The site of my study is Times Square 42nd street, in New York City. I chose Times Square because it is world famous, and there is a wealth of people and interactions to observe at the “crossroads of the world”. I visited Times Square about 100+ times throughout my time here in school attending Globe Institute of Technology, each visit consisting of about one-two hours. I mainly stayed at 42nd between Broadway, 7th and 8th avenues. I mainly walked around seeing sites, because im not from New York City and alot of this is new to me. If i had company we still walked around. If anything i visited the Champs sporting store on the corner on 7th avenue, also the Applebee's, the flashy McDonald's, took pictures in front of Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Wax Museum. Being that this is a well know area in Manhattan there is a lot of people and a lot of tourism and it's hard to walk. You constantly bump into peoples bodies even their bags. A lot of cigarette smoke and smoke from cars, buses, the trains even the food stands. Bright lights everywhere you look just of everything you can think of its impossible not to want to buy because there is advertisement at every corner, store top, front back and side of buildings. If anything hanging with friends who are from here make it easier but to still process it all is a lot definitely when your not used to it. Just seeing the sites, can be a bit overwhelming. The people are very diverse ethnically with visitors merging from all over the world. After my third visit, I became very interested in the dozens of people I saw who dressed up in a unique costume to pose in photos with visitors for tips. Typical costumes include: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Hello Kitty, Spiderman, the Statue of Liberty, Cookie Monster, Elmo, The Naked Cowboy, Naked Spidey, Catwoman, as well as a few different men who spray paint their whole body and pretend to be a statue. The was the main part of my observations of these unique and costumed-characters that work in Times Square, outside of the fashion, the hustle fast paced environment. I observed and interviewed several of these individuals to further understand how they work, their history, the challenges they face, the benefits of the job, and the unique circumstances that influence their actions. My research has shown a massive year over year increase in the amount of unique and costumed characters in Times Square. At the time of my study, the challenges facing characters is increased competition, job and income instability, weather conditions, and city regulation. My observations led me to conclude that the individuals in Times Square go to great lengths to set themselves apart from others. The competition is serious, and many of the characters live off of the tips they make. The challenges they face are unique to Times Square, and they continually learn to deal with them daily. Times Square is an ever-changing place that greatly benefits those who are creative, flexible, charismatic, and interesting. Working in Times Square is not without its challenges, but with hard work, it seems that the work is worth it, because the number of characters continues to increase and they return faithfully everyday.

This experiment consisted of data that I gathered throughout the first few weeks of the course, being that Times Square isn't that far