Observation 2: Disrupting a Space

I chose to disrupt the smokers at the flag pole. In order to do this, I decided to just walk by them and cough. I knew that I would probably get a lot of mean looks if I did this, but I went ahead and did it anyways. I coughed out loud as I walked past them when I was returning from class on Friday. I then looked to see if any of them reacted to my behavior. I saw exactly what I had expected. The few who actually observed me were just staring at me. They didn’t look very happy. However, the others just carried on with their normal activities.

After a while, I decided to cough while I walked through the group of people that were smoking at the flag pole, instead of just walking past them and coughing. I was bound to get more attention this way. So, I did exactly what I had planned on. I walked through them and coughed. As I coughed while I was walking through them, I noticed that this time I got the attention of most of the people that were there. They all stared at me really awkwardly. I’m assuming that they were wondering what I was doing there in the first place. After leaving I just observed them from a distance and noticed that they all had just continued their normal activity after I left.

Rainy weekend....

I’m not excited at all about this weekend. The main reason is the bad weather. I really don’t like the rain. It’s not that I like sunny days a lot. I would not mind having a cloudy day either, but just not rainy days. So, I just checked the weather and it’s supposed to rain the entire weekend and also on Monday. There’s also a chance of snow showers on Monday. However, I really don’t think that we’re going to get snow. I’ve heard this at least twice before that it would snow, but we didn’t get any snow. So, this time I’m just not going to expect any. I just can’t wait until spring break. Mine starts a day early because the class I was supposed to have on Friday has been canceled by the teacher. So, I’m really excited!

Observation 1

I chose to observe the smokers gathered at the flag pole. It is very normal to find people standing around the flag pole smoking. They all gather around there to smoke and socialize with others who smoke as well. One thing that I noticed was the lack of awareness of the smokers and the people passing by them. The people passing by seemed to take no interest in this group, unless they were joining the group. So, the smokers at the flag pole were just ignored by the people passing by. Also, I noticed that most people chose to walk in a route that was farther away from the flag pole, avoiding the smokers. I guess this would be the normal behavior if one does not want to come in contact with the secondhand smoke. In addition, the smokers were also somewhat apathetic about their surroundings. A few people just came to smoke a cigarette and then left. They seemed to just look around at the people passing by. However, the others that stayed there longer to socialize while they were smoking didn’t really seem to care about what was going on around them. However, most of them seemed to enjoy their time spent at the flag pole. In fact, they became very loud at times.

hmmm.......

I’m so glad that the weekend is here. Fridays are usually very relaxing for me, because I only have two classes on Fridays. However, I really didn’t feel like getting up this morning. I just kept on hitting the snooze button and went back to sleep, until I finally decided to get up. My only motivation for getting up was the fact that I had a quiz in my class, which I still needed to prepare for. It was really windy today, which made it seem really cold outside. It is weird how just a week ago we had temperatures in the 70’s and now we’re back in the 50’s.

Anyways, I finally got tickets to a basketball game. Even though, I’m not really a huge sports fan, I’m really excited! This would be my first basketball game ever that I will be attending. I can’t wait until next Saturday. I’m so glad that I get two tickets. I’ll be able to take someone along with me to the game. At least that way I won’t be all by myself.

