Observation: Field Notes

Location: a cafe on campus

Date: January 25, 2011

Time of Observation: 11:30am-12:10 pm

11:30am: I walk into the C Café in H Hall, having finished teaching the class I am a T.A for. I spend a lot of time here because most of the classes of my minor are located in this building and as an international student, this place brings me great comfort in allowing my difference to blend in and normalize in a sea of difference. This space dims my sense of otherness. I sniff and realize it doesn’t smell like a café. It smells like – nothing, not snow, not coffee or food. It feels a bit sterilized and this somehow feels like a negative so I acknowledge that I am not feeling very friendly towards this city today, since the sun has not shone for 2 days now. Its cold, damp and grey outside and its cold and grey inside: some of us have kept jackets, coats and sweaters on despite being indoors.

This is an open space with no enclosing doors; rather it functions, literally and metaphorically as a connecting passageway on the ground floor of the building that houses several departments like Foreign Languages, Comparative Studies that also act as bridges and connecting passages. This function is underlined by 2 interactive technological boards on 2 ends of the space, with the words for welcome written in several languages on it.

The walls are a neutral beige, broken only by the deep orange warmth of the space that proclaims itself Javamaster, stocked with coffees, muffins and lunch. There is a large blackboard (a floor sandwich-board) with the winter hours of operation written on it. That and a fridge in the corner with a poster for soup that announces ‘Its simply sensational’ looking like it was blown up from a Good Housekeeping magazine from the 80’s, are additional signifiers of it being a café. I look around for an empty chair in the very full room.

The room is filled with silver colored metal chairs and tables, their steely metallic coldness tempered by roundness. Round tables, chairs with round-edges further softened by latticelike work – a grid is there, but its open, allows for space to breathe. The furniture, like the space, makes it look businesslike but friendly.

Three tables along the sides of the wall leading to the snow-covered courtyard are higher with tall chairs (like at a bar) allowing the corner tables to not be hidden. it also breaks up the space to not be monotonous as do the pillars that break up the hallway to look more like a room.

In advertisement of its multicultural and educational nature, there are 6 wall TVs in this space, all playing different language channels. Right now there is football on the Al-Jazeera news network on the TV above me, a Japanese children’s show on another, a Spanish-language game show on the third, with lots of blonde people hugging a lot. One TV has departmental announcements on, and one is switched off. The sound is off for all of them but people’s eyes drift to the TVs closest to them now and then.

11:32: I seat myself at a corner table (one of the high ones) feeling lucky because it is the only table available, its 2 occupants leaving just as I walked in. I pull out my computer to take notes and wonder if people will notice me looking around- if they do, will they perceive me as distracted, curious? Would they care? It doesn’t look like it. I catch the eye of a couple of people but receive no visible reaction. The smell of my Vietnamese sandwich wafts up at me as I open it up and begin to eat and observe.

11:35: The café is full, with every table occupied. There are groups of people at most of the tables, many of them looking like study groups. I infer this from the books and computers at the centers of the table and the fact that they are all in conversation with each other, with frequent references being made to the books and computers. A couple of people are sitting having conversations with their coats and backpacks on like they are just about to leave but they don’t.

Each of the 3 tables (like mine) has single occupants, reading or typing. One has earphones in. My eyes move around the room and see one deliberately careless looking young man talking in a group also has earphones in... is that polite? That would make me irritated if I was talking to him and he had earphones in. I feel a bit old in this stern judgemental idea.

11:43: Very few people are eating; some have coffees in the dark brown cups with the flimsy lids provided by the Javamaster. Some have coffees from other places (i see 3 Starbucks grande coffee cups). What does that say about the quality of coffee here?

I shift my focus to the people passing through the café-passageway. People are moving through in a steady stream but the low buzz and drone of conversation (and perhaps the greyness) makes it feel like there is no rush. 3 red caps, 4 black puffer jackets, a pink bomber jacket, 4 blondes, 3 Asians, 1 South asian, 2 people clearly above 6 feet, 3 muslim women with hijab, undergrads, grads and 1 person sending vibes of of-course-I’m-faculty walk through. I wonder how many of these passers by belong to or participate in the departments housed in the building, and how many are using the building as a break from the cold walk to pass through to or from the Oval. I wonder how many consciously absorb the constant performance of multiculturalism that this space is.

11:50: Someone I know walks up and says hello. He can talk endlessly and pointlessly so I excuse myself by saying I am doing an observation for class and cannot be disturbed. He leaves. I shift my attention back to those seated around me.

