Yeah, so the name of my last post was kinda lame...~.~" Hopefully it was at least attention-getting and got some of you to read the post...speaking of which, thanks so much for your comment, Reecie!!

I hope everyone has a great break!!
^_^

Here is my last interview before the break...it's not the best...but please enjoy.

Do you feel that there’s a cultural divide here? Do people mainly hang out with people of their own ethnicity?
No problem. I mainly hang out with people who have the same culture as me.
Why? Is it just easier?
Yes.
(They can talk about things they both know about. Language is a key factor too.)
Do you ever ask about other countries?
Sometimes
What do you do when you’re here? Do you talk or study?
Both
Do you study English?
No
Here I suppose I could have asked, why not. I think I might have, but I might not have understood his answer, or maybe I forgot, or maybe I really didn’t ask. I’m not sure so I don’t want to put anything down here.

I haven't really done much with the implicit rules of place. I don't know why I forgot to ask about them...maybe I was just distracted. But, here are some questions I thought I could ask to deal with those. Can you guys think of any more? How do you feel about these? Do you think they'll be affective in answering my questions about unspoken rules?

Would you feel comfortable talking to someone of a different ethnicity here?
If you heard something interesting being said on the other side of the room, would you join in the conversation? How comfortable would you be if it was someone you didn’t know?
How do people react to people walking through? Coming off the elevators? Going outside to smoke? Talking loudly?
How do people react when someone they don’t know sits next to them? How about when they start talking to them?

Thanks again so much for reading!! ^.^ See you all after break!!!

Tripping Over Turkeys....

Yeah, so other than the fact that it's almost time for Thanksgiving Break...this post has nothing to do with turkeys....^.^'

Informant Script
Do you have time to be interviewed?
Sure. Plenty of time.
Okay. I won’t use your name, so everything will be pretty confidential.
Part 1
1) What year of school are you in?
Freshman; Biology major—was going for chemistry
2) Why do u get here early?
Hour in between Japanese lab and Japanese class….study
3) Do u actually end up studying?
Half the time I end up studying…half the time I take a quick nap.
4) Do you normally sleep out here or in the classroom?
Sleep in classroom…normally its quieter…people aren’t running around…
5) Where are you from?
Albany Ky. (South Central Ky.)
6) Do you have relatives here at UK? How many? Are any of them taking a language course? How do they feel about it?
No
7) So u would rather take a nap then talk with everybody?
If there’s not people to talk to, why not? Nobody’s usually there 70 minutes before class…short nap…not more than 15-20 minutes
8) Do you ever stay after class?
Maybe 5 min after class to talk…but sometimes if there’s a longer conversation
There’s not really much u can do when people are leaving
9) Who do you talk to?
Most of the time it’s from our class
Talks to Section two people some…only on Fridays because that’s when they usually seem to be there
Side note: Not speak to ESL-asked what ESL was…didn’t know when met, probably wouldn’t go that early even if he knew
10) Have you met anyone new here?
Two encounters in calc class…haven’t met anybody new here…
Side Note: Here I could have asked how he met the two people in Calc class…he said they were sitting next to him.
11) Do you talk to people of different ethnicities here?
Talked to nobody of different ethnicity I don’t know…not unless I come early for lab…
12) Why do u think it’s like that…no one speaking to people of different ethnicities?
This area’s mainly for foreign language classes…guess ‘you’re not going to see many non-natives
13) Do you ever make plans to go out anywhere with the people you talk to here?
Rarely…no one’s ever doing anything

Part 2
1) Do you usually sit in the same spot?
I usually sit in a spot that’s not occupied…
2) By not occupied do u mean there could be one person sitting here….
Prefers one with no person, but if has no choice chooses the one with the person he’s most familiar with if all chairs were full and clases were In session….Intermezzo…
3) Why do like/go to Intermezzo?
Good place to get a quick snack
4) Please describe the other people (The people in your class as well as the ones who aren’t) that hang out here.
Standard. Other times…it’s a bit unique….except for when someone rolls up to talk to you…

