#ggrb03

The Starbucks located in SW meeting places, when I went down stairs, I could see some student clubs set their introduction board. Some people asked question in front of the club’s tables, some people sit near the Starbucks and some people like me stand on the line to wait the order. I do not like coffee even though I felt the good smells of coffee around me, I prefer the cold drinks in Starbucks. I bought one cup of drink, I could feel the cold as the temperature outside, but it was warm inside of the building. And then I went up stairs to the SW student space, which is the area full with the tables and desks for students.

The study area always full, but I was lucky, I found one seat for myself. I do not like the library, because I think it is a place with over-quiet. The only thing we can see in the library is students work hard and keep quiet, it is a place which can help you forget the time. However, the student spaces in the buildings are such totally different, because people can walk through here, study, have a reset and they can talk. I dropped down my school bags and set my stuffs on the table, I prepared my tutorial work for the next class, it was near the lunch time. I could feel more and more students here and I could smell the food. When I was doing the reading, the two students from the organization which fight for the sexual violence, asked me to sign for the victims of sexual violence. I was very interesting about them, so we talked a little bit more, and I noticed that their data collection shows even though the most stable society in Canada nowadays, there still a lot of victims of the sexual violence, most victims are female, some of them are male and even children. After I signed, I kept reading, and listened music, the most favorite song for me is “Remember Me” from the movie COCO, it is soft and helps me to focus on my work. I found most students in this student space like wear the earphone, some of them watched the video, some of them played the computer games, and some others like me listened to the music.

There are some transparent glasses so that I could watch outside. The first time I came to UTSC, I noticed this area would be very comfortable for me, because I do my work and watch outside of the building at the same time. The snow fell down from the roof, it looks like the snow falls, and the wind rolled the snow falls up and down, it was beautiful. The snow like the elfin danced in the air. I saw two of the squirrels jumped from one tree to the other tree. It was cold outside, I thought they were trying to find the food for their families. Drawing is one of my favorite activities, so I decided to draw something use this wonderful scene. It was totally different scenes between summer and winter, I would prefer winter scenes more, the snow days are beautiful. 

The infrastructure of building is under a grey tone. The materials that used to build meeting place is fireproofing and anti-explosion, because it is connected to the numbers of laboratories, which create a certain safe environment for science students to do experiments. However, this grey tone and fireproofing material is creating and enhancing a sense of coldness and loneliness. The ground of meeting place is constructed with the mixture of three different colours of tiles, which are all in red-brown tones, thus, create a visual comparison with the overall grey tone to add colours to the place, so does a sense of warmness. 

I was there at 4:02 on January 30th afternoon, a normal Tuesday afternoon, when I had normal classes, and was having my personal relaxation time. But it was unusual that there were booths in the meeting places, people were selling things. Upon on my arrival, most of the booths were cleaned, which left a much more less busy atmosphere in meeting place. The uncleaned tables and chairs were the signals which were telling people that it was busy and noisy before, and now everything started to return to normal. It had recalled me other days of the space in meeting place. In some days, meeting place was empty without any tables or chairs; some days, there were students presenting their posters; on Wednesdays, the farmers’ market always turn meeting place a joyful place with people’s talking and smells of bakery and candles. All these events, and movement of people and air have make the meeting place become a place for people to “meet”, for activities to “meet” the students and staff. It has the energy to hold and embrace all sorts of atmospheres.

There are decorations just over the main floor of the place, I don’t know what the meaning is, but the flow of winds caused by people walking by, somehow make the decoration paper lines waving and swaying in the middle of the air. There are white, orange and blue three different colours of decorating paper, and I am curious about the meaning of them. But I never asked anyone about these decorations, and I knew that they usually have meanings.

The benches in front of Tim Hortons in the B-wing hallway are busy at all times, the line for Tim Hortons never seems to be short. The students that sit in the hallway are meeting up there with their friends, or discussing their assignments with each other, while students set up their groups there, to aware people about their clubs.

