At Wellesley my daily planner was crammed with many entries such as "chamber music dress rehearsal with group #2 ― chapel," "Asian-American Alliance fund raiser," "chamber music practice with group #3 ― music building," "dorm floor meeting" and "go into Boston to shop for Japan Club get-together." There were a lot of things to do besides study for my classes. I spent a good deal of energy running from place to place and trying to keep everything organized.

Right now I don't do much else besides what is on my normal schedule. I might come across chunks of free time here and there ― to play or shop or just "hang out" ― but these times are too sporadic to let me plan any other regular extracurricular activities such as piano lessons.

I lost my daily planner early this semester (I've been losing lots of things these days) but I haven't even bothered to buy a new one because my schedule is so simple. I have three physics classes and one Chinese class. All of my classes have a weekly homework set, but there are no pop quizzes or papers to worry about. There are regular mid-terms and finals, but those are the only "special events" that I'll probably have to note on my calendar.

I hand in my Chinese homework on Monday and one physics homework set each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There is no question about which subject I should study when: I study the subject for which I have a problem set due the following day! This "simple" routine makes it easy to know what to do at any given time.

After I hand in my last homework set on Thursday afternoon, however, I feel like I am released from the grips of a captor. I suppose it's easy to see why I don't even want to plan "get togethers" with my friends on Thursday afternoons. I don't even want to keep track of playing!

It's not all work and no play, though. There are lots of little semi-routines in my schedule that give me something to look forward to. For instance, one of my friends in the department, Haris, knocks on my office door every couple of weeks and motions for me to come out. That is the cue for us to go down the street to the "Espresso Royale Cafe." We alternately treat each other. This started because one of us didn't have money once and was treated by the other, but the other paid back by treating the next time. I usually get coffee, and he usually gets steamed milk. Sometimes other people in the department join us, and we all chat for about 30 minutes before heading back.

It also seems that every week someone is throwing some kind of party, so I usually go to one of them. Yesterday I went to a "mini-party" that my classmate, Andjelka, threw. It didn't involve loud music or bottles of booze, but she put on some Serbian pop music and brought out beer. The main topic of the gathering was dessert. We gorged on her homemade cookies and bread. All of us were international students, a Serb, an Indian, a Turk, a Russian, two Romanians, a Chinese and a Japanese, so one of our chit-chat topics was how to file our income tax returns. Another was "working women and marriage."

Actually, even my Thursday afternoon routine is starting to coalesce. Like I said, I don't even like to plan get-togethers with friends; I enjoy letting loose and doing anything I want at the spur of the moment. I'm really starting to look forward to Thursday afternoons, because I don't have to worry about anything. Granted, I love meeting new people and hanging out with old buddies, but sometimes I think it's so nice to be able to think about nothing but myself.



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