Part 3
1) What is it about class that makes you come early? What do you like/dislike about class? About JPN class like:
Almost everything. Don’t like…probably…communication…at times it’s a bit noisy…I don’t really ask people to study unless I’m asked…teacher moves a bit fast….
2) Would you feel comfortable approaching someone you didn’t know here? Why or why not?
Not really…depends on whether I need to talk to them or not…I’m not really good at starting conversations
3) Do you ever bring food down here?
Yes…usually on Fridays between the lab and the class…what better way to study with a little sandwich?
4) What about this place makes you feel comfortable enough to take a nap here? Is it the couches or the people or the familiarity and the classes?
Probably the familiarity…
5) Do you ever talk about anything other than class?
Talk about other things...fighter planes…
6) When did you find out about this place? How did you feel about this place as a freshman (sophomore, junior, senior)? How do you feel about it now?
I found this place when I went to find my classes…amazed…tallest building…I’m not sure I really found anything special about this one particular spot because it looked kinda’ plain.
7) Do you feel comfortable?
That I do.
8) Why?
It’s relaxing…
9) How?
Chairs and it’s pretty quite at time…other times there r people to talk to and just sit back and relax and have a chat

ExemplarB

So, yeah, today was embarrassing, haha. I stood up in class and said very little of the important stuff I was supposed to say. It's okay though, I guess. It had to be done; should have been done correctly, but, hey. I need to improve on my presentation skills, I guess. Normally it doesn't go that poorly. : (

Hopefully I can make up for my embarrassing ramblings by posting my whole interview with the side-notes to be picked apart as you all like. It's very long, but I won't demand that you guys read the whole thing to comment or anything. : ) ( I think that has been an implicit rule on the our blogs, what do you guys think?) Anyways, please pick apart pieces you find interesting or just skim it over, and if you want, you can read the whole thing! ^.^ Here you guys go :

I have already talked to this girl before, when I started to do my earlier interviews, but I thought since I got such good feedback from the informal interview that I would do a formal one as well. I did two other interviews today…but this one, I think, gave the most results supporting the existence of a Cosmopolitan Canopy. Since we already knew each other, the formal introduction was pretty much dropped, but I did let her know that the confidentiality policy had changed. These are the basic questions that went along with the answers she gave me, since I failed to write down the exact questions, and some of the answers are generalized and not word-for-word, but there are a couple that are verbatim.

“So, what year are you?”
“I’m a sophomore.”

“How long have you been going to school here at UK? Where are you from?”
“I’m actually a transfer student, and this is my first year here at UK. I went to school somewhere else (I forgot where) and then I went and taught kids in Japan and then I came here.”
(Here, I suppose, I could have gone on to ask about what Japanese schools are like for a broader ethnographic study, but I didn’t think about that at the time…)

“Why do you come here?”
“Most of my conversations during the day happen here...” We proceeded to talk about how she was able to always find a friend from ESL or from Japanese class to talk to while she was there, and the fact that as she talked to her friends, she was introduced to friends of her friends…at which point she said something I feel is a very important indicator of the presence of a Cosmopolitan:
“A comment here, which goes everywhere and suddenly you’re connected to something you never imagined.”
In a Cosmopolitan society, the possibilities of discovery about the nature of individuals are endless and even unimaginable at times. And the way to unlocking this unimaginable information is by asking a single question or making a single comment, however small.
My informant is also doing a similar project for a different class.

“It’s really a unique area, and I’m not really sure why.”

“So, when do you hang out here?”
“Well, I come over after class around ten, and if people are here, I stay; if not, I leave. My next class isn’t until 2. So I sit here and listen to people talk and then maybe someone will talk to me.” Usually, she has a class or knows someone who is going to class.
I think that this sentence is of extreme importance for my research. So far I have found my area to be a neutral space. People hang with people they know, and seldom initiate random conversation. Although, I did meet an exception the other day: I sat next to this guy on one of the benches who was reading. He grunted about something he read in the book, and I commented with “What did you read?” He then proceeded to ask me questions and we talked about philosophy and animation. The book was on philosophy. We even became friends on facebook.com, and I talked to him on facebook.com Sunday night (Nov. 16th).