Event #1: Student Organization

I’m a member of the Muslim Student’s Association (MSA). I attended a few of the meetings at the beginning of the school year, but I became so busy afterwards that I couldn’t take out the time to attend any of the other meetings. Since, this semester is not as bad, I finally decided to do some volunteer work for MSA. One of the things that MSA is involved in is Project Downtown. I was interested in knowing what this was. So, I decided to join the group of students that were heading to Durham to distribute some canned goods and pizza. On our way there, I learned that we were going to downtown Durham to distribute food to the homeless people there. The people that I was riding with were talking about how this was such a great experience. The president of MSA was talking about how the people there are so thankful for everything that we do for them.
It was really unbelievable to see all these people there waiting in a line for us. As soon as we parked our car, a few of the people came towards our car to help us take the food inside. They all were very nice, humble, and respectful. Along with serving them food, we also took a few of the peoples’ interviews. Most of them were willing to get their interviews taken. We wanted to get to know them so we could better connect with them. However, because of the lack of space, we postponed the introductions to the next week. We’re supposed to be meeting in a conference room in the library close by there so we could get to know the people that we serve better. This was one of the best experiences of my life till date. I would have never gotten the opportunity to have this personal interaction with the homeless people if I wasn’t part of MSA. In fact, I never really knew that they existed in such large populations. I definitely cannot wait to go back next Friday. I think this is one thing that I would really like to continue doing throughout the rest of the semester.

Time flies

I can’t believe that we’re already done with our 5th week of the semester. Time really flies by. Last semester went by really fast as well. I can’t believe that I’m already filling out my housing application for sophomore year. Hence, I should probably decide soon on a major. I want to do either pharmacy or biomedical engineering, but I’m not sure about either of these. I may end up changing my mind completely.

I want to do something in the health field, but I’m not really sure. Sometimes, I just think about getting a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and then maybe medical school after that. However, I don’t really want to be in school for that long. I had always wanted to pharmacy; because I really liked the chemistry course I took at high school. That completely changed when I took chemistry here last semester. I just hope that I end up deciding on a career that I would be satisfied with for the rest of my life.

Last few days...

The last few days were very hectic for me. I had a lot of work to do and didn’t get much sleep, but I’m glad that the weekend is here. Even though, I still have an exam on next Monday, at least I can relax a little. I still have to study for the exam, but the problem is that I really don’t know how to get started. Almost everyone that I’ve talked to has said that the test is supposed to be really hard. Hopefully, it won’t be as bad.

Anyways, I’m really glad that we won the game against Duke! The only think I regret is not being able to watch the game. I had an exam the next day, so I was busy studying for it. I kept up with the score online and heard people in my hall scream and cheer for the team whenever we scored. I was so excited that we won. I really wanted to rush to Franklin St. since I’ve never done that before. I wanted to know what it actually is and what people do when they rush to Franklin St.

Exams

So, how many of you are waiting for the next weekend? I’m eagerly waiting for the next weekend not only because Valentine’s Day is on Saturday, but because I’ll be done with all of my exams. So, it should be a very relaxed weekend for me. However, this weekend is the complete opposite for me. I had an exam today in Calculus, which was according to me one my easiest exams ever at UNC. I have two more next weekend. I have Spanish on Thursday and Econ on Friday. Spanish should not be as bad, but I really don’t feel prepared for the Econ exam. I also have to watch a movie for my Spanish class, but I have another class at the day and time they’re showing it. So, I’ll have to go to UL sometime to watch it. I’m really stressed out right now, but thinking about next weekend definitely makes me feel better. I can’t wait for the exams to be over. The time does really go by fast. It doesn’t even feel like that we’ve been here for a month.

Econ 101

I took Econ 101 this semester hoping that it would be an easy class, but that’s definitely not the case. Econ is one of my most difficult classes this semester. I have the class on MWF and then recitation on Thursdays. In addition to having class four days of the week, we have online assignments due every Tuesday and Thursday. Furthermore, we have a quiz every Friday. This class is so time consuming. It wouldn’t be as bad only if the teacher covered course material during the class, but usually he’s just going off topic a lot. He’s an awesome teacher. The lectures are never boring, because he’s always interacting with the students. However, I never really feel that I’m learning anything that is covered on the quiz. So, basically I have to read the chapters on my own time to learn the course material. I just feel like I have to cram all the studying in for the quiz on Thursday nights, which is probably not a good idea. The problem is that I never really know what’s going to be on the quiz until I attend recitation, which only gives me one night to study for the quiz. I guess I just need to learn how to manage my time wisely. Maybe, I could get started early and study for the quiz during the weekend and then just review the night before.