Ethnography

For my ethnography report, I observed the Burbank mall. I walked from area to area, spending most of my time sitting in the food court. Since my observation was done on a weekday, I did not expect to see many people there. I expected to see some high school students since the local high school is only a block away and perhaps some parents running errands while they had a chance. I ended up seeing a fair bit more activity than I thought I would.
As expected, there were groups of teenagers there after school. Most of the groups were large and obnoxious. I guess I never realized how annoying large groups of teenagers could be. One group consisted of about seven boys, and thinking they were being funny, they decided to lean over the glass in the center of the mall from the top floor and to make monkey noises and then hide when people looked up. A group of girls were hanging out on the first floor, some sitting, others standing. Whenever a group of boys walked by, they got louder and giggled a lot and a couple of the girls would do something to get their attention while trying to make it look like it had nothing to do with the guys. One girl did a little spin and bumped into her friend and started laughing, all the while looking at the guys to see if she’d caught their eye. I was not surprised at all to see that all of the teenagers and preteens there were in groups; the smallest group I saw consisting of three girls.
I was surprised to see as many old people as I did. There were lots of old men sitting on benches and a few were there with their wives, though not many. Most of the elderly people there were already there when I arrived, and all of them were still there when I left. They didn’t do more than sit there, occasionally pointing at a person or a store and making comments about them if they weren’t sitting alone.
In the food court there was quite a variety of people, which is why it was my favorite spot to sit. There was a group of old ladies, eating kabobs and speaking in Armenian. There were groups of teenagers having an after school snack. There were a few women sitting alone and reading. There was a business man sitting at the table next to me, playing games on his phone. There were families getting a quick bite before leaving, women getting snacks for their children from the McDonalds.
I wasn’t surprised to see that all of the teens at the mall were in groups. That’s how it always is. But in observing this, I asked myself why. The mall is a very social place, not many people go there alone. But that doesn’t explain the need for such large groups. My thoughts were that in hanging out at the mall in groups, these kids feel like they are a part of something and they feel accepted. I believe that if they went to the mall alone, they would most likely feel very lonely. Seeing other groups of friends there would make them see how alone they truly are in such a social place.
I was unsure exactly why there were so many elderly men at the mall. It’s unusual to see older people at that mall, so I was surprised at first. The conclusion I came to for there being so many of them was that they enjoyed being there on weekdays when it wasn’t crowded. I believe they enjoyed the slowness of everything. With so few people bustling around, it would be nice to simply sit and people watch, kind of like I was doing. They also probably enjoyed being out of their homes and enjoyed the air conditioning. My grandparents walk around the Eagle Rock mall at least once a week in the mornings for exercise. I thought that perhaps that’s what some of them had been there for too at first.
I was also surprised by the lack of interaction between groups and even more astonishingly between couples. Almost every time I go into downtown Burbank and go shopping at the mall there are loads of those annoying couples that seem to love PDA. So I was astonished the most PDA I saw that day was a couple walking with their arms around each other. Perhaps it was simply because it wasn’t a date night, but it surprised me none-the-less.
Overall I suppose nothing I saw was very shocking. I was surprised by the amount of old people at first, but once I thought about why they might be there it made perfect sense. Just about everything I saw was somewhat expected and not all that surprising.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" Presentation

I was a part of the “Cat on a hot Tin Roof” presentation group. A couple of weeks or so before our presentation we decided that we would do our presentation in the form of the Jeopardy game show. About a week before our presentation day, we met at the library to discuss what exactly the game would look like. I was unable to stay long because I had to catch a train, but Jessica and I briefly went over the layout of the game. We would have six categories and four questions per category. I left before we decided on what all six categories would be, but I had already chosen to do the Characters category. It was my job to write questions about the four main characters in the play, Maggie, Brick, Big Daddy, and Big Mama. These questions were pretty straightforward yet they questioned the motives and meanings behind the characters’ actions. For example, my question about Maggie asked what lead her to transform into that cat. The answer I was looking for was the reason behind her actions and her cattiness. The reason I wanted to ask questions like that were because the answers would be simple enough, yet they could still lead to a discussion about the characters’ personalities and lead to an analysis of the characters. My favorite part of the play was the characters because they were very real to me. I wanted the class to discuss them and see what I saw.