Red Square (Squared)

So I returned to Red Square for my second travel piece. My objective: to observe and record. I have to be honest that not a whole lot has changed with Red Square in the past 5 weeks. To be honest I think that today was an exact carbon copy of the day I went 5 weeks ago. However, it is entirely possible that in this observation, my neutrality was contaminated from last observation. I carefully studied Red Square last time and all the impressions I had are still quite vivid. Whatever, let's take a look at the observations:
- My previous bench is taken, this is unforgiveable
- Grey and dreary
- Trees are still dead and crows are still morosely cawing
- Silence broken by drone of overhead aircraft
- Squat, urban, grey, imposing, institutional, cold
- Lone skateboarder (keep living the dream)
- I got distracted and talked to my cousin who I bumped into for like 10 minutes. She doesn't go to UW which is why it was fortuitous to see her on campus. She was initially confused why I was sitting alone scribbling notes.
- Same silence. Lines of people silently trudging to class or back from class
- Asian tourists!
- Slightly warmer, last time my hands got very cold
- Suzzalo is good looking building. Kane, not so much.
- Why do they call it Red Square. In fact, it is not that squarish, nor is it markedly red.
- Common Travel Paths:
A) From Terry/Lander bridge cutting down towards Drumheller (and vice versa)
B) From Memorial Way towards Drumheller (and vice versa)
C) From Terry/Lander to the Quad
- What is in the circular thing that is in between the benches in the middle of Red Square, is it a time capsule?
- Types of people identified:
1) Greek (easy for me to recognize Greek letters)
2) Dorms
3) Graduate Students
4) Professors
5) Tourists (only saw two)
6) Garden variety vagrants (skateboarder)
7) Didn't see high school tour groups but I know they exist, they probably come when it is nicer out
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't get a whole lot more out of Red Square than what I saw the first time. Had I gone in the spring time things may have been better (Frisbees, tango club, fraternities, the guy who preaches "Turn or Burn"). But as it was, I went on the same day, at the same time, exactly 5 weeks later. Not much has changed. The weather was about 7 degrees warmer, but other than that, no substantial differences.

Red Square

Alright, I really decided to get creative for this assignment and I went to Red Square. Admittedly beforehand I thought it was just an easy public area to do the assignment, but it turned out being much better than anticipated and I noticed a lot of things that I previously hadn't. Here are my field notes and then I will provide an analysis of sort. I mean, it is a blog so everything has to be fun and casual.
- chilled gust-less dreary day
- dormant trees, seagulls, crows
- quiet
- people sitting around the edges just as I am... perhaps they're doing the same thing as me
- dry coldness, I see blue sky but it provides no warmth
- people quietly chatting
- people dressed in earthly colored clothing: blacks, browns, dark blues
- A woman on the phone just walked by who sounded just like Sarah Palin
- Demographics: 60% White, 30% Asian, 10% Other
- Gloomy feel, cold winter day, trees are empty, Red Square is not even that red
- Lots of iPods
- Backpacks and coffee popular adornments
- Mostly slow walkers
- Nobody really pays attention to my scribblings, I am even looking for eye contact but receive almost none
- My hands are cold and the page on which I write is even colder
- Why are we all dressed in dark colors?
- Occasional runner with backpack
- I could use a warm beverage
- Really, really quiet for the number of people silently passing about their business
- Can guys wear scarves and get away with it?
- Awkwardly quiet, fog of silence
- Emptiness
- Urban and dead, no shrubbery, no green
- Big stone squares, pillars of brick, for some reason I got a mental image of a scene from 1984
- Only vibrant color is the "Career Discovery Week" poster
- Nobody wants to be loud
- Silent shuffle of steps
- I just saw a guy wearing Uggs, that is risque
- Weird Mardi Gras group passed by, what's that about?
Expert Analysis:
I pass through Red Square almost everyday but I have never before noticed how awkwardly quiet it is. It seems as though there is a social code to not make excessive noise in Red Square. Mostly people don't talk and if they do talk it is in soft voices. The sounds of jackets shuffling and feet stepping surpassed any volume generated by speaking. I found the whole environment uncomfortable. The lack of nature as the landscape in Red Square is dominated by large institutional buildings, the quiet shuffling, and the bitter cold made it a unpleasant place to be. Red Square had no life at all; it was gloomy and dead. This seems to change when Spring time rolls around and there are weddings, events, sunshine, Frisbees, and fully blossomed trees, but in this instance, on this particular day when I went, Red Square was a distant and cold place to be. If that was my only experience of Red Square, then I don't think I would like it much. There was nothing, it was impersonal, cold, urban, gloomy, and gray. That concludes the expert analysis.

Travel Quotes

Might as well start off with a couple travel quotes to get this blog off to the right start:

“El barco está seguro en el puerto. Pero no fue para eso que los barcos fueron construidos” Paulo Coelho, El Alquimista

"Of the gladdest moments, me thinks, in human life, is the departing upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one effort the fetters of Habit - the leaden weight of Routine - the cloak of Care, and the slavery of Home - man feels once more happy."

“The future isn't what it used to be.” Yogi Berra

"My richness consists not in the extent of my possessions; but in the fewness of my wants." J. Brotherton

"Do not be attached to the past or wait for the future. Be grateful for each day, that is enough. I do not believe in a future world, I deny the past. I believe entirely in the present. Employ your entire body and mind in the eternal now." Santoka Taneda

“Life is like a more complicated version of a Chinese menu. You can have one item from column A and one from column B and one from C, but if you get the smoked salmon in column C then you cannot have the rice noodles in column B......... Oh, you had egg drop soup for lunch? Well, then, you cannot now have Fried Ice cream for desert.....”

“Aún tenía que caminar mucho para llegar a las Pirámides, y algún día aquella mañana no sería más que un recuerdo. Para ahora era el momento presente, la fiesta que había descrito el camellero, y el estaba procurando vivirlo con las lecciones de su pasado y sus sueños de su futuro. Un día, aquella visión de millares de palmeras sería solo un recuerdo. Pero para él, en este momento, significaba sombra, agua y un refugio para la guerra. De la misma manera que un relincho de camello podía transformarse en peligro, una hilera de palmeras podía significar un milagro. ‘El mundo habla muchos lenguajes,’ pensó el muchacho.” Paulo Coelho

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt