Assignment 3

25/2
I have experienced some odd behaviour today! Serena, Ailsa and I decided to go to Starbucks when it was fairly busy to start assignment three but it seemed like we walked into a lot of strange scenes on the way down; a man standing in the middle of the DoJ entrance staring confused at his broken brolly (really confused), a man crossing the road on a red man, turning round and expecting a high five for it, a child dropping randomly to the floor and spinning around in circles... weird. Taken a few pages of notes over the hour and a half we were there, thought it was much harder than I expected.

2/3
'Unspoken rules' and etiquette

For assignment three we were asked to observe people and their behaviour in a certain environment. We chose the popular coffee shop Starbucks.

At first I noticed the obvious things; people holding doors open, queing - very orderly and polite. People on their own were generally left on their own, even if there were several empty chairs at their tables.

Then I started to think about the environment we were in. Sound wise there was quiet chatting, no loud talking. Fairly mellow music was on quietly in the background - David Gray, Paolo Nutini, Talking Heads.

Although it is a relaxed, laid back and slow moving atmosphere, there seemed to be some kind of tension. When people walked in the door other people looked over as if they are judging them? When I walked in I did not feel comfortable immediately and took a while to relax.

There seemed to be a pretty varied group of people but I observed that there were mostly adults, students or workers. We all thought it was odd when a group of school children walked in. They took their purchases away, possibly feeling uncomfortable in the adult environment?

I suppose Starbucks is really an adult environment, there are very few children. One woman brought her child but looked very embarrassed when he started crying.

I also went to a pub quiz, I had actually never been to one before! I went with a couple of friends who hadn't been either and found it a bit awkward. Firstly where to get the paper and pens without looking stupid and also where we were supposed to sit etc. This was obviously a completely different atmosphere; the music and the people were louder, there were no children and a lot of alcohol was involved!

People watching is always fun and this assignment has made me look a little closer. It has also introduced me to the fun that is the pub quiz, hopefully we will do better than 9th next time...