Practice Ethnography Intro

Prompt: I'm writing a rough of my opening for my Ethnography here. If you're not interested in reading it, don't.

I stepped into the huge room with a lump in my throat. As if the outside of the strange, unfamiliar church seemingly empty of life wasn't bad enough, but then I looked inside the huge gathering room where Colleen had told me Venture Crew was meeting.

Suddenly, hyperactive boys in tan uniforms and little red scarves were ubitquitous. I knew that I didn't want to go into that room. I didn't recognize any of the adults and didn't fancy spending an hour and a half watching a bunch of little boys who had yet to develope manners running around shouting until my eardrums felt like they were going to bleed. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

But then I spotted it. The spot of green stood out in dark contrast to the army of small tan aliens. I bolted towards it.

The inside of the room was massive, resembling a gymnasium more than anything else. The noise bounced off the walls as I skittered across the room towards the fourth long table out of five, sliding underneath the shadow of a basketball hoop and circling widely avoid a gang of younger children. The fourth table was the only one occupied by children older than twelve; most of them appeared to be my age.

Though I was feeling ridiculously out of place--dressed up as I was in a silky, flowery blouse and black dresspants, my necklace hanging heavily around my neck--I quickly made my way to Colleen's side. Her appearance was a relief. I had known her for a long time, and her stiff, straight posture and wide, bright smile were familiar.

"Hey," I said weakly, waving and feeling dumb. The other people--all boys except one--turned to stare at me.

They were all in uniform, and I wasn't even wearing jeans. How embarrassing!

Even worse, I recognized some of them. I didn't even have the protection of anonymity. One of them I'd seen the week before while leaving my writing class, an IB kid, and another with glasses I also recognized, but didn't remember his name.

And then I settled on the last face; my eyes widened.

"Jared?" I asked, confused. How had he gotten there?

His face settled into a wide grin. He was not much different than I remembered from two years ago, the year he'd graduated, though I think he could've done with a proper shave and a haircut. A baseball cap was perched on his head. "It's you!" Like an excited puppy, he jumped up from the table and hugged me. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

I hadn't known he was part of the Venture Crew, but it was a bit of a relief to know that not everyone there was a complete stranger.

He sat me down next to him, welcoming me into the group, and I felt a bit less ostracized. At least one person was taking to my presence well. The tension that had been burning through the air a minute ago relaxed a bit, and they all started talking again.

I saw Lucy arrive from the corner of my eye. She looked just out of place as I did in her polka-dot pajama pants. She sat across the table from me, opening up her notebook and clicking the end of her pencil a bit anxiously. I couldn't be sure how nervous she was; I had never been that great at reading people, but if she was I didn't blame her.

A few minutes later, there was a call for silence. It was one of the Venture Crew members, standing at the front of the room with his arm raised into a staunch ninety degree angle, three fingers pointing upwards. "What is he doing?" I whispered to Jared, who had assumed the same pose from beside me.

"Scout's salute," he told me briefly. "It means to be quiet."

Predictably, the room went silent a few seconds later.


Note: This is all the farther I've gotten. I have to leave now (and go to school, blech...)