Adventures of Urban Life

I arrived at Grand Central station around 5 pm last Friday. I have been in Grand Central stations a couple times before but never to observe other people. i decided to spend some time on the main floor. There is a clock in the middle of the floor, and a lot of ticket booths all around. Large groups of people would gather. There was a group of people to the left of me that caught my attention. It looked like a family on vacation. The older man, who appeared to be the dad, carried a big backpack. The mom was pushing a baby carriage. A small boy, around the age of 6, was nagging at his mom because he was tired of standing. And an older daughter around the age of 16 was listening to her iPod. They were trying to figure out which way the Empire State building was, and had a medium size map of New York City. As the mom and dad argued on which rout to take, the daughter got in to a small argument with her younger brother. The brother had taken her iPod and didn’t want to give it back to her. I found it interesting that due to the arguments everyone had forgotten about the baby in the baby carriage. I would assume that they would be more worried about the baby but everyone was too busy fighting with each other.
I decided to move to the lower level and sit in a table where it would be easier for me to observe people. As I walked by the women’s restroom, I noticed a large line of women waiting eagerly to use the restroom. As I looked for a table where I would be able to observe people, I wondered why the women’s restroom always has a line. I came to the conclusion that it is not as easy for a woman to go to the bathroom as a man. A man can just un-zip their pants and pee, while in the other hand, a woman has to go through a more rigorous ritual that requires much more time.
I finally found a table that gave me a good view of the main stairs, where I would be able to see more people. At first it was overwhelming to try to keep track of people because there were people running up and down the stairs. I noticed an old man with a cane. He was being tackled by people that were late for their train, as they ran down the stairs with little regard of others. The old man was dressed in a suit, with dress shoes and a very sharp hair cut. I would assume that he was on his way to a date because he carried roses on the same had that he had his cane. I thought that the old man would never make it up the stairs but after navigating his way up, he looked back at the stairs with defiance.
Ivan Tellez