People watching

PART 1:
If one didn't know better you would think the time from ten to eleven in the morning was the designated time to order coffee from Starbucks. Almost as one a large group of students headed from various points around Terrell Mall straight to Starbucks. It is almost as if they could not go a second longer without a drink and some kind of snack from Starbucks. Within minutes a line formed halfway to the door that would have easily grown longer if the workers were not so proficient in taking quick orders. Once orders had been placed customers would either hang around in the coffee shop or walk away to examine nearby books and magazines. As soon as a customer's name was called they would rush forward to grab their order as if it would vanish if they did not get to it within 10 seconds or less. Occasionally a worker would have to go looking for the person that had placed the order. The customer usually wasn’t too far away, reading some book or magazine. A good portion of the customers would leave once they received their orders. A small portion would remain and snuggle into various spots on the floor and in chairs around the magazine rack so they could flip through a magazine or two before going off to class. For the entire hour between ten and eleven, there was never a time there was not a line leading to the Starbucks counter. It would vary in length, but never totally disappear.

PART 2:

Abarca, Meredith "Voices in the kitchen: views of food and the world from working-class Mexican and Mexican American women"; Albala, Ken "The banquet: dining in the great courts of late Renaissance Europe"; Avakian, Arlene "Through the kitchen window: women explore the intimate meanings of food and cooking"; Belasco, Warren "Meals to come: a history of the future food"; Bell, David "Consuming geographies: we are where we eat"; Charles, Nicki "Women, food and families"; Coe, Sophie D. "The true history of chocolate"; Conner, Mark "The social psychology of food"; Counihan, Carole "The anthropology of food and body: gender, meaning, and power"; Counihan, Carole "Around the Tuscan table: food, family and gender in twentieth century Florence"; Fisher, M.F.K. "The art of eating"; Gabaccia, Donna "We are what we eat: ethnic foods and the making of Americans"; Levi-Strauss, Claude "The origin of table Manners"; Mintz, Sidney "Tasting food, tasting freedom: excursions into eating, culture, and the past"; Sutton, David E. "Remembrance of repasts: an anthropology of food and memory."

The book titles that I picked out from the reference list go all over the place. There is no set order or pattern to them. They range from old to modern, scientific to family, native to foreign, and some of the different meanings attached to food. At the same time they reflect my taste in topics. I love to learn about the past along with what is current. I like scientific views on almost everything, but occansionally I perfer the simplicity of views from family and friends. I love learning about other cultures rather its from the other side of the country or the world. Simply point I love to examine everything from every point of view I can and in a way it comes across in the books that "jumped out" at me.