Good places to observe characters & dialogue?

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To write good fiction they say you have to observe real people and real dialogue to make your stories ring true. To most people that is natural, but to me that sounds like an assignment. Maybe aspies are blessed because we are usually more strategic observers than unconscious participants in conversation, to a certain extent. The disadvantage is that we have to push ourselves to get into those situations in the first place.

So if an aspie strategically decides to observe more "real" characters, what is a good place to do it? I've listed a few ideas that come to my mind, but wht ideas have you used or think would be a good idea?

My thoughts:
-Get a job in a social environment like a restaurant, telephone service, library, where you can observe people even if you don't have to interact with them
-Ride the city bus or dine out in a crowded restaurant within close earshot of the neighboring table
-Go to school or take night classes

Other places for a good character study?

Two great places:

The Mall
The Subway

International Airports.

Bring:

1: Sunglasses.
2. Traveller bag.
2: Soft drink or cool beverages.
3. Reading material.

OOh, airports, I like that one. Good place to get a reasonable cross-section of middle and upper class people.

I never seem to hear much conversation on the subway, other than teenagers. Malls can be good, but again there's a big teenager and mom-with-kids bias. And I usually only get bits and pieces of conversation, which can be inspiring for plot but less so for character. I'd like a good place to listen to entire conversations to get to know characters better.

I'm almost tempted to get a job in an environment where you constantly overhear other conversations (eg, the lab was a good place for this compared to my current office job) because you get more of a longitudinal understanding of character. I currently work in government, and the characters all seem like the same person, very traditional and professional. Not great material for a book, unfortunately.

where do you live?

On the subway in my city, there are mainly middle aged business people during rushour.

any place will do. I've just noticed here in my town people that play chess in a "square/public square", and in other public square there are people who do art paintings on saturdays, expositions and all. Any place will do, you just have to be a good observer.

Travelling in buses and trains is good too.