MY OUTDOOR COMMUNITY
by Adriana Cota
(Final Draft)
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/editor/img-20170206-wa0010.jpg?1486618155)
Years ago, when I was at college, I used to exercise on my school’s gym on the mornings and dance classes in the afternoons. I am the kind of person who always tries to be healthy and for me the best idea is to exercise every day. When I graduate, I do not go to the gym anymore, because the school’s gym was too far from where I worked and live. For that reason, I began to go to the nearest park of my home, very early in the morning and then go to work. I like to do it in this way because I finish working too late and I preferred to do other things instead exercise at night. Going to exercise at the park makes me realize that there was a community and I started to notice that I do not need classes or to be indoors in a closed room to meet people and feel like I belong to a group. Before, I had thought it can not be an outdoor community, and now I am sure it is possible. I started my research going to the park, as usual, to walk my dog at 6:30a.m. and tried to observe everything that surrounds me to get noticed what is the invisible thing that connects me with the other people there. Meanwhile I was walking I was taking photographs and make my own observations and notes about the place. And try to get conscious about my feeling of belonging to this community. In one week I observe and study the behavior of the people at the park to get an insight.
At the park, there are a lot of trees: some of them are full of green leaves, others have yellow and brown leaves and the rest do not have leaves. Also in this park there are cactus, because I live in a desertic area. At this morning hour, it smells freshly because of the pine trees, also smells like recent watered garden and wet soil, and if you touch the leaves of trees you will feel them slightly wet. Also, I can hear the sound of the leaves that are being moved by the wind. The wind is very fresh and I can feel it in my face.There are a lot of birds in the trees and I can hear them singing. Their color is in a gray scale, mostly grayish-black. They are just waiting for the right moment to begin the day and fly all together in a flock. Throughout the park there are also wood sculptures, benches, waste cans, little rock bridges, fountains and a white obelisk.
At the park, there are a lot of trees: some of them are full of green leaves, others have yellow and brown leaves and the rest do not have leaves. Also in this park there are cactus, because I live in a desertic area. At this morning hour, it smells freshly because of the pine trees, also smells like recent watered garden and wet soil, and if you touch the leaves of trees you will feel them slightly wet. Also, I can hear the sound of the leaves that are being moved by the wind. The wind is very fresh and I can feel it in my face.There are a lot of birds in the trees and I can hear them singing. Their color is in a gray scale, mostly grayish-black. They are just waiting for the right moment to begin the day and fly all together in a flock. Throughout the park there are also wood sculptures, benches, waste cans, little rock bridges, fountains and a white obelisk.
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/editor/img-20170206-wa0016.jpg?1486652884)
At this time of the day, people start to get out of their homes and walk to the park to activate themselves making some exercise. It is more usual to see elderly people in the park and some persons between 20’s and 30’s. They all wear sportswear: pants or shorts, and hoodies or heavy jackets. The people’s clothing and attitude say to me that they care about their health and how they look. They use this space for run, walk or exercise their muscles because they want to be in good shape. At this morning hour, I think a teenager would feel uncomfortable because there are too much elderly people. Here, most of us walk or run circling the perimeter of the park. Some of them are walking in one direction: the left side of our body is facing the center of the park and some others, the minority, walk in the opposite direction. As I pass next to them, I get noticed that some people have a fresh smell like if they recently took a shower. Others smell like when you just wake up and put some deodorant or perfume and go outside. Everyone, including me, greet others when we pass next each other. It can be by waving our hands in the air, by speaking out loud the words: “good morning”, “hi” or “hello”, or by shaking our hands. The last one is uncommon because we only see each other at the park and we are not so closed. The people who shake hands or even greet with a kiss and a hug, are friends who date in the park and when they meet, they greet and start walking together. I usually greet an old man with a high five gesture, but we do not know each other, I do it because we see each other every day and I feel he is a good person. Maybe he think the same way of me. People, including me, greet everyone once or maybe twice if they do not remember the person when they finish a lap and start another one and meet again each other. In my city we are warm people, so we prefer to greet twice if we are not sure about we did it previously. Everyone speaks Spanish, because there is not foreign people, only mexicans. In this neighborhood there are a lot of houses which are rented by foreign people that work mostly at factories or at mines outside the city, but they start to work early at 5 or 6a.m. so it is not common to see them at the park at this time. Some of the people are walking in groups of two, three or even four and they are chatting. Some of them are hearing music meanwhile they exercise. All people is allowed in this park because it is a public area, although they have to respect the rules if they want to be here. Some of them, like me, walk their dogs, which start to bark to each other or to people when they get near them. Also there are dogs that are walking alone because their owners let them go and return to their home by themselves, but sometimes they scare people because usually they are too big. At some spots of the park it smells of dog poop because of the dogs that are walking alone or because some persons are not used to grab it and take it to a trash can. The action of grab it is recently taking place where I live. Besides people that is exercising, there are others just crossing the park to get to the main street to take the bus.
