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I started this class late so I completed this assignment alone on Friday.

Expedition #1

I said, “Hello” or “Hi, how are you?” to about a dozen people as I walked from A. Clark Hall to the Student union. I aimed to talk to people who were alone rather than in a group because I believed I was more likely to get a response. I was also more likely to get a response from people I made eye contact with first before speaking. Most people acknowledged me and spoke back.  The closer I got to Stamp the less people spoke back and the weirder it expedition became.

Expedition #2

I chose to ask people about the superbowl this coming weekend. I asked people who are they most excited to see win this year’s Super Bowl. Some responded, Eagles, or said they didn’t really care. I started asking people who were in line at the Chick-fil-a while I was waiting on my meal, I asked people who I sat close to while I ate my meal, and I asked people in the bookstore as I returned a book.

Expedition #3

A. James Clark Hall is a new building that recently opened. I wanted to see if anyone heard of it so I asked for direction from Stamp to Clark Hall. Most people gave me directions to A. James Clark School of Engineering which is in Glenn Martin Hall. Most people have never heard of the building and did not know where it was.

Expedition #4

This one was tricky so I thought the best way to handle it was by simply telling the truth. I found a friendly face, man, and asked him if I could briefly interview him about his experience with air travel.  He told me a story about his trip coming from the Philippines. He had a long layover and fell asleep waiting for his plane. What made the experience worst was that there was a lady he  was talking to who was waiting for the same plane as he, watched him fall asleep and didn’t wake him up when the plane arrived. He had to wait another day inside the airport for the next plane.

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How to Talk to Strangers - Timothy Becker

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How to Talk to Strangers - Timothy Becker

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(1) I said “Hello” to about 25 people.
(2) Some smiled, but most not.
(3) My behavior was generally the same overall.

(1) I asked if the persons liked the campus, and if they could mape the campus.
(2) The person didn’t know the campus well.
(3) This person was a little more willing to talk.

(1) I asked an undergraduate student the question.
(2) I was able to get oral directions.
(3) I do not believe in lying.

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Expedition 1:
Kate and I alternated talking to people as we walked from Tawes to Stamp and we greeted 12 different people. Most people did little more than wave and smile uncomfortably (a lot of ignoring was going on). The longer we went on greeting people the funnier it became since it was such a weird action.

Expedition 2:
I choose to talk to people about the art exhibit in stamp and how the food at the new Japanese place was. People were more willing to talk and were polite, but most were in a hurry to eat or to class or otherwise. People were less freaked out about being approached with a purpose as opposed to an open ended greeting out of no-where.

Expedition 3:
Kate and I talked to one person asking for directions. Luckily (by the fake situation) she had a map (not so lucky for the purposes of the exercise). She was very kind and pointed out where we were and which route to take on the map pointing to the direction we should head as well. She did not feel comfortable giving us her number. Lying about something this small wasn't really a problem, I felt more bad that were asking for her number, which most women guard in fear of being harassed.

Expedition 4:
We found two women talking outside of stamp who didn't seem to be working on homework (or anything stressful). We asked to interview them and they agreed (it isn't uncommon to do that kind of thing for class any where else might be weirder). This was the most comfortable because we got to talking about difficulties at the airport and fun life stories and memorable experiences. It seems that progressively the more focused your conversation is the easier it is to talk to strangers.

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Expedition 1:
We alternated saying hi to people as we walked from Tawes to Stamp, and greeted a total of 12 people. Two of them acknowledged us (smiled uncomfortably or gave a small wave), the rest ignored us. I felt very uncomfortable with this exercise because it is just not the culture on campus to say hi to strangers.

Expedition 2:
I chose to talk about the blood drive happening in Stamp, and asked a stranger if they knew what it was and if it was open for anyone to do. We had a short conversation about it, not as long as the audio wanted it to be, because I ran out of things to ask about the blood drive and the stranger clearly did not want to keep the conversation going about anything else.

