Working Life Weekend Bostonian By Masako Yamada	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
週末限定ボストンライフ オールバニーに引っ越してはや5ヵ月が経とうとしているのに、雅子さんはいまだに長年住み慣れたボストンのことが忘れられません。友人に会うため、コンタクトレンズを買うためなどと理由を付けてはボストンに帰っています。しかし、最近、オールバニーの友人たちに触発され、少し考え方を変えました。

隔週末ごとにボストンに出かける筆者

On weekdays, I hardly notice this. I enjoy hanging out with my friends after work, perhaps over a homemade dinner at my home, or in a class at the company gym, or at a movie theater in the local shopping center. I like reading the paper while lying on my sofa and then drifting off to sleep without being distracted by rumbling subways or screaming sirens. I used to live in an apartment with train tracks running in front of the building and a direct ambulance route to the hospital right under my window. I now live in a town where buses run only once an hour and no traffic goes past my apartment at all.

ボストンで開催中のスタンレー教授夫人、アイダリアさんの個展

In many ways, it's almost as if I've never left Boston. I go there so often that I can attend concerts, try new restaurants and visit old friends in a manner almost indistinguishable from when I actually lived there. I still get my contact lenses from my optometrist in Boston, and I haven't changed my hair stylist.

Is this a kind of denial? Perhaps. I have several single friends who have moved to the Capital District recently, but who have already bought houses. I told them that I couldn't imagine making that kind of commitment to the region right now. They told me that they completely understood, but talking with them made me realize that I should - and that I want to - make the effort to integrate myself here. It's quite pathetic to pretend to be a city slicker in the countryside. I also do not want to find myself lonely and lost once I finally start letting go of Boston. Keeping this in mind, I've been trying to make more of an effort to explore Albany on weekends.

I think it's common to have conflicting feelings toward one's new home, especially if one considers that home somehow temporary. I've met countless people at my company who have lived here for years while still treating Albany as a part-time home. I've met an incredible number of people, both men and women, whose spouses (or even children) live in other states. Yes, it's hard to convince anybody to move to Albany - even one's own family! I don't know what will eventually happen to these long-distance families, but I do know that they do a lot of back-and-forth traveling now. It's a situation that is by definition temporary, since it surely cannot last forever.

I don't think I can ever completely wean myself off Boston. It's really a lovely city, and I always look forward to visiting. But as I grow to accept Albany as my new home, I suspect I'll be visiting Boston less and less. This is partly because I'm making more friends in Albany and discovering new things to do here. It's partly because I'm growing older and I don't have as much energy to pursue an exciting social life. And it's partly because Boston - my Boston - is changing. My old friends in Boston are moving away; they are pursuing new lives elsewhere, too.

Shukan ST: Feb. 21, 2003

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