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Letter from Boston

Student Picnic

By MASAKO YAMADA


物理学部主催のピクニック

物理学部では毎年、バーベキューピクニックを主催するのですが、今年はなぜかその通知が届きません。そこで、ある学生が自分から幹事役を引き受け、近隣の大学にも参加を呼びかけたところ、マサチューセッツ州立公園のピクニック場に15人が集まりました。

The Boston University (BU) physics department usually hosts an annual barbecue picnic, but I got no notice of one this year. Like most events, I think this one is planned by one well-organized person. Others merely follow the leader's commands. This year, it seems, everybody was too busy to plan the picnic.

I guess some of the students in the physics department were itching for a picnic, though. Warm weather does seem to incite people to cook and eat outdoors. Although most of the graduate students have to work as research assistants or teaching assistants during the summer, their schedules then are considerably more relaxed than they are during the school year. I, too, have been in the mood to go outside and enjoy the weather.

Anyway, one of the first-year students, John, took on the role of picnic planner and started e-mailing students who might be interested in going to a Massachusetts state park to have a barbecue. Not only did he invite students within the BU physics department, he invited friends from Northeastern University, Tufts University and MIT. They invited their friends and families as well.

We went to a state park located about an hour from BU. We really didn't have any idea how large it was, but when we arrived, we realized that it was a very big park with many winding side roads. We BU students were actually afraid that we wouldn't be able to find the other students, especially since we were late and we had only specified that we'd meet at the park. Fortunately, all of the drivers were smart enough not to take any of the winding side roads. The main road led to a picnic area with a large parking lot, and all of the participants arrived without any problem.

Since we had to prepare fires and cook all of our own food, the barbecue would have been difficult to organize had there been too many participants. There ended up being about 15 people, so it was a manageable — and yet pleasantly varied — crowd. I'd never met some of the guests before, so the gathering felt different from just hanging out with my usual friends. It felt more like a special event.

Among the guests was a student I hadn't seen in two years. We used to live next door to each other in a Wellesley dorm, but she spent a year abroad after graduation and then started a busy schedule as a medical school student. She is getting married to John's ex-roommate in a few months, and this has been a great source of conversation among my friends. The couple actually met for the first time in my room. (I didn't do anything to foster their relationship, so I can't take any credit for being a matchmaker, but I still like making this point.)

The barbecue proceeded very smoothly, after we got the fire going. The charcoals simply refused to light, in spite of our dousing them with copious amounts of lighter fluid. It took about an hour before we had the grill ready for our food. After that we piled different kinds of sausages (kielbasa, bratwurst, knockwurst, regular hot dogs), marinated meats and vegetables on the grill, taking them off and eating them as soon as they were cooked. We put corn in the husk and whole potatoes wrapped in foil directly on top of the hot coals and then peeled away the wrappers to eat the insides.

The weather was overcast, but the rain clouds managed to stay away until we'd finished eating, three hours after we got there. This was disappointing since we'd changed to this date after hearing predictions for sunnier weather. We had planned on taking advantage of the wide-open space to play volleyball or Frisbee, but we had to pack up our bags, iceboxes and Tupperware containers early. That said, I had a nice time at my first barbecue of the year. My next goal is to extend the outdoor theme to include a night of camping in the woods.


Shukan ST: June 19, 1998

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