Expedition 3:
We picked someone who was alone in Stamp and not talking to anyone else or doing homework because we didn't want to interrupt anything. The girl was very nice and gave us directions and actually pointed us to the maps at the information desk in stamp so that she did not have to draw one herself. She did not want to give us her phone number, which is very understandable, and she was nice about it. I felt very uncomfortable, but not because of the lie, more because I felt bad for interrupting a stranger and making them uncomfortable by asking for their phone number.

Expedition 4:
We found two girls sitting outside of stamp talking, and asked if we could interview them about air travel for a project for class. They were really nice about it and both told us short stories about bad travel experiences they've had. They also gave suggestions about ways air travel could be better. They didn't want to take the picture with us, but were friendly and nice about it. This was the most comfortable of the exercises because everyone understands that people have assignments where they would need to interview strangers about certain topics. It is more unusual/ uncomfortable for people to randomly say hi or try to start a conversation about something out of the blue.

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Expedition 1:
I walked around campus with a friend who is not in this class but was willing to accompany me. We said hi to maybe 8-10 people as we walked from Tawes to McKeldin. Most people seemed a little surprised but returned the greeting. It seemed to genuinely confuse a few people. It got more awkward as it went on because more people were in the middle of conversations or had headphones in and it felt as if we were interrupting them.
Expedition 2:
The third thing that I chose to talk about was a small kite that a student was flying outside of one of the residence halls. It was a nice day and so I asked what they were doing and where they got the kite. She was very nice and talkative. The conversation did not last nearly as long as the audio wanted it to be because the conversation naturally came to a close and, while friendly, she obviously wanted o get back to her friends, and I thought it would be rude to keep her away.
Expedition 3:
We began at Stamp and walked toward Van Munching Hall. We asked the students that passed us that did not have headphones in, but no one was able to tell us where the building was. Everyone was nice enough but said "No! I'm sorry!" and a few said they hoped that we would be able to find it. We stopped asking students once we could see the building itself, because it felt as if it defeated the purpose and if students across the street couldn't tell us, we weren't sure any of them could (or at least would). We didn't have to lie because all we were doing was asking for directions to a building and being told they didn't know where it was.
Expedition 4:
For this part, I simply stopped a student and asked him if I could ask him a few questions about air travel. I started by asking when the last time he flew was and where he was going. He answered about a year ago to go to London and we talked for a bit about international travel. The real story though came if there was any memorable experiences specifically and he said not from that flight but from a previous flight. He said he had met the man who makes Lebron James' suits, and he told me a little about that. At the end, he asked why I was asking about air travel, so I told him it was for a class project and he wished us luck.

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How to Talk to Strangers - Michael Calender

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How to Talk to Strangers - Michael Calender

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Expedition 1:

For this assignment, I was located in Washington D.C. near the Dupont Circle metro station. I said “Hello” to about 10 people. When greeting people they mostly responded with a slight smile and a head nod. Some people also responded by saying “Hello” back which meant they were more receptive to my greeting. The people who did not say anything back were likely uneasy from my greeting. As I greeted more people, it became easier and more robotic. Initially I was concerned with whom I was greeting individually but by the end I was simply just saying “Hello” for the sake of the assignment.

Expedition 2:

The “third thing” I chose was a Krispy Kreme donut shop nearby. I stood outside the Krispy Kreme shop and commented on the donuts that were being made to a person that was watching them on the conveyor belt in the window. The other person responded with some conversation noting how the donuts looked really good. This interaction was much more in-depth than Expedition 1. Since there was something to reference that we had in common, I felt that the stranger was more receptive to what I was saying compared to the “Hello”s.

Expedition 3:

For Expedition 3, I walked a couple of blocks away from the metro station and chose to ask someone if they could give directions back to the metro. In regards to how I chose a person to ask, I simply picked the first person not wearing headphones or in a rush that passed me by. For the directions, the person was able to draw the directions out, starting from the street we were currently standing on. He did not think it was necessary to take his phone number in case I got lost. The expedition required the most interaction out of the three so far and I felt that the stranger was willing and ready to help. I did not feel uncomfortable lying during this expedition because it was guided from the audio track. Had it been necessary to lie without guidelines I may have felt uncomfortable.

