Observation Journal #4

The inetresting thing about living in Burlington is that it puts on many disguises. There are aspects of the town that make people believe it is the peaceful, communal area that many preconceive it to be before that actaully arrive. At the same time, many people find it to be a haven for sketchiness, a drug ridden commuinty in which people get too sucked into the scene and find it extremely difficult to pull themselves out. Still others fidn it to be a just another Vermont town, a great gathering of rurals and rednecks. Not to knock Burlington in any way, but I find it to be a community combining all three of those aspects, but it is not just limited to such facets. It is a confluence of past, modern, and post-modern influences, all of which influence the social climate and environment of this settlement of vastly different cultures. That said, my own experience in living off campus has greatly affected the way I look at Burlington. For instance, I live on what I consider to be the very border of the Burlington that many college students are familair with, and the area that often gets a bad rap, the North End. I live right at North Street and I consider that to be the dividing line between Church Street, Big Daddy's, City Market, etc., and and area where the socioeconomic status is significantly lower than in the southern region of the town. I often take walks at night in that area (not alone, of course), and it is a far different environment from Champlain and UVM campuses. You meet some interesting people in such an area, some you were glad you met, some you'd rather you didn't. Just the other night I was returning from a friend's house in the North End, alon on this particular night, when I ran into a dude who seemed to be of Hispanic origin. He was incredibly friendly, saprking a conversation with me about school, what we were studying, where we were from--the usual characteristics of talk that peopel who don't know each other engage in. When I first saw him, my immediate cognition was, "Alright, I'm in kind of a weird area, but don't look like your gonna bug out." I always have a slight feeling of apprehension whenever I walk in the North End alone, but I kept it cool. I enjoyed the guy's company and we had a good conversation. The fact of the matter was I was not phased by his ethnicity, his race, his accent, or any other aspect that made up his personal identity. I attribute my initial feelings of nervousness with the area itself. For an instant, a thought crossed my mind that this guy would actually cause me harm, which was not the case at all. I relate that fear to the fact that I was in a strange area and, like I said, the North End often gets the bad rap. Soem of the coolest people come out of the North End, yet, unfortunately, it will always have a stigma of weariness attached to it. I feel I can speak a little more about the matter because I was actually roobed a few weeks ago, and people will probably get to talking about how I live in a sketchy area. However, this does not mean that someone who lives in that area committed the crime. Either way, this particular area of Burlington transcends the Burlington most are used to, transcending in a manner that is not exactly positive. Regardless, my living in such an area has filled me with new feelings and I get more and more accustomed to the region each day.