A Walk Down State and Adams
FIELD NOTES
5:55pm
I began my walk outside of the University Center. It was a pretty nice day outside, in the lower 60s range. It was cloudy and getting mildly dim outside, but the sky wasn’t dark yet. The weather felt just right, and the sidewalks were less clustered than usual. Not long into my walk, encountered one of my first sights. It was a bent-up traffic cone lying to the side of a driving lane on the road. It looked like someone had run it over, and I wondered why it was still there.
5:56pm
I headed down State Street, going north. At the first intersection, I had to stand and wait to be able to cross. A few students made a quick run across the road while some cars were turning in, but I decided to wait.
5:57pm
I passed “ViVi Bubble Tea” on my walk. The window display was colorful, with squares that displayed pictures of the visually appealing drinks. I could see they sold boba and other teas in a variety of distinct flavors. There were two tall kiosks inside where people could order, but there were no customers inside.
5:58pm (Experience #1)
I walked behind a group of four young men, all wearing different-colored hoodies. Just before approaching the DePaul College of Communication, one of the guys, who was wearing a green hoodie, stopped walking with his group and hung back to compliment me. It caught me off guard, and I almost didn’t quite hear him at first since I was focused on the street. We ended up having a brief exchange with one another before he wished me a good day and jogged ahead to catch up with his friends.
6:00pm
After passing the DePaul building, I saw a woman with long braids and a lightweight scarf passing by me with a bag from Blick. Since Blick is an art store, I wondered if she might be an art student, since there were so many art colleges in the area.
6:01pm
When I made a right turn onto Adam Street, I noticed a family standing at the corner. The family was clearly struggling. I tried to take note of them as I passed by. There was what seemed to be a mother, holding up a sign. She had three or four children with her, ranging from toddler to teenager. One of the kids was in a wheelchair and there was a very small child in a stroller. All I could see on the mother’s face was tiredness. She seemed to be dealing with a lot.
6:02pm (Experience #2)
I stopped outside of the McDonald’s on Adam Street, which was decently crowded. Inside, people were standing around and waiting for their orders. The screen displayed at least ten different orders still in progress. The workers kept coming back up to the counter with more food and drinks. There was a man dressed formally, wearing a business suit and polished boots, who was standing and waiting for several minutes. Beside him, there were two teenage boys, one older and one younger. They seemed to be having a good time talking to each other, but the man in the suit seemed restless waiting.
6:07pm
Just outside of the McDonald’s, I picked up an abandoned McDonald’s bag that had been crushed and left there. After putting that into my back, I started to head back. I tried to observe the same places as I passed by, seeing if I’d missed anything. It seemed just a bit busier than when I had first left. The cars on the street were louder, whereas I hadn’t noticed as much of the noise on my way there.
6:10pm
Passing the DePaul Communications building again, I found a strange object. It was a Neosporian tube that appeared to be partially used, but still mostly full. There were a couple of cigarettes and other wrappers nearby. I carefully scooped it up into a plastic bag and took it back with me as an item for the walk.
6:15pm
When I reached the last intersection, I stood there for a while with a couple of other people waiting for the crosswalk to let us go. There was super heavy traffic, and it took about three minutes for us to be able to cross.
6:19pm
After passing by Blaze Pizza, I stopped just outside of University Center for a second and saw a girl standing outside of a small blue car that had pulled up to the front of the building. She had a moving cart with her, which was a massive brown box on top of a set of moving wheels. She was probably loading some last-minute things into her dorm room.
6:20pm
Having finished my walk, I stepped back inside of University Center.
I described my experiences in my observational notes, as well as the two objects I found, which were the McDonald’s bag and the tube of Neosporin.
MY TRIP MAP
QUESTION: In “The Solitary Stroller and the City,” Rebecca Solnit writes, “Cities have always offered anonymity, variety, and conjunction, qualities best basked in by walking” (p. 182). How have you experienced the anonymity, variety, and conjunction of Chicago while walking?
RESPONSE: I experienced a small sense of anonymity while walking. As one of many people, I was able to walk on my own and not stand out much. I was among strangers who did not know me. Yet, when I was approached by the guy I saw, I did not have perfect anonymity at that moment. By acknowledging me and talking to me, he was knowing me in a sense. So while I did still experience the anonymity of being in a city, I also saw that even in a large space, you are not anonymous to everyone all of the time. I certainly experienced variety and conjunction on my walk. Not only were there endless different people, stores, and objects to observe, but all of these things were in motion or being interacted with at the same time. It was hard for me to narrow down my observations as a result of this because it was hard to keep my attention on one thing at a time (167).
