Eden Prairie Mall, Eden Prairie, MN, United States of America

Driving towards the Eden Prairie mall, where I have gone countless times throughout my life, I found it strange to enter the building with a new critical and observational mindset.

The mall is already decorated head to toe for Christmas, the big tree and Santa included. There is garland wrapped on every surface imaginable, obviously topped with lights and a plentiful array of ornaments. It gives the ordinarily dreary florescent space a rather homey touch. Usually, this mall is pretty deserted; however, this Monday night, it is rather busy. My sister accompanied me in this people watching venture and we are sitting at a tiny table on the lower level of the two level building, doing our homework. Surrounding us are two families eating ice cream and popcorn from the adjacent SubZero frozen yogurt shop and the Doc Popcorn shop. The first family consists of one Asian mother, a White father, three male children, and one female child. The second family consists of an Italian father, a White mother, and two male children. As I swivel my head from left to right, I see a Caribou Coffee, the elevator, American Eagle Outfitters, Buckle, Justice, Scheels, and Teavana. People are darting around and I cannot see them longer than a few seconds because they either enter a store or quickly go to the other end of the mall. Most people are toting shopping bags. There is quite a variety of people, however, the majority are White middle-aged couples slowly browsing and window shopping. There are a lot of high school girls with their mothers. The only boys are either very young children or adults. As I have been observing, I barely noticed the kiosk workers because they are so stoic. The woman working at the Go! Games counter is watching a little boy like a hawk making sure he doesn't snag one of the toys. Another man has his headphones in and is playing on his phone; it is very apparent that he rarely gets business. A lot of people are walking while texting. Near the elevators are unoccupied wheelchairs and motorized scooters for the mall guests. My sister and I were going to take the escalator near the entrance we came in, but it was closed so we were forced to take the elevator, a strange maneuver in this small building. For some people, this is a social place. There are two pairs of women who are chatting and laughing and walking around. There are a lot of adult men shopping by themselves, some of whom seem totally comfortable and some who seem very confused. A woman brought her Great Dane to take a picture with Santa Claus.

I could go on with this forever but my eyes hurt from the florescent lights and Everytime We Touch by Cascada is blaring on the radio. I feel stressed out and want to leave.

7:30 p.m. Hold up, one more thing: a miniature train just started driving around the mall. It has compartments for the kids to sit in. There is also a children's play area, which used to be out in the middle of the hallway, but now has been put behind glass inside a store. This place is like an amusement park.