Scavanger Hunt - Maria Popa

5. For this part of the scavenger hunt I rode the N train from Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria to Coney Island, on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Although I live in Astoria, I am a loyal R train rider and rarely take the N train. At the beginning of my journey in Astoria, I immediately noticed a lot more young ( in their 20s) people on the N train than there usually are on the R (this is not because it was a nice day outside, there are always a lot of young people on the N train, I'd really like to know the reason for this as well). There were also large groups of loud teenagers going into the city, and the train seemed very lively. When the train got to Manhattan though, the atmosphere changed. The loud teenagers mostly got of at the first few stops in the city and were replaced by tourists and people dressed in business attire. Also, while in Manhattan the train is the most crowded and there are many people with shopping bags. By the last stop in Manhattan (Canal Street) the train lost many of its passengers, most of them white, well dressed, or young. In Brooklyn, the people who got on and off the train were very similar to those in Queens: most of them were older (middle aged), non - white, and gloomy.

From my observations I concluded that many people from Queens and Brooklyn go into Manhattan to shop, work, or simply for recreational purposes such as meet up with friends and go to museums (I overheard a little boy talking to his dad about the Natural Museum of History). The teenagers from Queens were very excited to get off at 59th street (Lexington) but the teenagers, as well as most other passengers, who got off in Brooklyn did not show any sign of excitement to finally arrive at their destination.

Lastly, I don't think I was stared at on the train because I avoided making eye contact with those around me, but it was a very long journey (over an hour) and I was very tempted to get out in Manhattan and take a break. Nonetheless, I persevered and was the only person in my train car to ride the train all the way from Astoria to Coney Island.