I just swing my purse and walk and have a good time. I don't really feel like a lot of people really feel, strange and encumbered, because it's such a big place. I really like it .... It's so intriguing, there's always something around the corner that you find and I like to experience it, a lot of times by myself. You also have the possibility of encounters with different people when you're alone. I was thinking when I'm in public places by myself, I'm always apprehensive at the stan of it and then once I become involved in it and I can interact with people, immediately it's smoothed over; just to meet someone, make a contact, establish some kind of play between you, then I'm fine; but it's always the initial step of stepping into it that is always difficult when you go into a strange place.

QUESTION: Does this anxiety-about-familiarity dynamic describe a general social psychological pattern worth researching further?

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 930