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/editor/img-20170206-wa0012.jpg?1486652387)
In this park, there are also fitness equipment for public use. They are made of steel and are varnish painted in yellow, red, and green colors. Most of this equipment is for leg exercising, but also there are some for arms and abs. Some people like to take a walk or run first to warm up, and then they use this equipment. Others prefer to use this equipment without making any previously aerobic exercise. There are also stairs made of rocks in the circuit of the park which people use to go upstairs and downstairs to combine their routine. At the center of the park, there is a Catholic church with a white Virgin Mary statue at the front. The statue feels very smooth because it has varnish paint. On one side of the church it is a tower bell with a golden bell that starts to sound some minutes before 8a.m. At 7:30a.m. I start to hear the noise of the cars that are parking in front of the church and the suddenly hustle of the people entering the church to hear mass. People that is exercising at the park, make the sign of the holy cross when they pass in front of the church and some of them give a kiss or touch the feet of the statue of the Virgin Mary. In some areas of the park there are kids’ playgrounds. There are swings, slides and seesaws made of metal and they are painted in red. They feel very cold because it is early in the morning and is winter season. There are also a playground made of wood, which feels warm and wrinkled. I cannot hear sounds neither noises at the kids’ playground because at this hour of the day, there are no kids. They are usually at school or home.
MY OUTDOOR COMMUNITY
by Adriana Cota
(Draft)
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/img-20170206-wa0017_orig.jpg)
At this time of the day, people start to get out of their homes and walk to the park to activate themselves making some exercise. It is more usual to see elderly people in the park and some persons between 20’s and 30’s. They all wear sportswear: pants or shorts, and hoodies or heavy jackets. The people’s clothing and attitude say to me that they care about their health and how they look. They use this space for run, walk or exercise their muscles because they want to be in good shape. At this morning hour, I think a teenager would feel uncomfortable because there are too much elderly people. Here, most of us walk or run circling the perimeter of the park. Some of them are walking in one direction: the left side of our body is facing the center of the park and some others, the minority, walk in the opposite direction. As I pass next to them, I get noticed that some people have a fresh smell like if they recently took a shower. Others smell like when you just wake up and put some deodorant or perfume and go outside. Everyone, including me, greet others when we pass next each other. It can be by waving our hands in the air, by speaking out loud the words: “good morning”, “hi” or “hello”, or by shaking our hands. The last one is uncommon because we only see each other at the park and we are not so closed. The people who shake hands or even greet with a kiss and a hug, are friends who date in the park and when they meet, they greet and start walking together. I usually greet an old man with a high five gesture, but we do not know each other, I do it because we see each other every day and I feel he is a good person. Maybe he think the same way of me. People, including me, greet everyone once or maybe twice if they do not remember the person when they finish a lap and start another one and meet again each other. In my city we are warm people, so we prefer to greet twice if we are not sure about we did it previously. Everyone speaks Spanish, because there is not foreign people, only mexicans. In this neighborhood there are a lot of houses which are rented by foreign people that work mostly at factories or at mines outside the city, but they start to work early at 5 or 6a.m. so it is not common to see them at the park at this time. Some of the people are walking in groups of two, three or even four and they are chatting. Some of them are hearing music meanwhile they exercise. All people is allowed in this park because it is a public area, although they have to respect the rules if they want to be here. Some of them, like me, walk their dogs, which start to bark to each other or to people when they get near them. Also there are dogs that are walking alone because their owners let them go and return to their home by themselves, but sometimes they scare people because usually they are too big. At some spots of the park it smells of dog poop because of the dogs that are walking alone or because some persons are not used to grab it and take it to a trash can. The action of grab it is recently taking place where I live. Besides people that is exercising, there are others just crossing the park to get to the main street to take the bus.
