Jul
2014
People watching
I am siting at the Starbucks that near the campus and start my watching. I am looking at a male barista. A white guy and looks like around 25. He is making a median cup of coffee. He looks like work for here for a long time and familiar with everything. Just a few minutes, he was already served four people. He got a piercing and not tattoos or scares. Also, he is very slim comparing to average man shape and wear a white T-shirt on top and a Starbucks’s logo apron. I think he may be not go to gym often, because he does not have any muscle. He is so quite when making the coffee, but he show a warm smile when call out a customer’s name. I think he is a nice guy and might get a pretty good academic degree. I remember that I have read an online report a long time ago. The report said that there are a bunch of people work in a normal job even he/she got a high academic degree from school. The report points out a view that American people might study for own interesting and not just for chasing a degree certificate. So, many American people might work in a normal job position with a master degree or higher. That’s a little different with china. In the past, Chinese people with a good degree of education tend to pursue a high-income job. As for me, I also study hard for my future high-income job.
In this time, an old man, around 50 years old, carries a blue folder and wears a suit come in. He orders an ice latte with 4-ice cue and non-fat milk. He is kind of special people because of his order and he is elegant people because of his well dressed. An old man wears a suit and buys a coffee in a school nearby café. I think he is a professor of university. He also wears a black glass and has a white goatee and with short hair, but he look fit and youthful. I think he care about his health a lot and might have a regular exercise planning. That’s why can keep him looks like so healthy. He keeps smiling when talking with the server. I think he is an easygoing person and conversable person. I would like a friend like his age; he must get a lot life experience to share with me.
The last person is a homeless girl. She holding a board and has a word “please give me a penny” on it. She is wearing an old jean and a dirty simple t-shirt siting on the corner of the road. I think she is not very care the fashion. Also, she has a big grey backpack and I think that is all her belonging. If a car goes by, she will rock the board. She got a big piercing and a long red hair. A big dog sits near her and a couple of homeless people are talking to each other near her. I think they know each other and they might take turn to “earn money”. The girl looks so young and she might be just about 25. That makes me curious about why she become a homeless? In my point of view, American citizen have a pretty good public welfare, she might be able to get some minimum subsistence allowance for her living expense. Moreover, she is in such a young age. Why she can’t find a job to support her life? I think she may be just like live in this way or she might just in a down period right now. I assume if this is a down period for her, she can be all right soon.
Jenny
August 1, 2014 at 12:40 pm (11 years ago)I also did my observations at the Starbucks right next to campus, and it was very interesting to read through the people you observed. You mentioned that the first person you observed could be a student or graduate from the University even though they are still working at a minimum wage job such as Starbucks. I think many people work such low wage jobs even though they may be highly qualified maybe to make extra money for their education, maybe in addition to another more qualified job, or maybe they didn’t enjoy their job they got with their degree and simply enjoy working at Starbucks more than anywhere else. It’s hard to infer why people work at jobs when they are highly qualified but I’m sure the unemployment rate in the US has something to do with this phenomenon as well. I also liked your positive outlook on the homeless woman, although when you said she doesn’t care about fashion, did you consider she may just wear the only clothes she owns and has other worries such as taking care of her basic needs before she can attend to things such as fashion? Just a thought…
Ken
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