Expedition 4:

For Expedition 4, I framed the question as if I was taking a survey about airport experiences, particularly with the effectiveness of the TSA. To approach the stranger, I simply asked if I could survey him with a few questions that I was collecting information on. I felt that framing the question with a purpose received a much more welcomed response than simply saying “Hello” or the triangular approach.

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#1: Jenna and I were outside on campus on Sunday around 10am. It was raining, so after walking around Tawes and seeing no one else walking around, we decided to go to Stamp to try and find someone to talk to indoors. The one or two people we met on the way were extremely unwilling to talk to us, with headphones in and avoiding eye contact. This was not a good feeling, and we ended up more frustrated at the end than we had started at the beginning.

#2: After arriving at Stamp, we realized it might be closed. I saw someone near the bus stops so, using that topic as a conversation starter for this activity, I went up to her and asked her if it was closed. She at first didn’t hear me as she had headphones in, but once she heard my questions she merely answered “Eleven”, meaning the building opened at 11am, and walked away across the street before I could even try to say anything else. I felt awkward because she was so obviously not in the mood to talk. We could not find anyone else to strike up a conversation with because again there was practically no one else but us near Stamp.

#3: We used Hornbake Library in the question for directions because we figured more people would know where it was. We asked a woman walking on the sidewalk where Hornbake was and she briefly stopped and pointed in the right directions. When asked for clarification she answered “Just down the street” and kept walking, putting her headphones back in so we couldn’t ask her more questions. Even though we only were able to ask for directions and not for a map or anything else, she was relatively friendly, smiling at us when we asked. I didn’t feel guilt for lying because we never said that we were lost and we didn’t make up a story to talk to her, we just asked for directions.

#4: For this part of the assignment, there were only one or two people walking around and we couldn’t stop them for long enough to ask them anything so we were unable to even get an interview. They were focused on getting to where they were going or listening to headphones so we couldn’t get their attention.

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How to Talk to Strangers-Jochebed Cadet & Astlay

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How to Talk to Strangers-Jochebed Cadet & Astlay

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Expedition 1:
Astlay and I went to a Starbucks located in Beltsville, Md. It was around 9 am in the morning so there was a fair amount of people sitting down doing some kind of work. We said "Hello" to about 14 people. When we greeted them, they typically greeted back and smiled. I was nervous when I first started but as we greeted more people, I got more comfortable with doing it.
Expedition 2:
The "third thing" that I chose was very obvious. Since we were in a Starbucks, I decided to comment on coffee. I made a comment to someone who had the same drink as I did and started a conversation through that. The person I talked to did respond and was very friendly. She had papers and books all around her studying for school. In comparison to the interactions I had while saying "Hello", the triangulation interactions were obviously longer so I was nervous for a bit longer during the interaction because I was required to talk a bit more. I would say that the triangulation interaction was a bit more difficult because I had to find a common interest and then hope that the person I was talking to wanted to have the conversation. My strategy of pointing of the similarity we had in drinks did work for me, I believe, because there were other common things between us that were not stated too. Like I stated before, she had papers around her studying something, while my partner and I looked like we were doing the same. Since we were all studying, there was a factor that allowed her to relate and allowed the interaction to be a little less awkward.
Expedition 3:
For directions, we asked a Starbucks employee because they were available to talk to. We got the directions but one of the barriers to each next step was that the employee didn't know the names of the streets so it took a bit longer to understand. Luckily, I live nearby so I could understand some of the directions, the employee gave us. For this expedition, we didn't really lie because we mentioned that it was an assignment before we started so we didn't really feel the guilt of lying.
Expedition 4:
Interview:
1. What did you do over winter break?
2. Where did you go? What did you do?
Over Winter break, Astlay worked at CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas as a translator. One of the stories she told me was about the time she went hiking at Hoover Dam, 30 minutes away from the Vegas strip, on a 9 hour trail by herself. She wanted to go hiking with her other co-workers but they were feeling jet-lagged so they didn't go with her. She packed a bag with water and snacks and started at around 10 am. When she started, she didn't realize how long the hiking trip would take. She finally finished the trail at 10 pm and felt completely exhausted. Although it was tiring, she described that it was a beautiful scene with red soft rocks and she doesn't regret it.