Mousumi Haider, Activity 1

Be a Flaneur…
Being a Flaneur? How is that work? Have to be a person who walks the city in order to experience it? Isn’t our daily life is an experience? But then I thought to myself. When I walk around, what do I really see around me? Do I see who are walking around me? See the building that developing? Honestly, I don’t and I never did. So, I choose Queens Center for being a Flaneur.
Although, I live in Queens, I hardly been to Queens Center. I hate shopping. Anyhow, back to being Flaneur; I first walked inside the mall. Looked around, since I wasn’t sure where to sit and observe people. The mall was pretty crowed, then I realized its Sunday. I guessed, weekends are crowed.
I walked up to the Starbucks, there are some sitting arrangement next to the coffee shop. I wanted to observe people with a cup of coffee. I told my friend (sorry, brought my friend to be a flaneur) to get coffee for us while I hunt for seats. Surprisingly enough, I walked around the place for 40 minutes and did not get a seat. When I see people getting up from their seats, before I could walk up there, someone else takes it. It was like an instant reflection. It just took me by surprise. I wonder to myself, they came to sit around or to shop? Cause I do not go to shopping mall unless I have to buy something.
I kept looking around and there were people of all different ages. Teenager, seniors, mid aged male/female, toddlers’, new born babies. Some people were just sitting and talking, while their kids were running around. I saw one guy was just writing and writing on napkins. Maybe he was brainstorming for his homework or he got an idea for his next best selling novel, who knows but him. There was also a couple but I couldn’t tell it was their first date or not. Wish I could listen to their conversations. Some seniors (probably 80+ years old) were just sleeping on the couch.
With no luck on getting a seat to sit, I started focusing on the stores. Wow, almost every store had a SALE sign on. “Buy one get another one half” “50% to 70% sale to everything” “Valentine’s day sale”. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I’ve seen these many “Sale” signs. I guess, economy is really bad.
Well just standing there next to Starbucks, I saw different people doing different things. We live in New York; people say New Yorkers don’t even know their neighbors’ name. They mind their own business. For some reason, I felt weird seeing people do minding their own business. I saw a lady dropped all of her shopping bags, but no one stopped to help her pick all her things up. Other people just made their way to pass the lady. :O Are we really that selfish or we are just rude? Or are we busy surviving in the fasted-busiest city of the world?