Two study partners, (one bearded male of about 5’ 6“ of inderminate race but with an American accent, and a shorter blonde Caucasian female also with an American accent )- sit at the table to my right practicing and trying to figure out Japanese grammar and pronunciation by reading kanji - I recognize the language and am tempted to ask questions and help out (I know some of the answers but desist- it might come across as wierd). “How do you say gardener’s shop? will you add ‘ya’ to the end of ‘niwa’?” They mulled over this problem for a brief minute then moved on to the task of conjugating an inability to garden. My grasp of their Japanese falters quickly at this point.

The large group of people one of which has his headphones in are studying in English but discussing some text- they are too far away for me to hear clearly – they do not seem to be struggling with the content. Two Asian students (they look like students, young, with matching uggs and black sweatshirts) sit and eat sandwiches and drink Minutemaid (grape & cherry flavors respectively) quickly and in silence. They do not look at each other. They will probably leave soon, presumably for classes. I cannot tell if they know each other or sat together for other reasons.

11:53- the Japanese study partners break focus to discuss last night’s dinner (the girl had spinach and her new boyfriend apparently) the man lowers his voice till I can’t hear his response, but they both laugh. They begin discussing their individual household problems and I feel a bit embarrassed about eavesdropping and not switching off.

I can hear bits of different languages from those passing by and from those seated in the cafe - besides Japanese, I hear English, French and a pair of women- one with dark and curly hair and big brown kohled eyes, the other a tall caramel blonde conversing in what sounds like Arabic. The dark haired lady (looks like a grad student) is obviously the leader, speaking fluently and rapidly and then waiting patiently while- the other younger woman responds haltingly with a strong accent, with lots of Umms and ers. It sounds like a brave but labored conversation and soaking in the sounds I find myself sighing happily, realizing why I love hanging out in this place. It personifies why I travel and enjoy cosmopolitan spaces.

I look at the far end off the room to the corner and see two men I didn’t notice before. How long have they been there? I know them both from previous classes, but can only remember the name of one and that the other is an international student from Sweden whose name I can’t remember how to pronounce. Since one of them is bearded, it strikes me that I see more bearded men in this building than I have anywhere in the city in the past year.

11:57 A young blonde woman in a vivid pink parka walks up to a table with 2 people and con-permision drags away a chair to join her friend, a brown-haired young man eating a wrap just bought from the cafe. She talks to him in rapid tones about the previous evening’s social agenda (something to do with a sorority event) while he chews and stares at his computer screen. Her eagerness in face of his disinterest is bemusing.

12:00 The two Japanese-language students are rushing to wrap up their assignment - they need to leave in 5 minutes they say for the class they are finishing up the homework for.

I see another grad student I know - he walks by doesn’t see me but walks up to 2 tables, saying brief hellos to people he recognizes. I can’t remember his name either. He goes and sits down with 2 other graduate students I recognize.

I take a quick look around the room again. The 2 girls with their coats and backpacks on are still sitting and conversing as earnestly as they were before.

As I stop actively looking, I start gathering my thoughts: what do people’s postures say about them? The 3 grad men i know leaning forward in conversation; 2 undergrad-looking young caucasian men –both brown-haired one with grey and one with brown T-shirts- one leaning back, arms folded, leg shaking furiously, the other leaning forward, arms on table. Other people read with book in lap not on table (looking down) others propping up their heads/ faces with their hands…lots of body language to read here in lots of different cultural contexts.

What impact/ effect do the different configurations and table designs have on the space and the kind of people who move towards them?

Who sits in the middle tables and who at the end, (when choice is available)?

12:00: As I am wrapping up, another acquaintance I haven’t see in a while walks up and we chat, catching up on where we are in our grad school process. It feels nice to know people from so many different departments. When she leaves, I see its 12:11. Forgetting that I only needed to do a half hour of observation, I keep taking notes. Someone’s phone rings -it has a loud and lively ringtone.

I look up. Only one table has changed occupants, and one of the two Asian girls has left, the other looks bored, with her book open, head propped up by her hand and her eyes people watching. She is not looking at me.

I look at the far end off the room to the corner and see two men I didn’t notice before. How long have they been there? I know them both from previous classes, but can only remember the name of one and that the other is an international student from Sweden whose name I cant remember how to pronounce.

I look around again- at that particular time, no one is smiling in the room which strikes me as odd. Not one person smiled for a whole minute. It strikes me as odd… it is a cafe after all and its near lunchtime.

I shrug mentally; perhaps its only natural- its almost mid-term, I have class in an hour and 2 hours of reading left. I’m not smiling either.

Its 12:17.

End of observation.