“So, do you and you’re friends ever hang out anywhere else, or make plans to go hang out while you’re here?”
“Well, sometimes we’ll go out to lunch, and recently we had a classmate’s friend’s birthday party.”
It seems like these are more formal outings, and are fewer than the in-building interactions.

“So you feel like you’ve made a lot of friends in your classes here?”
“I can talk to half the class here, but I only have one friend in my lecture class of seventy other students, which isn’t in here.”

“So you come here because of class or the social interaction? Was the international student aspect an appeal? Why did you start coming here at first?”
(Perhaps I should have asked if she would still meet here even if she didn’t have class in this building.)
“It started out that my class was right around the corner…the international student aspect was an attraction.”
(My informant has taught in Japan, and is also in a Japanese class like me, but not the same one. She mentioned that she is able to point out the difference between people from Korea and Japanese speakers when they open their mouths. )
My informant was also very talkative, so she told me that she depended on noise, since she was from a large family; strangely, she referred to herself as an introvert. Her eyes darted around while she spoke as I tried not to stare at her while talking.

“Not interacting is okay, sometimes…” She says, at first with an affirming tone, and then with a tone of condescension.
“That noise, that element of sound…”
“There are people and then there’s talking and there’s laughter…”
She tells me that she always has her television on in her apartment, since she’s from a large family and is used to the noise. Patterson Office Tower is often buzzing with activity as classes end and begin.

My informant tells me she enjoys “People watching.” Another Cosmopolitan trait in a place that seems to be a neutral space with a great opportunity for Cosmopolitan interaction.
“How would you describe the people that meet here, in as many words as you like?”
“It’s a varied collection of people from around the world who love to sit together and laugh. They are fun-loving and come together whether from a lack of understanding about a concept (Though they socialize more than study); warm and friendly, interesting and intelligent.”

She remarks about studying:
“Conversation in itself is study.”

“So why do you sit here instead of in the seating area in the front when you walk in, or in Intermezzo?”
“This place has a more ‘open,’ and ‘relaxed atmosphere.’”
“It’s more fun, hands down.”
She claimed that the other areas seemed “less inviting,” and she mentioned that the chairs faced each other, making it seem less open for mingling. I think she was talking mainly about Intermezzo, but I’m not quite sure. She also said that you had to have someone go with you. (Implying that Intermezzo is an intimate space)
Our area could have been more comfortable physically, she says, but she also notes what she calls the more “natural lighting” of the back of the Patterson Office Tower, which she likes more than the lighting in Intermezzo. Perhaps the long windows are to shed light on the opportunities provided by the back space—the chance to meet many people from different cultures.

“This area’s a thorough fare.”
“What’s a thorough fare?”
“A place of transit, where people are coming and going.”

Indeed, it is. Many people come in or go out the back doors, whether to go smoke outside, or to enter or leave the building. After I completed this interview, I told my informant good-bye and that I would probably be back later. Then I went out to lunch.

Picking Apart Exemplars

I thought today's class was very helpful, and it was fun to hear what different people were doing and what kind of information they had gotten from their respective observation points. Discussing these exemplars, or "examples" helped me put into perspective some of the details that I hadn't noticed. For instance, I added some questions: "Have you ever met someone by just sitting next to them (on a bench)?" and "Do you welcome newcomers to the area? How do established members react to new people in the area?" "Do you study here? Do you study different subjects (classes, not people)?" I also learned that ethnographists assume nothing, so I added the question "Do you have class back here?"

Since I didn't read my interview today, I thought I would post it...It's not very good because I didn't write the questions when I was asking them, and there are a lot of gaps. My interview mainly turned out to be a lot of really interesting quotes, so I felt, and not so much a storyline dialogue.

