Observation #2

My second observation was done between 12 and 1p.m. to observe the homeless people during lunch time on Franklin Street. I was still observing from Starbuck's and various other places on Franklin Street and kept my distance. At this particular time there were more individuals than in my first observation and they were all walking fast and seemed like they had some certain place to go. There was a group of homeless people today rather than single individuals on Franklin Street with a couple of people on their own. The people on Franklin Street seemed like they worked in a professional field and their were very less students at this time than during my first observation. The homeless people seemed to recognize the professional attire and were more aware of the individuals surrounding them this particular day. There was a different homeless guitarist outside today and he was sitting in a chair playing for passersby with a money jar in front of him. Compared to the guitarist in my first observation he was less invasive and never harassed people for money. He seemed to receive more money from people walking by this way. The group of homeless people were laughing and interacting amongst themselves and some even walked up and down Franklin Street with the flow of traffic. The citizens seemed more concerned with these people and tended to avoid them by moving away from them or talking on their cell phone as they walked by. The larger group of homeless people didn't seem to mind these individuals that avoided them and seemed to even laugh at these particular people.

observation uno

Yesterday I observed the homeless people on Franklin Street from the Starbuck’s window and the street itself. I went from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. I was interested to see that what I perceived to be the norm for their community was actually quite different. Normally they are all mostly found on the corner of South Columbia and Franklin but on this particular day I found them to be more alone and as partners spread out than as one big group in one location. One particular homeless man was playing the guitar by himself and walking up and down the Franklin Street sidewalks approaching the people walking by for money. The people seemed comfortable with him nearby until he quickly came up to them playing his guitar and singing a song. The passersby were startled and quickly walked away or moved to the side so as to avoid him. A ,male and female, homeless couple were together on the sidewalk by the bus stop on Columbia staring down students and workers getting on and off the bus. Many people either ignored or avoided them all together but they didn’t seem to mind and kept a smile on their face and even laughed at certain moments. I was surprised to the see during my observations that the homeless people really did not hoard people for money and with the exception of the guitar player they pretty much kept to themselves and did not seem to notice much outside of themselves. The homeless people community seemed to be strong within themselves and usually unaware of different people

SPRING BREAK!!

- I'm going on a cruise.
- Key West, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman!
- This is my first cruise
- I was required to only pack one suitcase.
- I usually bring two home for just a weekend visit :/.
- I spent so much money buying clothes for this trip.
- I now have no money for important things, like eat
- I have around 15 mini bottles of shampoo and body wash and stuff.
- Good excuse for two new bathing suits!
- There will be swimming with sting rays involved.
- Steve Irwin died from a stingray :(
- I think I may just have to watch.
- There's putt putt.
- I dominate in putt putt.
- I will have to skip the safety lesson to go watch the Dook game!
- I'm pretty sure an orange life vest isn't go to save me anyway.
- I'm going to run everyday.
- I can barely run on non-moving surfaces.
- 24 hour buffets!
- Hope everything still fits.
- The water slide is calling my name.
- No technology for a week.
- No school for a week.
- No emails from teachers adding more assignments for a week!
- Hopefully my paleness doesn't blind anyone.
- I'm hoping to come back tan and relaxed!
HAPPY SPRING BREAK EVERYONE!!

Feeder 2.2 Revised

The microculture that I plan to observe is the homeless people that are out on Franklin Street. This group of people are usually always on the benches outside of Starbuck’s, in the alleyways, or next to the bus stop. This microculture tends to look disheveled, yet happy. They tend to all stay together and converse among themselves. I have never really had contact with this microculture before; just walking past when I am trying to get somewhere on Franklin Street. They pique my interest because they seem to be such a close knit group, that even when times are hard they still have their friends, who know exactly what they are going through, to help them out. Students and citizens of Chapel Hill don’t really pay them much attention as they are walking past, except for the occasional man or woman who will give a dollar or two to the homeless man playing the guitar. My hypothesis of this microculture is that in their presence, people feel uncomfortable around them and go out of their way to avoid them, such as walking on the opposite site of the sidewalk, or ignore them all together. They are such an isolated group that there are hardly other reasons for their lack of interactions with the community. The reason why I would like to do this study is to understand the social aspects of the microculture itself and how they react to people who avoid them. How much do they care about individuals avoiding them? This study could be of importance to the community because the homeless people make up and are Franklin Street. They sit outside everyday and there hasn’t been a day when I have been on Franklin Street that I haven’t seen a homeless person just sitting or talking to his or her friends. I think they need to be better understood in order to prevent individuals from being so judgmental.

Microculture Hypothesis

The microculture that I plan to observe is the homeless people that are out on Franklin Street. This group of people are usually always on the benches outside of Starbuck’s or next to the bus stop. They tend to all stay together and converse among themselves. I have never really had contact with this microculture before, just walking past when I’m trying to get somewhere on Franklin Street. They pique my interest because they seem to be such a close knit group that even when times are hard they still have their friends, who know exactly what they are going through, to help them out. Students and citizens of Chapel Hill don’t really pay them much attention as they are walking past, except for the occasional man or woman who will give a dollar or two the homeless man playing the guitar. My hypothesis of this microculture is that in their presence, people feel uncomfortable around them and go out of their way to avoid them. They are such an isolated group that there are hardly other reasons for their lack of interactions with the community. The reason why I would like to do this study is to understand the social aspects of the microculture itself and how they react to people avoiding them. How much do they care about individuals avoiding them? This study could be of importance to the community because the homeless people are Franklin Street, they sit outside everyday and there hasn’t been a day when I have been on Franklin Street that I haven’t seen a homeless person just sitting or talking to his or her friends. I think they need to be better understood in order for people not to judge them so much in the future.

Disrupting a Space

The space I had observed previously was the Agora in Granville. As I said, in the corner of the Agora is a big screen T.V. where many guys (few girls) sit around and watch some type of sports game. As I was sitting in lunch, a golf game was on and around 10 boys had their eyes glued to the T.V. I walked up to the T.V. and changed the channel to MTV (Room Raiders was on) and sat down right in front of the T.V. and began to watch it. The guys watching the golf game yelled were very surprised and didn't exactly know what to do but just stared. Some guys behind me yelled at me to change back the channel. One even started to get up to come and change the channel himself. It was just so funny to see how people reacted when I changed the one thing they ever really did in the Agora during meals. Instead of sitting dumbfounded at the T.V., they all sat dumbfounded at me as I watched something other than sports.

This was fun.....I think I'm going to disrupt more spaces!

People don't know how to drive in the rain....

Why do people always change their driving when it's raining?
Today I went home and it was pouring the whole time I was driving (a good two hours worth of rain :))
Everytime I hit traffic there was a new accident.
I hit traffic about three times.
I usually don't hit any traffic when I drive home (then again I don't go home often)
I normally don't have a problem with cars coming into my line meaning it never happens but today I almost got hit by like 5 cars.
Every so often a car would swerve into my lane and then I would have to swerve and it was just craziness.
Cars were going about 45 miles per hour on the highway which I feel is unsafe when the speed limit is 65 and there are some people driving 85 -90 miles per hour that sped past me which were probably the accidents that I then saw later.
The trucks were the scariest part.
They would spray so much water up from their tires into the windshield of my car and would blind me even with my wipers on.
What I thought was the craziest was that the trucks were probably going faster than most of the cars.
Highway craziness thankfully kept me awake for the drive.