The big Tim Hortons located in B-wing has big black and brown walls with a big glass window where students are able to see who is passing by in the B-wing hallway while enjoying their coffee and beverages. The biggest impact of the students who chose to sit there seem to be Tim Hortons. They come and grab their coffee with their friends, they sit on the chairs inside of Tim Hortons which are not always available. The workers inside Tim Hortons work as fast as they can to keep the line going. The noises of "next in line" or the call of numbers for your orders is always echoing. The smell of coffee with baked potato wedges and toasted bagels is spread around the hallway. The Tim Horton is now located where the old Book Store of UTSC was. The hallway seems more popular now because of the big space area to stand, sit, talk. or eat.

The time between 12:00 to 12:30pm is busy when the lectures from AC and HW are ended, students started to show up from both ends of the hallway. The line for Tim Hortons grew longer, the place started to feel overcrowded all of a sudden, some students started rushing to get to their next lectures, many students started to meet up with their friends, groups that were set up their stopped few students to play a little activity with them and discuss what their club is about.

I noticed few students sitting beside me feeling excited, they were excited to see what will come next for them at UTSC, maybe they are first year students. I overheard them talking to each other, one of the girl said "I cannot believe we are almost done first year, and I still do not know where most of the lecture halls are". This reminded me of when I was in first year and how fast my first year passed by and I realized at the end how different university is from high school. The lifestyle of university and how we adapt the environment in different ways changes us within our 4 years of university.

A group of students came and sat in front of me, they had balloons, gifts, cupcakes and one of the girl was holding a cake in her hand. Two girls walked near them and they all shouted "Happy Birthday" to one of them. She jumped with excitement, everyone started looking at them and clapping. The friends hugged her and gave her gifts and balloons. I noticed how students create memories with one another to look back at them when they graduate. Since the B-wing hallway is filled with students and it is always loud, students feel they are able to celebrate in the hallway.

While sitting in the hallway I noticed many details that I do not get noticed when I am rushing to my lecture or even sitting there with my friends. This time I noticed banners hanging off the balcony from the top that students probably have created to promote their clubs. The banners were colourful and big writing of red that said "Fairness for Students". As I was looking at the banners I saw students standing on the top looking down from the balcony and talking. One of them yelled a student's name out loud from the top to get his attention and told him to come up which was a nice way to communicate.

The Meeting Place is surrounded by a wall of grey concrete and topped with a glass ceiling (see figure 2). According to the UTSC website, “[t]he exposed and textured concrete carries through the interiors that feature careful detailing and durable natural materials, including floors paved in terra-cotta-coloured English quarry tile (see figure 1) and wood-paneled feature walls that provide warmth and contrast.” In all honesty, I have never paid attention to the paved floor until now. If anything, the contrast in that these concrete materials make the place solemn. The Starbucks Coffee Shop infuses this space with a stream of energy by becoming a point of attention with an eye-catching logo and a chic yet stylish modern design. It is also the reason that the Meeting Place overflows with a heart warming aroma of strong coffee and fresh baked pastries. The never-ending line of students is evidence for the café’s popularity, a familiar reminder that Starbucks has been welcomed by the students with open arms since its first day of operation. The decorations along the walls for past events also serve as remnants of the Meeting Place’s historical role as one of the most popular places on campus.

There are continuous streams of students walking throughout the area and the size of student groups grow increasingly large until it peaks at each 10 past the hour interval. That is when the final wave of late students scrambles towards their classrooms. There are constant sounds of chatter as students come and leave, leaving echoes of their conversation behind and enlarging the room’s apparent size. In contrast to the homey café atmosphere of Starbucks, the rest of this place is often filled with gusts of cold air as endless waves of students bring in the lingering winter breeze. Perhaps this is why students keep their coats on even if they decide to stay longer at this place.

The Meeting Place seems to be one of the center pieces of our campus, even beyond its geographic location as the intersection of several large buildings, this place has a full arrangement of tables and chairs perfect for group studying. It is a flexible place that embraces students from all walks of study and does not is not regulated by special rules such as a “quiet zone,” which limits student’s ability to talk at the library. However, because of the lack of regulation, students like me who are sensitive to sound may become distracted and find it challenging to concentrate on my observations. If I visited without the purpose of completing a collaborative observation assignment, perhaps I will have completely different feelings to the environment.