Since we already knew each other, the formal introduction was pretty much dropped, but I did let her know that the confidentiality policy had changed. These are the basic questions that went along with the answers she gave me, since I failed to write down the exact questions, and some of the answers are generalized and not word-for-word, but there are a couple that are verbatim.
“So, what year are you?”
“I’m a sophomore.”
“How long have you been going to school here at UK? Where are you from?”
“I’m actually a transfer student, and this is my first year here at UK. I went to school somewhere else (I forgot where) and then I went and taught kids in Japan and then I came here.”
(Here, I suppose, I could have gone on to ask about what Japanese schools are like for a broader ethnographic study, but I didn’t think about that at the time…)
“Why do you come here?”
“Most of my conversations during the day happen here...” We proceeded to talk about how she was able to always find a friend from ESL or from Japanese class to talk to while she was there, and the fact that as she talked to her friends, she was introduced to friends of her friends…at which point she said something I feel is a very important indicator of the presence of a Cosmopolitan:
“A comment here, which goes everywhere and suddenly you’re connected to something you never imagined.”
In a Cosmopolitan society, the possibilities of discovery about the nature of individuals are endless and even unimaginable at times. And the way to unlocking this unimaginable information is by asking a single question or making a single comment, however small.

Stumbling Along...

So, Reecie mentioned that she keeps to herself in areas that are new to her or that she doesn't feel comfortable in. I think that most people do this, and that just as was said in class, that the cosmopolitan canopy is rare and, to a certain degree, so is the cosmopolitan himself. It would be terribly lonely and, I think, impossible, to live on names and basic information alone. Everyone has someone they can discuss their feelings and beliefs with. I think a true cosmopolitan, though, is open to socialize in almost any fitting situation.

I also think that many people wait to be approached, but if everyone is doing the waiting, who's ever going to get approached for social interaction?

I've learned this lesson the hard way. Before I got here, I was much more shy. Even in elementary school, I would wait for the other kids to ask me to play. At first, it was very seldom. Even in high school, I would sit quietly thinking, and people would continue chattering about things occuring in their own circles. Oftentimes, I revert back to my internalized mode, especially when walking around on campus, when I feel embarrased or self-conscious. I'm afraid to make confident eye contact with others. I look down at my shoes or straight ahead, and sometimes, since I am a LandRe, I trip. So I try to watch my feet, lol. They might think I'm stuck-up if I stare for longer than a second, or they'll give me funny looks. ~.~"

Why do some people enjoy testing these boundaries? What about first impressions?

But if people are so accepting, if most people are some version of a cosmopolitan, why would it matter if you tested the boundaries of social contact? But I'm much more social now, and you'll probably see me chatting with people you haven't seen me with before in a seating area. I feel that many of the people around me want to be approached, they want to feel like someone wants to get to know them, and to branch out and meet new people, even if its just to have fun in the moment. They show that they are open to conversation by sitting in public seating areas for no reason, like in my spot. People kill time alone outside the comfort of their rooms.

Most of the time, people don't ignore me...when I approach them, either. They're either open to conversation, or just very accepting.

I feel like my math class is really stiff, though. Most of the time our math teacher asks us questions that he doesn't intend for us to answer, and so when he does intend it, we don't, or, if we do, we answer very quietly. He has a great sense of humor, though. Maybe certain people attract non-cosmopolitan behavior. People that can be taken advantage of. But most people are self conscious of themselves around strangers, so they don't want to try anything. We normally sit in the same seats, so maybe the room is clickish, too. Someone took my seat the other day, which is in the middle and close to the board, and I found myself to be unhappy about it. I told myself it was nothing to get upset about, but it just goes to prove that we are creatures of habit, and that it makes people uncomfortable when the norm is broken, whether it be social or not. Maybe these are some reasons people avoid each other. But just starting small with a simple question can be an easy route to cosmopolitan acceptance. You had the courage to break the norm and made an effort to care.

Nuetrality and Civility...Wow, sounds like politics, huh? Don't worry...

