Mehling1Dane MehlingEthnography II Fieldnotes For my second ethnography, I decided to study my friends and me out to eat at Denny’s late on a Friday night. I thought it would be interesting to see how my friends act around each other in a non-formal setting out in a public place. I wanted to see how they acted, what they said, and why they acted or said what they did. The group consisted of my friends Rich, Willie, and Craig, our waitress Casey who we knew, and I. The meal would consist of just eating food and conversing with each other, catching up since the last time we saw each other. The goal of our group was to just have some food and have fun with each other. The tone of our conversation was very flippant, jokey, and insulting. We constantly made jokes and made fun of each other. There was a lot of interruption, swearing, and insults. The language used was also crude and most of the behavior was unprofessional. None of us was respectful to each other but each person knew it was only humor. An example of this is when Willie was eating chocolate cake and opened his mouth at Rich. I said that Willie “ate it out of Craig’s butthole.” Willie laughed and replied “Cake.” I was insulting him but he didn’t take it seriously. Another example is when Craig ordered a “Hershey’s chocolate cake” but I asked him if he said “herpes chocolate cake.” Craig responded “Yes, yes I did.” Even though, we were insulting each other, no one is offended because each person knows that we are only joking with each other. This point shows that when close friends are together, they are not going to be upset when someone insults them because they know it’s nothing personal but just in good fun. As the conversation progresses, it’s obvious to tell that although we are eating in public; our group doesn’t behave very well. Not only did we use inappropriate language, but Willie and Itook Craig’s food without permission and at one point Willie turned to Rich and coughed on himMehling2very loudly. Willie also stuck his food out at Rich and made noise at him. Throughout the conversation, we spoke and laughed loudly, gave each other high fives, threw food at each other, and Craig wore a hat and sunglasses inside the restaurant. If we had been eating with our parents,we would have been better behaved but since we were with our friends we did not behave well. This shows that when a group of young friends, our together without supervision, they will act unprofessional or immature. Throughout the conversation, it’s also easy to tell that a majority of the insults are aimed at Craig and he is the proverbial “whipping boy” of our group. Examples of this include Willie making a joke about Craig’s mom, that he “paid her to squat” and me giving Willie a high five for it, Willie saying Craig “is what he eats” when I asked if he said “herpes cake,” and Willie andI taking Craig’s food. When Willie asked if we could “pick on Craig the last 12 minutes”, I said “that’s what we’ve been doing the whole time.” Although we insulted him, Craig knew that we were just kidding. Rich told Craig that “we love you” and I reached over and gave Craig a hug. When our group of friends got together, we ganged up centered our insults on one person. Many times, when close friends get together, someone insults a person, others may keep insulting that person because it’s funnier when the same person is the recipient of the insults and that was the case in this scenario. During the meal and conversation, there was no clear goal other than to eat and joke around with each other. The group of friends did this by making jokes, eating other people’s food, and insulting each other. This makes it easy to tell that when a group of close young friendsare together they will act less professional and joke around with each other.This scenario contrasted severely with the first situation with the Bible study. While members of the Bible study acted polite and professional with each other in a private setting, myMehling3friends group acted immature and insulted each other in a public place. Members in each group were friends with each other but they expressed it in very different ways. The Bible study group was very polite, supportive, and encouraging with each other while the friends group was insulting, crude, and teasing. I think this shows that groups with a clear specific purpose, like a Bible study, will act more mature and polite while a group of friends, just hanging out at a restaurant, will act more like