Initial Observation

I visited the cafe at Rhode Island College to take notes for the first time today. I have been there plenty of times before, but never to just sit and observe. I’m still getting used to having to pay attention to everything around me, so some of my notes may not include everything they should. I’m still stuck in the “writing what I see” phase as opposed to taking in what my other senses are feeling. However, once I keep going back, I will learn to use my other senses as well so that all of you can have a better image of what I am taking in so you can feel it too.

It was definitely a different experience than what I am used to in the café – taking notes and “spying” on people to see what they are up to. I had to try to make sure I wasn’t focusing on someone for too long so that they didn’t think I was creeping on them. I noticed a lot of people there, that’s for sure. Being lunch time, I figured there would be a lot to observe, and there definitely was. There were lots of people getting up to leave and other people walking in, changing what was going on around me constantly. I was interested in the people on the computers the most. There are five computers in the café that students can use, and students were coming and going every time I looked that way. Some people were doing the same thing on the computer, on the same computer for that matter, at different times. I just thought that was curious, especially since both were playing online chess? Who still plays online chess? The most difficult thing was definitely trying to take in everything around me without trying to miss anything. Obviously as I’m taking notes, I’m focusing on one person or a few people at a time. There will be some things that I miss, but that’s going to happen. I need to figure out how I can still make sure that I can catch certain things that are going on around me without losing focus or detail.