brought the meal. I learned that this is a Korean culture because Korean food is served with kimchi. I observed that the guests in the shop were only one at the table. They were two Spanish girls who were chatting happily. Occasionally, guests come in to see the menu and then take it away. Because of the congestion here, I see that most customers prefer the option to take away the food. Then I noticed that there were two Korean men who were older and looked like regulars in this shop. They are very good at greeting the staff in the store. I watched them sit up and watched the TV overhead. This restaurant has a TV set hanging on a very high wall. The TV broadcasts Korean news. The atmosphere in the shop is very warm, this shop is not like a professional commercial restaurant, and the staffs are very kind.  I think this is the unique charm of this small restaurant.

I’m at the administration building in City College. Sitting on one of the black couches facing the entrance of the building. There’s a front desk for the financial aid office. I noticed how a lot of students stopped at that office to ask questions than continued with their quests. I noticed two types of students mostly, ones that seemed relaxed and ones that seemed angry and in a hurry.
The relaxed ones strolled at a medium pace staring down at their phone. They don’t seem to be in a rush. They’re not looking at the lines like someone who is in a rush. They just stand in line or get a ticket if they need to and wait patiently on their phones or laptops.
The ones in a rush come through the entrance at a fast pace. Their body seems to know where it’s going on its own. They have this determined face that is locked on a certain office, usually the finical aid office. I noticed many upset or stressed students head straight for the financial aid office. These students are usually not on their phones, their eyes instead are looking at how long the lines are.
They are some students who seem to come here just to chill. They sit on one of the black couch’s or metal chairs and charge their phones. Always somewhere in the distance, you hear a student getting frustrated and confused with the responses they are getting. At some point, it just becomes background noise even when their voices get louder and angrier. You can also hear the employee who’s trying to help try to stay as polite as they can. It’s a cycle that never seems to end.
Some students walk out of the building with a small smile saying “Have a good day” to whoever helped them, and some students walk out with a grim. You can tell with the student’s body language if their needs were met.
There’s not much interaction between students in this place. They are there for business only, unless they came with friend/s. This building although it has more than one floor it barely seems like the other floors are being used. In the hour and a half, I was sitting there only about 4 students used another floor beside the first one.
The lines stayed mostly empty and I noticed it’s probably due to the virus. Students had on medical masks, gloves, and scarves around their faces although outside was not cold. I even saw some friends bump elbows instead of a hug or shake hands. They always laughed about the situation afterward.
When it comes to the interactions between students and employees behind the desk, it’s unique. When their ticket/name is called the student rushes quickly back up to the front. They try to be polite and ask the employee “how are you?” before the employee finishes the word “good” they are already asking the question. The employee doesn’t seem offended by this rude behavior. It almost seems like it’s an automatic response to say “good” and move on. The student always and I mean always at some point tell the employee they are wrong or misunderstood them. But the employee does understand them and is telling them the truth, just the truth they don’t want to hear.
Once the student has accepted the defeat, they usually stomp their hand down on the desk lightly and say “alright” more to themselves. I heard this happen many times in front of the admission office. Some students huff and others accept their defeats silently and leave with a quiet “thanks”.
You can tell this building is the most disliked building on campus. Students are here only to solve problems. And sometimes they aren’t solved, or they need time to be.

The place I choose to observe were the Piers in Manhattan. I walked from pier 42 all the way down to battery park. It was a perfect day to walk such a distance as the weather was super beautiful. The sun was up bright and burning hitting very nearly the 60’s degrees. This was seen in the clothes everyone around me was wearing. People in shorts, tee shirts, and even sandals. It really felt like summer. As I walked along the railing I noted the waves splashing along the shore which created a slight change of color to the concrete. The water was very dark, nothing seen below its surface. Only some very bizarre wooden sticks and wires that barely stuck out the surface of the water. Soon after I decided to sit on a bench for a while and fully absorbed my surroundings. My attention was always drawn to the very large skyscrapers that touched the clouds. One very peculiar building caught my attention that was very unique. It looked like something out of Minecraft or built out of legos. It had a very random and unorthodox structure with many gaps shaped out of the ordinary. My attention was then brought back to the water, as I looked on to the horizon I could see the statue of liberty. Its green color and island around it. From where I was it looked so tiny in comparison to everything else around me.