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/img-20170206-wa0012_1_orig.jpg)
In this park, there are also fitness equipment for public use. They are made of steel and are varnish painted in yellow, red, and green colors. Most of this equipment is for leg exercising, but also there are some for arms and abs. Some people like to take a walk or run first to warm up, and then they use this equipment. Others prefer to use this equipment without making any previously aerobic exercise. There are also stairs made of rocks in the circuit of the park which people use to go upstairs and downstairs to combine their routine. At the center of the park, there is a Catholic church with a white Virgin Mary statue at the front. The statue feels very smooth because it has varnish paint. On one side of the church it is a golden bell that starts to sound some minutes before 8a.m. At 7:30a.m. I start to hear the noise of the cars that are parking in front of the church and the suddenly hustle of the people entering the church to hear mass. People that is exercising at the park, make the sign of the holy cross when they pass in front of the church and some of them give a kiss or touch the feet of the statue of the Virgin Mary. In some areas of the park there are kids’ playgrounds. There are swings, slides and seesaws made of metal and painted in red. They feel very cold because it is early in the morning and is winter season. There are also a playground made of wood, which feels warm and wrinkled. I cannot hear sounds neither noises at the kids’ playground because at this hour of the day, there are no kids. They are usually at school or home.
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/4/9/98499880/img-20170206-wa0011_orig.jpg)
For my research, I interviewed a friend of mine that also goes to the same park in the morning to exercise herself. She is 30 years old, and she likes to come to this park because it is near from her house: just have to cross the street. She enjoys to walk and sometimes she prefers to run, mostly if she is going to compete in a race. She is used to exercise alone, because is too early and the rest of her family are sleeping at that time. When she and I meet at the park, sometimes we walk together, but not always, because she only goes three or four days a week. She prefers to go to the park in the morning because she thinks exercise makes her more active during the day. And also because she likes to breathe fresh morning air and she enjoys to watch birds flying in a flock. Sometimes she use the fitting equipment of the but she prefers to walk or run. She likes to hear music while she exercises and usually she greets people but only when they first say "hi" to her. If it happens, she waves her hand and says "good morning" out loud. About dogs in the park, it is fine for her when their owners are walking them, but she does not like when they are walking alone, because sometimes she gets scared. When she pass in front of the church, she likes to make the sign of the holy cross and touch the statue of the Virgin Mary. She is not used to eat at the park while she is exercising, but if she goes at other time of the day, she eat sometimes. She does not touch anything at the park without a reason so she only touch the fitting equipment when she uses it, and she thinks it feels cold and smooth. She believes that the thing she has in common with the other people at the park is that they love to exercise and care about their health, and also that they all live in the surrounding area. This make me wonder that she has the habits very similar to those others who I observe during the week. We are warm people who greet one another, the majority of this people are Catholic and we care about our health and how we look.
It does not matter if people is from different ages or gender, I think we make community because we share the same passion for something, or we believe in the same things, and we share the same kind of thoughts. Indoors or outdoors, who cares? meanwhile everyone treats with respect one another and have the same values as you. The great thing to do is to make a community which share your same ideals and can motivate you to be a better person.
It does not matter if people is from different ages or gender, I think we make community because we share the same passion for something, or we believe in the same things, and we share the same kind of thoughts. Indoors or outdoors, who cares? meanwhile everyone treats with respect one another and have the same values as you. The great thing to do is to make a community which share your same ideals and can motivate you to be a better person.
WRITING PROJECT 2: ETHNOGRAPHY
BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
For Writing Project 1, you examined a ritual, practice, behavior, or habit (what we will generically refer to as a “cultural phenomenon”) in your personal life to better understand your cultural identity, relying on the conventions of autoethnography to write about it from a first-person perspective. In many ways, you crafted a narrative (or story) that explained how and why this cultural phenomenon defined who you are as an individual.
For Writing Project 2, we are going to ask you to look beyond your own identity to the identity of a larger cultural group or community to which you belong. We are all a part of multiple, different, sometimes even contradictory cultural groups or communities: through our families, we might be connected to a specific ethnic or racial community; our religion might connect us to another community; the music we listen to might connect us to another group; sports activities might connect us to yet another community. This assignment asks you to choose one of these groups or communities to which you belong and to investigate it.
You will investigate this group or community in order to inform others about what these cultural phenomena suggest about the community and its values, beliefs, and practices. This will give you and your readers greater insight into how the group or community understands and defines its own identity. As an insider, you may think you already know your community well. However, one of the goals of the project is to challenge your own preconceptions and reflect more deeply on what defines this group. To this end, you will engage in research as a participant-observer, meaning you will engage in primary research—interviews, observations, and field notes—to understand this cultural phenomenon from the inside out.
