I walked into Kessel at around 5:45pm and immediately all I could smell was lemon zest with a hint of crab but oddly it was Salmon on the special grill menu. Every Monday for the month of October there is a different item on the “Premium meal Menu” which is located in the Kessel dining area. Normally what would be a grilled cheese station during the day is either closed for dinner or turns into a “Premium meal Menu” on Mondays every week. The Kessel dining area is open from 8am-10pm Monday- Friday and Saturday-Sunday 10am-10pm. As I walked through the dining area of Kessel I couldn’t help but hear clanking of spatulas as people’s food was being tossed and turned. On top of the clanking spatulas was semi loud music that was playing which was upbeat and if I had to guess the radio station that was playing it would probably be U.S. top hits. Something that I noticed which I found odd was that every student in the Kessel dining hall was everyone was on their phone!
After walking around the Kessel dining hall part where all the food is located I sat down in the seating area in the usual “field hockey spot” which is a high top table in the middle of the seating area by a set of doors that leads to the outside. This is where I normally sit and this is where I will be doing my observation because it allows me to watch what people are doing inside the dining hall and the sitting area. The sitting area is a big oddly shaped room that has three part which has high top table in the middle as a divider. Towards the wall is a long bench accompanied by tables and chairs which has a view of the entire dining hall. In between the high-tops and the semi booths there’s about five long rectangular tables. Across the room where the condiments are there’s more rectangular table accompanied by circular tables that is near a set of stairs that leads to the 2 floor of Kessel which has all the activity rooms. I am sitting with 12 of the girls on my field hockey team. Taking a quick glance around the room I notice 3 TV’s all of which are on. As some of the girls start to sit around me six of us ended up getting the salmon special. The other girls on my team had chocolate chip pancakes. It’s interesting because everyone had similar foods on our plates and we all had some sort of field hockey apparel on. It understandable that we all had field hockey stuf on because we were all coming from practice but very interesting that we all pretty much got the same food. Directly across from us the girls and boy’s basketball teams are sitting at two different round tables. They are constantly interacting with each other. Most of them got food from the hotline which consisted of chicken and rice tonight with zucchini as the vegetable. The other people sitting at that table had salads. This is a main point I would like to focus on because as I’ve noticed people who come in groups tend to stand in the same lines and get the same things!
Watching one of the two exits from the food area people who are alone tend not to stay in kessel and after cashing out they end up leaving. One of the reason could be from not wanting to sit there alone or maybe they had to got to class. Immediately as all the football players walked in they gravitated to the back wall of the seating area. This is the long semi booth that takes up the entire length of Kessel. I’m not sure if they had something for football but again I notice they are all wearing Pace football gear. I’m not sure if it was out of intimidation or if it is known that the wall is for the football team but when they arrived anyone that was sitting there moved instantly giving up their spot for the football players.
I thought cliques were supposed to end in high school but after observing Kessel I noticed that that is not the case. Cliques are usually formed by people who have a common goal or interest. I think that’s why most of the athletic teams stick together at Kessel because thats who they are comfortable with. I find it very fascinating that within those cliques they tend to wear, talk and eat the same things. Along with how they act it seems to me that everyone knows their place and no one tries to differentiate from their normal, especially not sitting on the wall when football is there. Observing Kessel was cool because I got to see what I was a part of and how I didn’t realize the effects certain teams have on the students at Pace. After my first 30 minute observation I noticed that all the teams stayed the entire time and used the dining hall as more of a hangout rather then eating and leaving. 
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