Final Draft

Starbucks Adventure 

I walked into Starbucks and was immediately hit with the aroma of the coffee beans. I smelled the aroma, noise from the blender, loud chatter from the barista calling out names, people placing orders, and the loud music playing on the speakers. I took a quick scan of the whole cafe and decided to sit towards the back on the stool bar chair. The tables were made out of rusty wood and the whole cafe had a very chill aura to it. 

I was sitting down with my laptop on the high stool. I was already feeling anxious because I didn’t know what to expect. I could not stop myself from taking a glance around the entire cafe. The dimmed lights made the cafe a very intimate place to conduct work or stir up conversation. It was the perfect spot for me to study for my college algebra and trigonometry exam. Whenever I came to Starbucks to study it helped me focus better rather than being at home because studying at home was never productive. 

 I opened up my laptop and prepared to immerse myself in my studying. Math was something I hated so much. I was so stressed over this upcoming math exam, I was behind in so many lessons. I wanted to spend as much time reviewing each lesson a few days before the exam as I possibly could ; this was something I always found myself doing last minute. Why did I always leave so much material to learn before the exam? It was never a good outcome for me. As I logged into the online math program and started writing out the questions in my notebook, I was brought to tears. I was so overwhelmed by how much stress I faced whenever I had a maths exam. Why was it so difficult for me and not others? Why didn’t I work harder? I had so many questions running in my mind. I wiped my tears and decided to get to work. My time was ticking as I only had a few days before my exam. After working on a few problem sets, I started to get distracted by the loud noise that was coming from the person in front of me.

The guy sitting in front of me was on his phone. He was tall, wore glasses, tan, and had a Samsung galaxy phone. I could see that he was looking at explicit images on his phone and was eating instant noodles in a Starbucks cup. In fact, approximately every 30 minutes he would go up to the barista and would ask for a hot cup of water. Then, he would open his new pack of instant noodles and would dig in. He chewed and slurped on his cup noodles in a very disturbing manner. He was chewing with his mouth open and had his volume high on his phone as he was watching videos now.  I decided that I had to change my seat because it was getting irritating to see this scene in front of me.  

I packed up my belonging and changed my seating more upfront by the tall windows and large brown tables. As soon as I sat down, I regretted this decision. A plus-sized lady was vigorously chewing on her croissant and leaving crumbs everywhere. She was talking to herself and was mumbling words to the other three people in the table. There was a mom and a young girl. The girl was coloring and the mom was doing her work on the laptop. There was another girl who seemed to be studying or working on an assignment. Her laptop had the NYU sticker on it. I saw her biology notes laid out on the table. The lady who was talking to herself got up and proceeded to get on the line and order again. But, this time I noticed she was randomly tapping strangers on their shoulders, that was on the line. This one-man, was busy looking at the frozen foods so he did not see that she had tapped him. I burst out laughing, but then quickly thought to myself that I need to control myself. She got her food, and when she came back to the table, her gaze fell on me. I looked right down at my laptop to ignore her stare but I could still feel her looking at me. She had a wide grin on her face, but I was scared if she would try to harm me in any sort of way. My thoughts came true when she reached her arm over the table and tried to grab my gold bracelet. It was a 24 karat gold bracelet that my dad had gifted me when we went to India on summer vacation last year. My reflexes were quick and I moved my hand away before she could grasp my hand. She started mumbling to herself,  “Oh you have a gold bracelet.”I didnt know how to react after this but I knew I wanted to leave the cafe. I waited for the right time to pack up and leave. The mother and daughter that were also sharing the same table were packing up. I asked her if she was leaving and she responded, “Yes, I am just waiting for my husband to get here.” The young lady told me to just ignore the lady who just tried to touch me because she is most likely crazy and homeless. I wondered where the crazy lady got the money from to keep ordering food. 

From the corner of my eye, I noticed this guy who always wore the same outfit: a black leather jacket, had his motorcycle helmet on the table, and was typing away on his MacBook. We both locked eyes for a few seconds before I looked away. 

A few minutes later, I decided that I had no choice but to leave this cafe and go home. I was thankful that my home was a few minutes away, and it took me about five minutes to reach home. I shut my laptop down and put it away in my backpack, making sure that she was not watching me. I put my jacket on and walked at a rapid pace to get home. I reached home safely and then told my mom about my crazy time at Starbucks and all the things that I observed at the cafe. It’s pretty amazing when you think about all the things that we encounter daily especially the few hours that I spent at Starbucks and observed so many different types of people. 

1st Draft of Field Observation Assignment

Starbucks Adventure Draft 

I was sitting down with my laptop on the high stool. I was already feeling anxious because I didn’t know what to expect this time around. I glanced around the entire cafe and saw the dimmed light over the whole cafe.

 I opened up my laptop and prepared to immerse myself in my studying. Math was something I hated so much. I was so stressed over this upcoming math exam, I was behind in so many lessons. I wanted to spend as much time reviewing each lesson a few days before the exam. This was something I always found myself doing. Why did I always leave so much material to learn before the exam? It was never a good outcome for me. As I logged into the online math program and started writing out the questions in my notebook, I was brought to tears. I was so overwhelmed by how much stress I faced whenever I had a maths exam. Why was it so difficult for me and not others? Why didn’t I work harder? I had so many questions running in my mind. After working on a few problem sets, I started to get distracted. 

The guy sitting in front of me is on his phone. He was tall, wore glasses, tan, and had a Samsung galaxy phone. I could see that he was looking at explicit images and eating cup noodles in a Starbucks cup. Every 30 minutes, he would go up to the barista and would ask for a hot cup of water. Then, he would open his new pack of cup noodles and would dig in. He chewed and slurped on his cup noodles. I decided that I had to change my seat because it was getting irritating to see this scene. 

I packed up my belonging and changed my seating more upfront by the tall windows and large brown tables. As soon as I sat down, I regretted this decision. A plus-sized lady was vigorously chewing on her croissant and leaving crumbs everywhere. She was talking to herself and was mumbling words to the other three people in the table. There were a mom and a young girl. The girl was coloring and the mom was doing her work on the laptop. There was another girl who seemed to be studying or working on an assignment. Her laptop had the NYU sticker on it. I saw her biology notes out on the table. The lady who was talking to herself got up and proceeded to get on the line and order again. But, this time I noticed she was randomly tapping strangers on their shoulders, that was on the line. This one-man, was busy looking at the frozen foods so he did not see that she had tapped him. I burst out laughing, but then quickly thought to myself that I need to control myself. She got her food, and when she came back to the table, her gaze fell on me.

Process of Drafts for Field Observation Essay

Summary of Field Observation Assignment

This field observation essay was an interesting assignment that had me thinking about what I could possibly explore. My options were endless but I wanted it to be something that was true to me but at the same time would have good content when writing about. I decided to write about a cafe that I always go to. Every time I went something new always happened. I always had a new story to tell. Writing this piece was actually not hard for me because I had so much to write. I knew what to write but also knew that I had to work to make sure that I was allowing my audience reading to see the visual details. In class we spent a lot of time reading pieces of work together to understand how writers allow their work to be so vivid with words and writing styles. I tried my best to use these newly learned techniques in my writing without overdoing it. This was a fun assignment that allowed me to think back into some crazy stories that I have from going to Starbucks. But also I was able to actually go into Starbucks with the purpose of observing things around me. It made me more aware and cautious of my environment.