The Meeting Place has an abundance of activities. The most visible activity is that people are lining up for Starbucks, including professors, students, campus staffs and construction workers. As I look around, there are a great number of students around tables with friends, chatting and studying. Along the walls, there are a small number of club display booths. A girl approaches me and says, “Hi, I am from the badminton club and my name is xxx. Could you please move to other tables? We are going to set up here.” Unfortunately, I was unable to recall her name due to the noise at that time. After my friends and I move away, the girl starts to play badminton with another girl as a form of advertising to attract passing students. However, because they were in a busy area, the girls kept blocking off students and had to apologize time after time. Occasionally, a campus staff identified through their green T shirt would stroll by to collect garbage with a mobile work station.

Sitting at the meeting place, I notice that there are more females than males. I don’t know the reason and I have no idea whether it is an occasional phenomenon. Girls cluster together with big smiles excitedly talk to each other. Although I am unable to tell their countries, each cluster were clear made up of students with similar ethnicities. Notice that this is likely not due to discrimination issues as this campus is a highly multicultural mini society. Instead, it is likely since a sense of belonging is much more complicated than physical appearance and nationality labels on a passport.

There is something aesthetic about landforms that has not been fully transformed into confined urban spaces where wild organisms are allowed to roam free while limiting the movement of human beings to change the space. It feels strange when emotions comes into contact with our definition and meaning of place as it can change in an instant. I realised that the reality of space and place becomes complicated because of the multiple experiences that we have accumulated in our lives that shapes our beliefs and the way we connect them altogether in a certain space becomes such that we may become repulsed or attracted to it whether it is by subconscious or unconscious means. It is really subjective when we try to include emotions and personal experiences when trying to find a definition that would summarize all sorts of idea and meaning into the place. Sometimes we can try to live in the space peacefully but it also means that a city is a space that is constantly undergoing changes to adjust the population growth that has been increasing rather than just with it being static.

The space on UTSC never let me feel a connection to it but after doing the writing space exercise. I have started to collectively gather my experience into something that is a result of the things that I have done as an undergraduate student. The emotions I relate to about a place is usually very complicated but there is something unique about me that I have come to accept is that I am a very random person and do things on a spur but I do plan out every movement that I make but will spice things up in my life once in awhile. Hence, I came to an understanding that this is who I am as a person and the need for me to further improve upon my potential would benefit people whom I have made a connection with. As a geography student the need for me to make connections to the different experiences that I have in life and particularly the events that happened in specific places become a guideline for how I should live as a person and what could be done to sharpen my skills and eventually become comfortable living  and surviving as a human being.

It was on a tangy Thursday, I was trying to focus on observing interactions that occurs in those spaces around the SY intersection corridor around 4 pm in the afternoon and sat down to observe people. However, it was really cold and snowy so the corridor was full of slush and dirty footprints. There is this machine and the janitor drives it to clean it away and it disrupts the lecture usually because the sound is just deafening. So I was observing the boundaries and exits of the research center in SY wing because it is useful in understanding the reason why the building was planned in such a way where the objects were found in subjective and exclusive places. The students look angry and tired and sick of the weather changing suddenly and causing all these disruption in commute and being late for lectures. Although, some students still remain somewhat happy for whatever reason, possibly the sign of free food by UTSC that is technically not free since we pay for their services in the school fees. There is random stickers and posters, also there is like the UTSC promotion for voting and saying how there will be free bubble tea is a few of the colourful advertisements. This is a major intersection between SW and SY.

So it gets very quiet at the beginning of the hour because that’s when classes usually start and that not many people would come to SY except for the labs at the basement or the ones doing their masters in the sciences like biology and psychology, they are usually T.As’ and I actually saw one of my T.A by coincidence as I haven’t seen him for a year. The only times it gets loud are the people finding spaces to eat at SY and SW and sit there chatting with their friends if they are not loners. When it gets really quiet you can hear the heaters trying desperately to warm up the air whenever a student open the door to enter the building or leave it. There is also the occasional resonance with door opening from the lecture hall and offices. We have now cross the fifteen minute mark and there is no sign of anything special or entertaining, just observing a few students. There were really nothing exciting that could occur but little did I know an unforeseeable event was about to happen.

