Ned Weidner

Paired Observation

ENGL 5870           

2/26/09

 

The Ways People Interact

 

530 @ Mom’s Café CSU Stanislaus

Watching the café counter and the way people order coffee and the workers behind the counter.

Scene:

There is a Mom’s Java House sign above the counter.

Next to that is an add for smoothies: raspberry, strawberry, cherry

Behind the counter above the smoothie machine is a sign written in chalk it reads, “Thanks for being our guest. Have a nice day.”

There is a cash register at the counter. Next to it is a basket of assorted cookies.

Lights hang over top of the counter.

Mike and I are sitting at a large table in the middle of the coffee shop with a good vantage point of the counter. 

The workers behind the counter wear maroon shirts with black pants.

Male worker is worker 1

Female worker is worker 2

Action:

A girl with a hurley jacket , fox backpack and a hat waits at the counter ready to order.

Worker 1 is busy making a smoothie

Worker 2 takes the girls order.  The worker is smiling.

The girl gets coffee and walks away.

Worker 1 is explaining something to worker 2

Worker 2 goes to wash her hands

Worker 1 takes the order of the 2 girls while a third girl waits in line on the phone.  The two girls are tall.

More students, 2 girls, one heavy set the other a cute blonde with a black haired young guy wearing a backpack get in line.

Now it is hard to see what the workers are doing. 

Worker 1 is now making the 2 girls smoothies

Worker 2 is taking the group of threes order

The group and worker 2 laugh

The blonde says “Ok thank you”

Worker 1 says “white mocha”

The sound of the smoothie machine whirs

The group of three walk out and another girl yells out to the black haired guy, “bye Ralph” Ralph says, “C ya”

Worker 2 takes the order of a man

He gives her money and she gives him change

Worker 2 smiles at everyone she talks to

Worker 2 says “Hi how may I help you” to a very cute tall girl in  boots and a purple dress

A girl with red and black hair gives me wink as she walks bye.

The two workers are busy making coffee drinks.

Stop @ 551

 

 

Reflection

I thought Mom’s was a good place to observe because it is somewhere both Mike and I are familiar with and there is a lot going on. However, the amount of commotion going on was both a positive and a distraction.  It gave us a lot to observe and there was no down time, but I had a difficult time staying on task and just observing the counter.  My eyes kept drifting every which way.  That made it difficult, but I think it was still good practice.  I really have to remember to keep adjectives out of my notetaking.  They only have a place in notemaking.  I have not seen Mikes notes yet, but I am excited to see the differences in what we saw.  I anticipate there to be quite a few differences.  I am going to my first classroom observation today and I am a bit nervous.  In fact, I felt a little weird about observing people in Mom’s.  That’s odd.  Does anybody know why that would be? I think I was a little self conscious about trying not to be noticed while I was taking notes.  That’s probably something every ethnographic researcher goes through when they first start observations.  Mike is a little older than I am so I wonder how his notes will be different than mine.   It is hard not to read into things when your observing.  It is hard to keep your own feelings out of it.  Although I think that your feelings can have a place in the final write up just not in the actual note taking because after all the final write ups are our descriptions of what we see.  I would be interested in knowing if anybody else felt self conscious about being in a classroom or observing people.  It is a bit strange because I have always been a people watcher; in fact, I used to go to airports just to observe, but when I know that they know I am watching it is a little different.