Fuentes 1

Gissel Fuentes

Kandice Kardell

English 101

05 November 2018

Two Different Places

There are many different communities throughout the world. Many communities share

lots of characteristics and some communities are just very different. When contrasting two

different communities, it was not expected to find much similarities. The community a personal

trainer is part of has a lot of similarities to a Hispanic dinner. The settings were obviously

different but they shared some characteristics. A personal trainer is in a gym and the Hispanic

dinner was taken place in a Hispanic kitchen. Therefore, when comparing and contrasting a gym

and a Hispanic kitchen, the similarity found was that there is a family formed.

When interviewing the personal trainer, it took place in the setting of a gym that had

different rooms. For example, when walking into the gym there is an office area to the right. The

office area had 3 walls making up the area and the fourth wall was not all the way to the ceiling

and had no door to make the area a room. To the left, there is a Kids Klub room that has 4 walls

and a door. To the mid-left of the gym, there is a juice bar that is separated by counters and

tennis rooms that are separated by four walls and a door. Also, to the mid-right of the gym, there

are locker rooms that have restrooms and a steam room. The swimming pool is at the right end of

the gym and in order to get in, one must go through the locker rooms. On the left side of the

swimming pool, there is a basketball court room. In the middle of all this, there are nothing but
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weight machines, weights, weight bars, benches and water fountains. To sum up, when walking

around the gym, one can conclude that this is a place to work out.

To continue, throughout the day people come to the gym in different moods to work out

and make friends. The people allowed in the gym are those who have a membership and work at

the gym. Some people interact and some people don’t talk to others at all. There are people that

help each other out when lifting heavy and this is how friendships are made. On the other hand,

there are those who prefer to exercise by themselves and it appeared that they did not want to be

bothered by others. There are groups of people who come to work out and build friendships with

other groups. Moreover, the community consist of different types of people. There are females

and males of all ages that have a different cultural background. Everyone seems to get along and

there continues to be a positive community. To add on, the mood changes throughout the day.

According to the personal trainer, people seem the most hyped or pumped to work out in the

middle of the day because they were able to sleep in and eat breakfast. People who come in the

morning are tired due to just waking up and people who come in late in the afternoon are tired as

well due to working all day long. Therefore, friendships are made by all kinds of people.

When interviewing the personal trainer, he seemed to like his community and be involved

with his co-workers because it felt like family. The personal trainer spoke about him and all his

co-workers being a family. They became a family by doing what they love which is to work out.

So, when everyone is doing what they love as a job, everyone is happy and getting along. All the

personal trainers talk to each other as siblings. They talk about personal things that go on in their

own lives. They go out for lunch together and eat together like a family would at dinner. They all

feel close as if they had known each other for so long. Personal trainers also become very close
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with the people they train because they see them even after the training is done. Therefore, the

personal trainer has a family like community with his co-workers and the people he trains.

Moving on to a family dinner, the people being observed were parents doing what would

usually be going on at any dinner time. The role at the moment for the mother, who is 45, was to

get dinner served for the father and to heat up tortillas for the family. The mother took out

napkins, jalapenos, queso and plates to serve herself and her husband. The father being 49, sat

down and played the role of letting his wife serve him. The child of these parents being 18,

served herself. After being served, the family sat down, ate dinner and talked about their day.

The parents asked their daughter how school was and how work was. The daughter responded by

saying her day was swell. She asked her parents back how their day was. They also talked about

future plans, like going camping for the weekend and going to Las Vegas for New Years.

Throughout their conversation, the family is passing around tortillas, queso fresco and jalapenos.

The whole conversation was in Spanish due to the father being a Spanish speaker. Therefore, the

family had a causal conversation about their day while eating dinner.

Furthermore, the setting of the family dinner was a kitchen in a Hispanic home. The

objects that made up this kitchen were the stove, microwave, sink, dishwasher, cabinets that hold

plates and silverware, an island, a dinner table and a pantry. There was pots with food on the

stove that the mother had cooked up. The cups were filled with Coke and ice. Also, the mood of

the dinner was different for everyone. The mother was trying to get dinner finished so she could

go get ready for work. The father was tired from working all day and was waiting on dinner to

finish to shower. The daughter was waiting for her parents to finish up dinner so she could go to

the gym. Everyone for sure was hungry and had something to do after dinner. As it has been

said, the family was having dinner in a kitchen after a long day of work and school.
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When observing the gym and the Hispanic kitchen, there were a lot of similarities. In the

gym, there was a juice bar that had plates, cups, a sink, blenders, fridges and ingredients. In the

family’s kitchen, those items were found as well. In the juice bar the blender was used to make

protein shakes and in the family’s kitchen the blender was used to make salsa. In the juice bar

and the family’s kitchen they both used plates for food and cups for liquids to drink. There was

also a fridge in both places that was used to store food and drinks. A sink was found in both

places to wash dishes and people’s hands. The ingredients found in both places were different

but the similarity is still there. For example, the ingredients found in the juice bar were mostly

powder protein, prework outs, BCAAs, fruit and protein bars. In the kitchen, there was mostly

ingredients to make all kinds of Mexican meals. Like beans, rice, chili and tortillas. In addition,

both the kitchen and the juice bar had a pantry to store most of the ingredients. In the juice bar

there is a tall counter top so that people can sit and enjoy their protein shakes. These counter tops

let people conversate and eat or drink some protein. In the family’s kitchen there was a kitchen

table to let the family enjoy food and conversate about their day. Both the counter top and the

kitchen table are similar because they both allow people to enjoy food and conversate. To sum

up, the objects found in a gym’s juice bar can be found in the family’s kitchen.

In addition, the people that make up a gym and the kitchen are similar. The personal

trainer said that his community felt like a family because everyone was so open about anything.

In the kitchen, the family was also open about their day. As a matter of fact, the personal trainer

works in the afternoon so, when he comes in to work he talks about his morning to his co-

workers. The same way the family talked about their day in the afternoon for dinner time. Also,

both the family and the co-workers greet each other in a positive way. People around the gym are

always greeting the people they have made friendships with. When walking into the gym, the
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first person to greet is the front desk clerk. So, there is always someone to greet in the gym and

in the kitchen, which makes both communities family like. Also, the way the family was

enjoying each other’s company in the dinner table is also seen in the gym because most of the

people in the gym enjoy each other’s company. It was also said by the personal trainer that him

and his co-workers will sometimes go out to eat for lunch just the way the family was eating

dinner together. Therefore, the family like energy is seen in both communities.

To conclude, when comparing and contrasting two very different places, lots of

similarities were found. There may be two different main activities going on in both places but

there were similarities found. It was found that family-based friendships are formed in the gym

to work out together, which is similar to a family gathering for dinner. In both places, some sort

of food was being enjoyed. In both places, food was being made. Therefore, even though a gym

is to work out in and a kitchen is to eat in, there was still the family-based relationships

interacting with each other.