REQUIREMENTS AND DELIVERABLES
1. In your essay, you should include a narrative structure that tells the story of how you conducted your research.
2. You should summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your close, detailed observations and field notes in a way that is understandable to your readers.
3. You should also summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your interview(s).
4. Drawing upon your observations, field notes, and interview materials, your essay should present your reflections and insights on the community or group you have researched. Your primary insight should derive from your synthesis of the data you have accumulated: your observations, field notes, and interview materials. You should discuss this material at length, explaining how it supports or frames your insight, what it suggests about the role of specific beliefs, values, and practices in defining the community, and drawing conclusions about why and how the community defines itself.
5. Your essay should be organized in such a way that a reader can follow your thinking and reasoning from paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. Your primary insight should help to structure the essay for the reader.
6. You should include 2‐3 multimodal elements such as photographs (of the people, sites, activities, and artifacts that you have researched), hyperlinks to relevant materials, clips of audio or video from recorded interviews, and so forth. You must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements and why including them enriches your piece of writing. Consider what media beyond text might reinforce your main idea to readers, convey in another way the significance of your autoethnography, and/or appeal to your readers from a different register.
7. Your completed essay should have a title and be approximately 1700 words in length.
PROJECT SUBMISSION - PART 1
Upon completing your first draft of Writing Project #1, do the following:
1. Add your draft to your portfolio, and publish it to the web.
2. In the first space provided, copy and paste the rough draft web address (URL) into the Peer Assessment assignment provided below.
BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
For Writing Project 1, you examined a ritual, practice, behavior, or habit (what we will generically refer to as a “cultural phenomenon”) in your personal life to better understand your cultural identity, relying on the conventions of autoethnography to write about it from a first-person perspective. In many ways, you crafted a narrative (or story) that explained how and why this cultural phenomenon defined who you are as an individual.
For Writing Project 2, we are going to ask you to look beyond your own identity to the identity of a larger cultural group or community to which you belong. We are all a part of multiple, different, sometimes even contradictory cultural groups or communities: through our families, we might be connected to a specific ethnic or racial community; our religion might connect us to another community; the music we listen to might connect us to another group; sports activities might connect us to yet another community. This assignment asks you to choose one of these groups or communities to which you belong and to investigate it.
You will investigate this group or community in order to inform others about what these cultural phenomena suggest about the community and its values, beliefs, and practices. This will give you and your readers greater insight into how the group or community understands and defines its own identity. As an insider, you may think you already know your community well. However, one of the goals of the project is to challenge your own preconceptions and reflect more deeply on what defines this group. To this end, you will engage in research as a participant-observer, meaning you will engage in primary research—interviews, observations, and field notes—to understand this cultural phenomenon from the inside out.
REQUIREMENTS AND DELIVERABLES
1. In your essay, you should include a narrative structure that tells the story of how you conducted your research.
2. You should summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your close, detailed observations and field notes in a way that is understandable to your readers.
3. You should also summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your interview(s).
4. Drawing upon your observations, field notes, and interview materials, your essay should present your reflections and insights on the community or group you have researched. Your primary insight should derive from your synthesis of the data you have accumulated: your observations, field notes, and interview materials. You should discuss this material at length, explaining how it supports or frames your insight, what it suggests about the role of specific beliefs, values, and practices in defining the community, and drawing conclusions about why and how the community defines itself.
5. Your essay should be organized in such a way that a reader can follow your thinking and reasoning from paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. Your primary insight should help to structure the essay for the reader.
6. You should include 2‐3 multimodal elements such as photographs (of the people, sites, activities, and artifacts that you have researched), hyperlinks to relevant materials, clips of audio or video from recorded interviews, and so forth. You must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements and why including them enriches your piece of writing. Consider what media beyond text might reinforce your main idea to readers, convey in another way the significance of your autoethnography, and/or appeal to your readers from a different register.
7. Your completed essay should have a title and be approximately 1700 words in length.
PROJECT SUBMISSION - PART 1
Upon completing your first draft of Writing Project #1, do the following:
1. Add your draft to your portfolio, and publish it to the web.
2. In the first space provided, copy and paste the rough draft web address (URL) into the Peer Assessment assignment provided below.