An environment I have been in long enough to expect & understand the behaviors that are a part of it are the MTA trains. Typically I, along with many other commuters, will be on our phones listening to music, texting, on social media if we have data or a combination of those actions; Some are watching a show they downloaded off a streaming device, playing on gaming apps, or even talking on the phone with someone-not caring how much of their conversation is overshared. This type of behavior can cause those nearby to be annoyed, including me. It’s subtle, but when you see this repeated behavior enough you notice who the real New Yorkers are as you can often see the annoyance in their face. Same rules apply to when theres “showtime” in your train cart-a performance that either involves dancing or singing & when the performance is done, they ask for change. It’s usually tourists that give the performers money, but very rarely is a performance so unique that it grabs the attention of native New Yorkers. To grab our attention means the person or group was astounding, as New Yorkers show to have mastered the art of ignoring others. We tend to ignore people on the train when they’re performers, poor people asking for money, people acting out of social order & when a physical &/or verbal altercation is occurring. In regards to the poor & those not obeying society’s conduct, we acknowledge them but we also don’t. We may glance when they enter the cart or start speaking, but immediately we’ll turn our attention back to what we were doing before to avoid guilt or a possible threat. When it comes to altercations, some, like myself, will not look in the direction of where the voices are coming from to avoid attention being drawn to them. Others may start recording the altercation in secret or with no shame. New York City is just filled with so much culture and how we as a society process & respond to certain situations is one of them.

I decided to observe the A train during rush hour. I started observing from Utica Avenue in Brooklyn to 145st in Manhattan. The train was packed with New Yorkers trying to get home from their jobs. There were barely any seats free and the ones that were free were dirty. While I stood holding a pole, a group of women entered the train. They loudly conversed about the Coronavirus and politics. The train was rowdy and had a consistent squeaking sound between stations.

The people on the train came from different ethnic backgrounds. A good portion of the people on the train wore surgical masks– I even observed an old couple with wipes. Everyone on the train seemed to be on their phones or listening to music on headphones. Once the train arrived in Manhattan a couple of teens got on to perform what they call “showtime”. They danced to house beats and pop music.

As time passed, people began moving in clusters– people exited and entered on main stops. I commute using the train every single day to get across the city. The transit system is a huge part of New York City culture. Watching groups of friends get on the train reminded me of the times I would take the train with friends.

Throughout the whole ride, there were homeless people asking for money. They usually shared their stories before asking for help from the public. Occasionally people would give them money– but a good portion of the time people looked away and pretended they did not hear.

The smell of disinfectant was consistent throughout the whole time I was on the train. It smelled like Purell and Lysol. Everyone on the train appeared on edge when someone coughed or sneezed. Overall, the ride felt extremely long and uncomfortable.

Syed Shataj Hosain

Professor Shemecaa A Harris

Writing For Social Science 

Discussion Board #3 

11th March, 2020.

                Coffee is a big part of my daily life. But I never felt like to sit down and observe the whole atmosphere of a coffee shop because I mostly grab and go. There is hardly any moment that I  ever looked at what is going on around the coffee shop until this assignment. I went to a coffee shop on Monday because I thought it would be fun to observe the shop during the week day. First, I bought a coffee for myself and sat in a corner. I noticed at first that mostly the professional people were buying coffee as breakfast. The coffee shop was next to a court and that is why most people who worked there come to get their morning coffee. I saw the barista taking orders so fast and rapidly and continuously telling her co-workers to make the orders. There were two barisha taking the orders and also making the coffee at the same time. They were very friendly  and engaging with the customers. The decoration of the shop was very sophisticated and they had a very big space for customers to wait in the line and grab the coffee. However, they had so many chair tables for people to sit down. I could smell all the freshly brewed coffee and the smell of toasted croissant. I looked around and saw there was an old couple sitting together and talking to each other while having their coffee. A young boy dressed like a soccer player holding a ball came in and asked for water from the barista. While taking sips of my coffee, I realized the manager walked in and took over the register from one of the barista’s. I noticed that the crowd was getting less as the day was getting closer to noon. I saw one of the baristas erasing the black board and writing the “Happy Hour” in front of the entrance and wrote some of the names of their drinks. She wrote down the offers that they will start from 2PM- 4PM. Some people were in a rush so they got no time to sit down, so they had their coffee and went. However, some like to sit and do their work on their laptop while having coffee. Mostly, in my observation the coffee shop was crowded in the early morning. I observed there are different types of people coming to the coffee shop and enjoy coffee with a good company. 

On March 11th, I decided to go to a local park setting in Harlem. When I first got to the park, I noticed a lot of people just walking and listening to music. At first I thought watching people in this park would be useless but then, a man walked through the park and he was talking on the phone. He walked extremely fast and shouted, “I don’t want to have to go over there and shoot up the place man, I really don’t want to do that.” This definitely made me laugh and feel concerned at the same time. After this man exited the park, a woman walked by and danced to her music and sang “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar. By the looks of things, she was in a pretty good mood. On the left of me were two kids, a boy and a girl. They looked like good friends but they only looked about 8-9 years old. They were playing kid games and laughing while sitting on the bench. On the grass hill in front of me, there were two kids, another boy-girl pair. They were siblings and they were playing tag on the hill. The girl seemed very happy that she was wining the game and the boy just looked like he was happy to be outside. Their parents were waiting on them on the right side of me on the bench. They were in deep conversation but, they never took their eyes off of their kids. I think that something that I thought was very interesting was I saw a group of men smoking cigarettes. They were going to walk through the park but when they seen the kids they decided to stay far away from them and I thought that was interesting and also a gesture of respect towards the kids and their parents which you don’t really find now a days.

