Autobiography of Me and the South

I have lived in the South all my life. I was born in Wilmington, NC in 1989 and have lived there ever since. Even though the South is my home, I do not feel as though I am a southerner. Wilmington is not the most Southern town either. Of course there are the stereotypical southerners in and around Wilmington, but I feel like Wilmington has a greater mix of tourists and people from all around. My parents had a huge influence on why I do not feel like a southerner. Both my parents are from Ohio and lived in Boston for a number of years after they got married. My older brother was born in Boston in 1986. Because of the history of my parents, our family has never participated in activities that are stereotypically southern. I have never hunted or even really shot a gun for that matter. None of the rest of my family lives near us; they are spread out all over the east coast. Things of this nature were never a part of my life. However, I do like grits and sweet tea which are southern qualities. So when Ms. Webb asked how we feel about people writing about "us," southerners that is, I do not feel like they are writing about me. I do not identify myself as a southerner especially like the southerners who are written about in books like "Confederates in the Attic." They can write about southerners as much as they like; it does not bother me. I really like to travel a lot, and I think when I am able, I am going to move somewhere that is really cool which may mean not in the South. Basically, I am technically a southerner, but I do not identify myself as one and, on many levels, cannot identify with what the stereotypical southerner is supposed to be.

Event 2: Student Organization Meeting

I attended a movie showing that was hosted by the Johnston scholar program. This is not the typical student organization, but it still is a a particular group of students that come together for events from time to time. I myself am not a Johnston scholar, but my roommate happens to be one. He invited me to attend the movie with him because he said that they can bring guests and that there was free pizza. A movie and pizza.... how could I refuse, especially since I am running out of meals for the semester. The movie was a film done on one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels called "The Chronicles of a Death Foretold." The movie was in Spanish and had no subtitles so I was pretty lost and could not understand a word being said. I do not take or know Spanish so it was difficult for me to understand. However, my roommate speaks some Spanish and would fill me in on the dialogue from every now and then. The plot was pretty easy to follow without the subtitles anyway. I really enjoyed the film; it was very interesting and entertaining. Apparently the version we were watching was a bootleg version from Cuba because the actual film is locked away in a vault in Italy and was never really released to be sold. The movie was about a rich man who goes to this Latin American village to find a woman to marry. He chooses one of the most beautiful women in the village and marries her. On their wedding night, he discovers that she may not be a virgin so he returns her to her family and leaves the village. The family is outraged at the woman and asks who took her virginity. The girl names Santiago Azar, the "bachelor" of the village I guess you could say. The girl's brothers decide to kill Santiago. The odd thing about this part of the movie is that everyone in the village hears of the brothers plan to kill Santiago except him. The whole village fails to warn Santiago accordingly, and he is murdered in the village square.
This was an extremely interesting film to go to, and I am glad that I attended. All of the Johnston scholars that were there all discussed the movie afterward and how they felt about it. It made me want to go to more events similar to this one because it was a good time, and I got free food.

Starbucks Dweller Observation 2

I observed the Starbucks on Franklin Street just off the campus of UNC and the customers still seemed to be predominantly students from the university. However, there were more people who seemed to be from around town or professors maybe. This differed from the Rams head Starbucks significantly because I did not see anyone in it that was not potentially a student. Even though the customers were a greater mix of people, the same activities seemed to be predominant among the people. There were many people on laptops or reading books. This Starbucks definitely had a larger number of people reading the newspaper as compared to the Rams head Starbucks. Some of the people were wearing suits and ties. The people working within the Starbucks seem to enjoy doing work there, and I asked myself why this was. I came up with the idea that many of the people in the Starbucks seemed to be more hip and enjoyed to spend their time in an atmosphere that paralleled their hip or sophisticated persona.

Starbucks Dweller Observation 1

I observed people in the Starbucks by Rams Head dining hall and found that the number of people in Starbucks depends on the time of day. I was in Starbucks around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and there were not too many people there. However, as the evening approached, more and more people began to show up. Almost everyone in the Starbucks had a laptop, and if not that, they had a book that they were reading. Everyone was sitting in their own comfortable area with little interaction with anyone around them. However, there were groups of people who were sitting and chatting amongst themselves. The norm seemed to be that a person would come in, order some kind of coffee drink, find a nice work place, and wait and retrieve their drink. The people would slowly sip their drink as they casually read or worked on their laptops. The atmosphere was comfortable; there were nice slower songs playing on the speakers, and the furniture is similar to that found in people’s homes. There are couches and armchairs for the people to get comfortable and stay a while. It is truly a place someone could “dwell.”

Starbucks Dweller Hypothesis Edited

The micro culture that I have decided to observe for Unit 2 is the people that spend hours upon hours in the Starbucks coffee shop. I like to call them the “Starbucks dwellers.” I have never spent much time in Starbucks myself, just the occasional stops to get a warm beverage. I choose to study in my room more than any other location such as the library or Starbucks. These people interest me because I cannot understand how anyone could sit in one location for such an extended period of time. What makes Starbucks so appealing that one could spend the majority of their day there? Some people I know do find it more favorable to study in Starbucks rather than in the dorm because of the atmosphere that does not encompass as many distractions. These are some of the questions that I am going to strive to answer through my observational study.
This very observation is the basis for my hypothesis. The “Starbucks dwellers” choose to spend time in Starbucks to have a more work-friendly environment, one in which distractions are less frequent and large supplies of caffeine are readily available. The hours of the Starbucks provide an environment where people can come and study late into the night while having caffeinated beverages at hand to help them stay awake. Furthermore, the “Starbucks dwellers” accumulate at Starbucks to study in a social environment, to do group work, or just to have a friend close by to help against getting discouraged.
This study will serve as a basis for understanding how and where students prefer to do work. This knowledge would be essential for the university to continue to provide and expand the facilities available for its students. The success of the student highly depends upon the resources available to them, including the study facilities that are not only accessible, but appealing for the students.

Starbucks Dweller Hypothesis

The micro culture that I have decided to observe for Unit 2 is the people that spend hours upon hours in the Starbucks coffee shop. I like to call them the “Starbucks dwellers.” This was not the original group that I wrote my initial observation blogs about, but I feel that this micro culture will be a better fit for my purposes in this unit. I have never spent much time in Starbucks myself, just the occasional stops to get a warm beverage. I choose to study in my room more than any other location such as the library or Starbucks. Some people I know do find it more favorable to study in Starbucks rather than in the dorm because of the atmosphere that does not encompass as many distractions.
This very observation is the basis for my hypothesis. The “Starbucks dwellers” choose to spend time in Starbucks to have a more work-friendly environment, one in which distractions are less frequent and large supplies of caffeine are readily available. The hours of the Starbucks provide an environment where people can come and study late into the night while having caffeinated beverages at hand to help them stay awake. Furthermore, the “Starbucks dwellers” accumulate at Starbucks to study in a social environment to do group work or just to have a friend close by to help against getting discouraged.
This study will serve as a basis for understanding how and where students prefer to do work. This knowledge would be essential for the university to continue to provide and expand the facilities available for its students. The success of the student highly depends upon the resources available to them, including the study facilities that are not only accessible, but appealing for the students.