You've been investigating places where you feel comfortable and at home. Now please go to some place where you DON'T feel comfortable, some place where--

L you're a little afraid to go, or where

L you feel out of place, or where

L you've never been before

--some place you feel UNc L mf L rtable about.

It might be the financial district downtown, for example, or a residential neighborhood or a farming community or a business district, an official place, such as the Henrico County Government Center or a state prison. It can be any place or area or neighborhood at all, just as long as you don't expect to feel at home in it. Go there and observe $ it.

It probably should be a place you're interested in or curious about...

Here are a few heuristic questions that might help you get started with your observation:

Does the place seem to blend in to the surrounding area, or is it like an island. (Or a desert?) What about its size? Its population density? What can you infer about the people who live or work there? How do you feel there? How would you feel about living or working there? How would you characterize it? Where is it located? Do you know anyone who lives or works there? What are the buildings like--their size, their condition, their proximity to each other?

You might want to go there more than once, so as to see what it's like at different times of the day or on different days of the week. And you might see if you can find someone there to talk with--a "native." You might find it useful to make a quick sketch map of the place.

Then tell us about it (in writing, of course). What will you say? What do you want us to know? What are you going to call your writing about this place? Are you going to write your report while you're there, or take notes there, or do it from memory after you get back?

A SUGGESTION
A "dangerous" place you might find interesting to visit and observe is the campus of some other local college--VCU, Virginia Union, the University of Richmond, Virginia State, Randolph-Macon. But don't just drive through in your car with the windows rolled up! Spend some time there. Get out of the car and walk around. Go into buildings. Talk to people. Check out a few classes. See how that college is like--and unlike--J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.