At the airport...

Wednesday 29 January, 2014

BLOG POST 2

Greetings to my fellow classmates and professor and apologies for this late post!! I finally managed to make it to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, thanks to my friend Svetlana who drove me there! Together we were able to make our observations of the people who had just begun to arrive. We got to the airport at 6 pm, and sat in a small lounge in the main entrance, right behind the United Airlines check-in desks, as there was a late evening flight departing for New York (JFK) and it was the only area of the airport that was actually busy. The other airline desks were either closed or not as busy. Here is a detailed list of the rather interesting observations we made of the passengers who were checking in their bags and printing their tickets. Due to my hurry, to write the information down I included observations and interpretations together. Hope it's not too hard to follow through my notes!

NIKOS:

1. Passengers mostly males, travelling independently. Majority are middle aged, late thirties, early forties and fifties.
2. Most have a single piece of luggage (carry-on), probably going to New York for business rather than a vacation or a long stay.
3. Men look very serious and agitated, whereas women in line seem a little more energetic, either talking on their phones, or to other women next to them. 
4. I-phones and I-pads, almost every person has one in their hands. Texting, calling, playing, listening to music etc.
5. Blue jeans for most of them, suggesting a casual way of travelling. Women a little fancier dressed than men. Men wearing tennis shoes or casual business shoes, women boots. 
6. Two security men dressed in blue talking to each other in the front of the line. Look rather tired and don't look at each other while talking.
7. Men and women have black suitcases, some have brown, two little girls are carrying back packs. 
8. Most people seem to be calmly waiting in line, but most don't have any intriguing expressions on their faces.

SVETLANA:

1. Men look serious, are carrying briefcases or very fancy carry-on bags. 
2. Airport seems very quiet, people aren't talking while waiting in line. Late evening flight, terrible weather, must be tired.
3. Cute little girls, with pony-tails talking to each other and laughing.
4. Woman in beige Burberry coat talking on her cell-phone while leaning on her suitcase. 
5. Two students wearing glasses, one is wearing a New York Yankees hoodie and Nike tennis-shoes.  
6. Tall man wearing long coat, blue jeans and a cap. He is holding a black Samsonite overnight bag on his shoulder  Must be in his late fifties, waits in the express line, must be wealthy or a business man who travels a lot. 
7. Three United Airlines desks are open, the rest are closed. 
8. Women don't seem as frustrated as the men waiting in line and seem a little more cheerful. 
9. Only a couple of women seem to be travelling alone, the rest are either with another adult or a child (or children). 
10. Coffee in man's hand and newspaper on top of his carry on. 
11. Fluorescent lights on marble floor and carpeting in front of desks. 

From these random but interesting observations I managed to understand two things: 1) that Svetlana paid more attention to detail, especially when it has to do with nice clothes (I can't believe she actually saw that the jacket of one of the women was Burberry!!) and 2) Svetlana (and I don't think that this has anything to do with gender) paid a little more attention to the surroundings as well, rather than solely on the people that were waiting in line. We set a time limit of ten minutes for observations and another ten minutes to write down what we remembered and above you may see some of the bizarre things we paid attention to. I must admit though, that despite that we did have many differences in the things and specific details that each of us paid attention to, we did have some things in common. For example, the mood that we detected in the people's  faces who were waiting in line, their posture, the type of luggage they were carrying etc. What I think differentiated our observations, is the fact that we are different genders, and of course the fact that she is intrigued when she goes to airports (she doesn't travel often) and pays attention to details as she likes it. I've been on airplanes more times than I can remember, travelling back and forth to Europe, so for me it's something common that I don't really notice the small details any more, at least not as much as she does, as you can tell from our notes above.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY POST!!!