Letter from Boston Spring Break Snippets 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
春休みの思い出 大学院生の中には、春休みを研究のために使ってしまう人も少なくありません。でも雅子さんは、博士課程進学を決めるテストの勉強が忙しく、長い間家族に会っていなかったので、今回は久しぶりにニュージャージーの両親のもとに里帰りしました。

Most college students in the States eagerly await spring break. Since the break spans an entire week, many students use this opportunity to travel far from campus. It is an ideal escape from the drudgery of school. In New England, it's still quite cold in March — it snowed a couple of times this week — so it's no surprise that warm resort areas are popular spring break destinations. However, for many of the graduate students I know, spring break is just another week of research.

Knowing this, I had to delicately tell my adviser that I wanted to go back home to New Jersey for the week to visit my family. He has two college-age children himself, so he understands the importance of spending time with your family. And I wasn't lying: I had all but ignored them while I was studying for my comprehensive exams, and ever since I had passed, I had felt the need to see them.

It's impossible to cram months — no, years — worth of catching up into a break that is only a week long, but I was able to lay the foundation of what I wanted to accomplish. Besides the necessary errands, I was able to enjoy myself. I did my best to savor the time I had with my family and old friends. The good thing is that I feel no need to prove myself to them. With people I don't know as well, I feel that I'm constantly being judged. I have to put my best foot forward, even when I don't feel inclined to do so. However, I feel like I'm surrounded by a warm cushion when I'm with people I've known for a long time.

One of the big things I accomplished this spring break was to bring my boyfriend home to meet my parents. I was a bit worried that there would be some tension — first, because I usually don't talk to my parents about my social life, and second, because he's not Japanese — but things went surprisingly well. There was a general feeling of goodwill and warmth and that helped overcome many of the cultural barriers. He and my old friend from high school, Teiko, also met — and I met a bunch of his friends in New York, too. Ironically, he seemed to have an easier time adjusting to my Japanese acquaintances than I had adjusting to his American friends who live in New York.

Teiko and I had a day of adventure in New York just by ourselves, too. We started off with a very fancy lunch at a very fancy Japanese restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Then we stopped for coffee, went up the Empire State Building and shopped at a discount stationery store. We went to Toys `R' Us to take pictures at one of those Japanese machines that makes sheets of stickers and settled down at an Italian pastry shop in the middle of the newly sanitized Times Square. During this spree, I was actually able to take an hour off to meet an old English teacher of mine. We had a very pleasant chit-chat over cookies and coffee.

I also met my friend Ryuji during break. We went to a simple Chinese-American restaurant for dinner and then we headed over to a well-worn diner for dessert. These two stores are far from gourmet, but they are filled with local residents enjoying themselves. They are places in which I feel very comfortable — and the food can be surprisingly good if you choose the correct items from the menu. Our evening wasn't filled with action but it was filled with talk, about everything and nothing. I've known him for well over 10 years, so such gibberish is sufficient to keep our friendship going. On another afternoon, I met the piano teacher that Ryuji and I used to have before we left for college. I've also known her for over 10 years, so I was able to reflect on my life from another perspective.

It was a busy week, but things were strangely calm all along. On the bus from New Jersey to Boston, I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing. It reminded me of the solo vacation I took last spring break, since it snowed then, too. So many new things have happened this year. But I know that some things in my life — some of the best things — will never change.

Shukan ST: March 27, 1998

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