Letter from Boston

Friday Soccer

By MASAKO YAMADA

On sunny Friday afternoons, after the final class of the week is over, some members of my class change straight into their scruffy athletic gear. I don't know who started it, but Friday afternoon is now the regular time for impromptu soccer. All of the students in my class are invited. Usually it's just the same group of guys who actually show up, but the invitation is extended to all via e-mail.

About a third of the students participate. That means the soccer teams consist of only about four people each. Obviously, with so few people the soccer field and rules do not follow official standards. For instance, there are no goalies and no referees. The players don't even play regular positions. However, the ball, at least, is a real soccer ball. It is a communal ball bought with the dues that some resourceful person collected from the students.

I don't think any of the students in the other classes know about our soccer "event" because it is so loosely organized. It might be a more established event if the whole physics department were involved, but it's nice that we new students have this casual opportunity to get together, mingle, and work off the stress of the long week. The fact that most of us are taking the same classes and facing similar trials as first-year grad students makes us feel a bit different from the others. I realize that I see some of my classmates almost all day every day. We go to classes, lunch, study groups, and Saturday night parties together.

There isn't an easily accessible BU field, so the soccer events are played at a park called the Fens, located next to the Museum of Fine Arts about a 15 minute walk from the science center. Since the Fens is more of a park to "hang out in" than a serious sports park, there are no clearly marked soccer fields. There are only a couple of tennis courts, basketball courts, and a baseball diamond. Nevertheless, the guys set up goals with mounds of bags and clothes and start playing away.

Last week, however, the students played on a field with real goals near Harvard University. That was because we had the day off and wanted to take a real break. To get to this field required a short bus trip, which added a kind of "field trip" excitement. But fun is our motto, not competition.

I was delighted when I went, as the unofficial photographer of the event, to the first game of the season. All of us walked over to the Fens together. We all chatted in little groups as we walked, but then we got a little lost. None of us knew where we were really going. Our group must have looked a little strange since we were acting childish. But the weather was beautiful, and our excitement was obvious. After the game, some of us went into a nearby convenience store for a drink.

Sometimes a large enough group can't get together and the casual soccer day is, very casually, canceled. But it's getting colder out, and I think everybody knows that once the snow starts covering the ground, we're going to be stuck indoors for months. This is an incentive to absorb as much sunshine as possible while we still can.

This is also one of the few physics get-togethers I've gone to in which students of all nationalities can truly participate on an equal basis. Study groups, weekend parties, and colloquia are all affected by the language barrier, since over 75 percent of the students in my class come from foreign countries. Sports really does seem to transcend language and serve as a means to break the ice. It may sound like a cliche, but to see this truth in action, you only need to come to our Friday Afternoon Soccer.

Shukan ST: Nov. 8, 1996

(C) All rights reserved