All of a sudden, there are four deers grazing at the grass patch amongst the SY parking lot! I would describe them to have a brown body with a white tail. They just appeared. It was such a magical experience to me. However, no one seems to have noticed them. I don’t get it why are the students so unobservant, even if I was just passing by I would have seen those deers. I have then started to observe the movement of the deers from a distance. There’s always one or two that seems to be on the lookout for moving objects as they pick up sounds from their sensitive ears as the rest continue to graze. The people doing their work and they are not even observing their surroundings. Looking back at it now I am just so glad to have taken photos and videos of it. Unfortunately, one deer had their head up and it seems aware of some mysterious being and then it seems to start backing away, the others start to look up and follow in suit. A few seconds later a car arrived and it seems as if the deer had become aware of their surrounding from the sounds they picked up on their radius. The car came by which chased them away back into the highland creek. Alas, the special event has gone away. I guess it pays to be the outcast from the norm and to follow your instincts. The deers has gone and there is nothing special and the 30mins is almost finished.

It cannot be located on a campus map. It looks like a place where people gather and meet their friends. It looks like a dynamic space, like many things can occur here such as events, studying, work, promote things like events, schools, jobs, businesses. This place smells like a variety of different foods students are eating such as hamburgers, grilled cheese, coffee because both the Student Centre and Starbucks are nearby. This place sounds extremely loud I can’t focus on my school work. People walk in sync like they are robots. Being in this place makes me feel as though I am a part of the community. The people studying at the table beside me are wearing very strong smelling perfume. You constantly hear footsteps of people walking up and down the stairs. Campus police periodically roams this space. In this space you can see people running because they are late to class. In this space if you are studying at a table beside another group of students you will hear them zipping up their jackets. By the looks of peoples faces and the speed that they are walking at that I have observed, majority of the people walking in this space look like they’re in a rush. During their journey some people drop their papers. 

In this space you hear people having loud conversations from all four corners of the room no matter where you are standing in this space. You hear people talking in what seems to be the Starbucks eating area. You hear people talking in the in seating in the CopyKats corner.You see people reading. You see people looking lost, confused, like they do not know where they are sometimes when first entering this space. Most people in this space that are walking through it or sitting in it have earphones in their ears and appear to be listening to some sort of music by the bobbing of some of their heads, I could be wrong. This space is a loud space majority of the time, so people lean in closely to the people in front of them to hear them better during conversation. Most people that walk through this space walk by with their heads down looking at their phone.

Most people walk at the same pace in this space. People scream their friends names to say hello. People leave one person at the table when they get up to go somewhere. They bring their wallet and phone and they leave their laptop and backpack with at least one person at the table. Some people look at their feet when they walk.Some people have a bounce in their step. Some people are going to work in their uniform for example the EMS uniforms. People walk and eat. 

You will see couples walk holding hands.There are often different clubs in this space with their stands. 

This space gets quiet after 9pm. Someone fell down the stairs. It is very cold. People skip in this space instead of walking. The custodial staff works in this space. They do things such as dispose of the garbage. This space is poorly lit for studying, the lighting is dim. You can hear the sound of moving chairs and tables. 

It is dusty because I taste dust in my throat. It gets louder the later it gets because utsc workers in green and blue uniforms move the tables ground. They count by pointing with their fingers. People check the time of bus arrival, commence running when time is 2 minutes and under. They look like they are setting up for something. The “meeting place” is a space to meet people like the name of the space eludes to. It is a place to meet friends, community members and organizations when they have a table, and utsc club members when they have a table. It is a place to meet friends, community members and organizations when they have a table, and utsc club members when they have a table. 

It is a place of possibly new opportunities, a place where you can meet new people and join extracurricular clubs. UTSC is responsible for this space. UTSC workers manage it. Studying happens in this space. Socializing happens in this space. At least 20 people are in there. They are studying, socializing, working. It is a pretty large space.