So, I've been really unproductive and air-headed this week(and it's only tuesday! >.<"), and I didn't quite catch what Randolph was saying about the difference between a nuetral place and a civil place. Was she saying that civility, which means politeness is getting to know a person? I believe there's a difference. That maybe, civility(politness) is a way of initiating cosmopolitan behavior, but the act of politeness towards others in itself, is not necessarily cosmopolitan. This, of course, depends on how deeply you get into it. Politeness may be an obligatory feeling to question how someone is doing and minor questions about their past, but if the person takes in this knowledge and decides to further their information and to question and discuss without a feeling of obligation or politeness, then, maybe, politeness is cosmopolitan. Does that make any sense? Hahah. It kind of relates to a question I was asked in english about mandatory community service. What good is community service if the motive behind it isn't genuine? I'm being hypocritical, because I kind of want to think that mandatory community service would be a good thing...

My place is the sitting area in the back of the Patterson Office Tower! I'm excited to be able to do this place, because it is where the ESL and foreign language classes meet! I thought that there would be more interaction between the classes that meet there, but so far I have been disappointed to find that there don't seem to be as many random conversations being started up. I'm starting to think that it's not a cosmopolitan canopy, but I still believe it has the potential to become one. For some people, it may already be. I think it partly depends on the type of person who is put in that environment. Members of different classes in the seating area tend to sit apart from each other, and when there isn't enough room and they're dispersed, they seem less talkative. This isn't to say they aren't open to conversation. Why else would they be in the area "outside" the classroom where they know people will be? I have noticed several people studying, but mostly independently. They tend not to quiz each other, although sometimes they ask each other questions. I talked with Michele and Duncan and I didn't know them before this project, so, that was nice! (I asked if I could use their names...and I am talking about the project, so...) I accidentally started on the interviews early, so I guess I'll need to do some more! ~.~" Most of the people I talked to were upperclassmen, as well. I guess I'll also need them to think back so that I can more clearly see the results of my place in the long term.

The Democratic Field of Relationship Choices and Freedom

Without our discussion in class today, I would have thought that The Handmaid's Tale was about relationship choices and the time associated with them, as well as freedom in a democracy, or, the lack of all of these things in a totalitarian system. In the book, Offred has the recurring urge to steal something, because she feels that she is being denied the basic human right of showing emotion. "I want to be valued , in ways that I am not..."(97).
Freedom is described in the book as being "relative"(231). Indeed, the general values of a society affect who can pratice what where. For instance, in the beginning, Offred's mother goes to a meeting where porn magazines are being set on fire. She values modesty, and so it is that she attempted, with the help of others, to hide from her chid's eyes something she deemed immodest. After the new regime came into power, magazines of all kinds were completely put away from the view of the handmaids in an attempt to create within them an extreme sense of modest behaviour. When she visits the Commander in his study, she envies him his pen, and the freedom he has to wield it.
One of my favorite symbols of choice in the book is the discussion Offred has about flowers on page 212: "I long for one, just one[dandelion], rubbishly and insolently random and hard to get rid of and perennially yellow as the sun." Here, she is symbolizing her longing for a crush of her own, a crush for someone "insolently random and hard to get rid of," and someone who constantly makes her feel good, just like the dandelion that is "perennially" yellow and bright. Blow, and you tell the time. When you blow the seeds into the air, while you are in a relationship, you have the ability to decide when your feelings change. It was daisies for love though, and we did that too. Here is a literal translation for love.
I believe the obsession Offred had with time had to do with her purpose of being on Earth. She felt that her body, which had so much emphasis placed on it as a sacred child-bearing vessel, was not as important as it was made out to be. "But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from"(103).