I have decided to go to chick-fil-A to do my observations. The one I went to is located in midtown. So as I walk by the place, theres a lot of people outside it just going by like usual. When I walk into the place, I stood on the line to order since I was hungry and the line was long too. As I was waiting on the line, I noticed the person on the counter was getting frustrated because the customer just didnt know how to order and asking to many questions. Also, people on the line were getting annoyed since there was one person on the counter but soon another person came to the counter. I ordered and as I was waiting, I look around to see whats going in the restaurant. I notice the first floor was filled and there was no place to sit. Also, most of the people were like late 20s or in 30s. I food came and I gabbed them and went upstairs. I noticed there was barely any room to sit but I found a sit in the corner. But surprisingly, most people upstairs were younger and mostly my age. The place was a little noisy. As I sat down, I noticed people didn’t care about whats going on around them. Some are just on their phones and eating while some are just with their friends talking. People were just simply minding their own business. After like an hour, I threw out my trash and left the restaurant.

Noticing how attitudes towards Asians have changed I decided to go to a place I have never been before: Chinatown. Specifically, I went to Columbus Park around 5 PM where I noticed I could find a seat with no trouble despite online sources saying I wouldn’t be able to. I credited this to the time of day, and went on with my observance which included the stores around the park as well. Another thing I noticed was there were two sections within the park, one full of adults and one mixed with kids and adults. For the former, adults were smoking and young adults smoked weed while throwing their head back, with eyes to the sky as they laughed at the nonsensical thing of life. This made me miss my old high school years where I used to do the same with my friends, and it caused me to dread growing any older. Nonetheless, even the adult section was segregated between Asians and other races, but even then not all Asian people were banded together and one man performed Tai Chi in a balcony. But of course, we all band together with our friends and people who speak our dialect or language, so I couldn’t attribute people’s racism with this division of groups. While at the kids’ section I noticed something a tad different, parents yelling at telephones, children playing indiscriminately with some kids being in solitude (maybe newcomers?) and just doing their own thing. It almost seemed as though race were unimportant to kids who were just trying to have fun, one group of kids consisted of black, white, Hispanic, and Asian but the thing that connected them was the want to play and the ability to speak the same language. So, within these sections, there were subsections and it was interesting to see that even children’s lives are complex without them even knowing it. Moving onto the stores around the park there were bare, a few had one to two customers inside of them with three waiters just lounging around looking bored. I had a craving for an iced matcha with boba, and of course, I didn’t bring cash to a cash-only store but when I went to chase I noticed it had both English and Mandarin characters displaying its name. When inside I saw employees furnished their cubicles with Chinese lanterns galore, I found this interesting since not a lot of Americans do this with their own cultures (but then again what culture do they have to display?). Once I got the cash I went back to the store and paid for my stuff, and watched as the store owner took over the self-serve pastries to prevent the spread of the disease (based on my assumption). All in all, today felt productive and I didn’t see any racist attacks towards Asians as I’ve seen on Twitter, so I hope one day New Yorkers feel safe enough to take the train because they are missing a lot from not going to Chinatown which endorses all, if not most, Asian cultures.

Adrian Aguilar

Discussion Post #3

On march 10 I decided to go to Costco. I went to buy groceries and some extra essentials I would need due to the Coronavirus outbreak. As I pushed the cart I recorded notes on my phone; it became increasingly difficult to maneuver through the crowd with my phone in my hand. In my head I thought this might have not been the best place to conduct my research but I continued anyway. With my brother doing most of the work, by grabbing and picking up the essentials we needed, I stayed on the sideline to watch the cart and our bags. 

What I noticed the most as I watched from the side was the pace of the people in the store. It was a packed day at Costco, and it felt like everyone was trying to escape. With the line starting at the front of the store and ending at the fish section (the back of the store), I felt like we were never going to leave. Like everyone else our pace increased. As we speed through the crowd to the paper towel section I hear a mother tell her kids, “grab everything you see we will use it at some point!!” I thought this was super funny as I retold the line I heard to my brother. 

We finally make it to the checkout line with our starting position at the back of the store. This was the longest and most boring part of my whole trip to Costco. As I heard the complaints from customers, “no one is working”, “what is taking so long!” I thought to myself what can you really do. Faced with a situation that was unavoidable I tried to be as patient as possible by keeping myself busy. I finally make it through check out and I am almost out the door. As I leave I hear one final phrase from my fellow hispanic security guards. 1st security guard “Tanta gente aqui”, 2nd security guard “ya tu sabes este virus tiene a la gente loca!” (TRANSLATION: “so many people here”, you already know this virus has the people crazy!”).