Observation Exercise
The observation takes place in a friend’s dorm room at the Plex, third floor. The environment is hectic and energetic. The room is small but maybe it only seems that way due to all the furniture in the room. The beds are on opposite sides of the room from each other and the dressers are in the middle of them, pushed against the wall. The desks are against the wall on the opposite side of the room from the dressers and are cluttered with electronics, wires, chip wrappers, and books. In the middle of the room is a pinkish couch that was supposed to be thrown out by the RA but was recycled. The couch takes up the middle up the room leaving minimal space to move around. There are some dirty clothes scattered on the floor of the room. Two people sit on the old couch playing FIFA loudly and the other person sits at the far desk eating and observing the game.
The whole Plex really just smells like a mixture of feet, mildew, and weed. The room in particular mostly just smells like old sweet barbecue wings, which can probably be explained by the three stacked empty boxes from Buffalo Wild Wings that are sitting on the far desk. There is also a faint smell of cooking from Buck’s since the person sitting at the desk is eating waffle fries.
The volume of the TV is turned up about ten notches too high and can probably be heard by everyone on the hall. The two people playing video games are taking turns screaming out in anger and in excitement as they battle it out on the virtual soccer field. The one player cusses about how the other player obviously just had a lucky shot and his opponent cusses in Spanish pointing an accusing finger at his friend. The person at the table occasionally laughs and makes jokes about the player’s reactions. Overall, a typical Wednesday night.