I didn't think as much at first, about The Handmaid's Tale being an example of field notes. Though, apparently, there are many instances where it can be seen as so. The above, apparently, are mainly just descriptive subpoints about the values of this gender and religion-based community with a military enforcement similar to that of the Byzantines.
Over the years, the U.S. has become less and less of a religious based nation due to a rise in diversity. This has been exhibited by the recent attempts to extract the phrase "Under God" from the pledge of allegiance.
The social culture of the community described in the book is mostly made up for women. Like the Puritans, modesty is a common value. The Puritan came to accept, so long ago, a "variant of English culture that rejected as 'ungodly entertainments' the songs, dances and sports enjoyed by most Englishmen (Website)" Compliance to religious secular authority is something that can still be seen in churches today. Many people trust the interpretation of religious documents by clergymen more than they do their own. The handmaids are quiet Counter-Cosmopolitans. This is because their duty forces them to reproduce and allows them little else to do than to be "surrogate mother(s)"(305). Their duty is to birth children for the "Wives" of "Commanders." Which commander they get sent to is arranged based on the wives who cannot birth. The daughters of the handmaids have arranged marriages. Does anyone think that an arranged marriage can generate true love? The book seems to give merit to this idea, and yet, discredit it at the same time.

"Puritanism-Religious Practice." 6 Nov. 2008. http://science.jrank.org/pages/10924/Puritanism-Religious-Practice.html.

Halsall, Paul . "Introduction." 22 Mar. 2004. 6 Nov. 2008. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/.


Stewart, David . "The U.S. Constitution and Faith In God." Dec. 2007. 6 Nov. 2008. http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Miscellaneous/faith_and_freedom.htm.

The Undercurrent of Religious Heterogeneous Society

When stereotypical attitudes about the behavior of women are taken literally, the result is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. In this tale, women are seen merely as reproductional tools of religion. Yet they are encouraged to cover themselves and to dress and act severely modest. Their faces cannot be seen by men, and they are allowed to say only mainly a few set phrases to one another, such as "May the Lord open," which is related to the Bible verse: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. (114) The women's freedom is restricted, and this greatly sorrows the handmaid, who longs for human touch and consolement.
As one would guess, this modesty makes it difficult for one to interact with the opposite sex in a way that produces a loving, cheerful relationship. What if we didn't have the option of getting a divorce nowadays? All of the men in this book are seen as potential partners, and thus, the handmaids are forced to avoid them because their partners have already been selected for them. This is similar to the traditional value that many families used to favor about arranged marriage, however, the handmaids do not get married, and the cause of their selected partnership has more to do with fulfilling God's word and with subservience to men and religion than it does with power and prestige.

In an online book preview of a book by Catie Gill, the point is brought up that there used to be a "Cultural commonplace" about the difference between women and men. Women were and sometimes are still seen as "The more libidinous sex"(60). Libidinous referring to sexual desire. Why this occurs, I'm not quite sure. I am inclined to believe that men can be just as sexually driven as women. Maybe it is because women talk about the negative repurcussions of pregnancy more?

"Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never Forget it. To be seen--to be seen--is to be--her voice trembled--penetrated"(28).
Modesty is another value that has greatly changed over the decades. Women used to conceal themselves and were strictly allowed to have sexual relations with one partner. In The Handmaid's Tale, women are passed on to different partners so that each male partner may have an heir. However, in the "Tale" the handmaid struggles with the relationship between her body, which is used but hidden and her mind, which is accused of being of no consequence.
"I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will....There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me"(73).
Notice how the Handmaid says with me. She feels that her body is her definition in this dystopia, and she is denied the basic freedom of personality by the strict restrictions on mannerism forced on her.
Today in society, multipled partners are looked down upon, but the consequences of having sexual relations with more than one person are dependent on the circumstances of the relationship and the people involved, and not on strict rules of society based upon religious contexts.
Does this mean that religion has fallen out of style? Or does it mean that religion seems too strict for today's "laid-back" society?

Things within shadow, such as an underlying current of traditional values about gender can often be brought to light in writing and in life. In The Handmaid's Tale, values about the libido (Sexual desire) of women, and their role within religion and their image in society are revealed to us, in a way that may or may not be consisitent within our current societies.
Personally, I hope that shadows such as these do not come into the light in the same way as in The Handmaid's Tale.

Gill, Catie. Women in the Seventeenth-Century Quaker Community. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005. Google Book Search. 3 Nov. 2008 http://books.google.com/books?id=1zez9fIHuHYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=women+in+the+seventeenth+century+quaker+community.