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きれいさっぱりしてスタート
大学院で研究に追われる毎日を過ごす雅子さんは、肩こりに悩まされたり、研究室の夢を見るなど、ストレスがたまっていたようです。このストレスを一掃して新たな年を迎えるため、今回の冬休みには、いつもより長く休みをとり、家族や友人とのんびり過ごしたり、韓国式エステを体験して存分にリラックスしました。
A Fresh Start
By MASAKO YAMADA
I hope all of you have had a nice winter holiday. I,
myself, had been looking forward to this winter holiday
for a long, long time. I had been having a few too many
dreams of life in my lab, and spending a few too many
dollars on massage and other physical therapy
treatments to alleviate the tension in my
shoulders.
In the past, I' ve tended not to spend too much time
vacationing, since I find sightseeing tiring and I
can't help feeling that the time would be better spent at
school. However, I decided to take a bit more time
off this winter so I could really take a rest.
I have this habit of thinking that I must show up to
school all the time in order to be a good student.
Indeed, this was considered a good trait in elementary
school and high school, and I never missed a day.
However, in my fifth year of graduate school, I have
finally realized that showing up at school all the time
does not necessarily help one's research.
In fact, there are a few excellent researchers in my
lab who take a few months of vacation time every year and
these breaks seem to be doing them a lot of good.
Of course, there are also a few researchers who stay up
for days on end to do their work, and they are also very
good.
The bottom line seems to be that the quality of
research doesn't seem to be correlated with
vacation time. So, I decided to take a little over two
weeks off this winter. Of this vacation time, I spent
five days visiting my parents in New Jersey and hanging
out with friends around New York.
Unlike many of my classmates in high school and college,
I don't think New York is the greatest place on earth.
Or, rather, even though I admit this might actually be
true, it doesn't make me want to go there. The loud
noises and crowds make me tired. I always find that I
need an additional vacation to recuperate after taking
a vacation in New York.
For this reason, I carefully planned a very
stress-free vacation this time around. I managed this
by eliminating everything that I don't like about the
area — tourist-trap museums and monuments for
clueless out-of-towners, trendy restaurants and bars
for yuppie natives, noise and crowds and traffic all
around — and concentrating on what means the most to me:
friends and family.
A couple of weeks before the holidays, I started to make
plans to visit friends who still live in the area. I had
not contacted some of them in five or 10 years, and it
made me very happy to think that I'd be seeing them
again. I was able to see my friends in between eating
toshikoshi soba and watching Kohaku Utagassen on cable
TV. It was the kind of vacation that I usually prefer to
visiting ruins, temples or mountains.
Another thing that I splurged on for my relaxation
trip was a visit to a Korean spa. New York is one of the
big centers of Korean immigration in the States (unlike
Boston, which has a huge Korean student population, but
no real community) and there are plenty of services
geared specifically toward the Korean population.
I was interested in visiting this spa because it has
the full-body skin-scrubbing service that Korea is so
famous for. The visit cost $100 (¥11,400) for a body
scrub, shiatsu massage, cucumber facial, shampoo and
sauna treatment. This is certainly not cheap, but it's
not as expensive as flying to Korea.
The body scrub was so intense that I could see
little, gray piles of dead skin and dirt collecting
around the table that I was lying on. This usually
happens, even if the customer bathes every day.
The massage was equally intense, with the staff member
climbing up onto the table and using her feet to give a
more powerful massage. I couldn't imagine it being a very
pleasant job, but she was extremely efficient and
professional.
It was great to forget about intellect and wit, and
even interpersonal relationships, for a while and tend
only to my body. As a matter of fact, I didn't even
have to do that, since the woman at the spa did it for
me. All I had to do was lie there and enjoy the ride. I
came out as clean and pink as a baby. There must be
something to the saying "cleanliness is next to
godliness," since I felt clean and pink inside as well.
It felt as if I'd gotten rid of a year's worth of grime
and tension. It's a good way to start the New Year.
I hope all of you have had a nice winter holiday. I,
myself, had been looking forward to this winter holiday
for a long, long time. I had been having a few too many
dreams of life in my lab, and spending a few too many
dollars on massage and other physical therapy
treatments to alleviate the tension in my
shoulders.
In the past, I' ve tended not to spend too much time
vacationing, since I find sightseeing tiring and I
can't help feeling that the time would be better spent at
school. However, I decided to take a bit more time
off this winter so I could really take a rest.
I have this habit of thinking that I must show up to
school all the time in order to be a good student.
Indeed, this was considered a good trait in elementary
school and high school, and I never missed a day.
However, in my fifth year of graduate school, I have
finally realized that showing up at school all the time
does not necessarily help one's research.
In fact, there are a few excellent researchers in my
lab who take a few months of vacation time every year and
these breaks seem to be doing them a lot of good.
Of course, there are also a few researchers who stay up
for days on end to do their work, and they are also very
good.
The bottom line seems to be that the quality of
research doesn't seem to be correlated with
vacation time. So, I decided to take a little over two
weeks off this winter. Of this vacation time, I spent
five days visiting my parents in New Jersey and hanging
out with friends around New York.
Unlike many of my classmates in high school and college,
I don't think New York is the greatest place on earth.
Or, rather, even though I admit this might actually be
true, it doesn't make me want to go there. The loud
noises and crowds make me tired. I always find that I
need an additional vacation to recuperate after taking
a vacation in New York.
For this reason, I carefully planned a very
stress-free vacation this time around. I managed this
by eliminating everything that I don't like about the
area — tourist-trap museums and monuments for
clueless out-of-towners, trendy restaurants and bars
for yuppie natives, noise and crowds and traffic all
around — and concentrating on what means the most to me:
friends and family.
A couple of weeks before the holidays, I started to make
plans to visit friends who still live in the area. I had
not contacted some of them in five or 10 years, and it
made me very happy to think that I'd be seeing them
again. I was able to see my friends in between eating
toshikoshi soba and watching Kohaku Utagassen on cable
TV. It was the kind of vacation that I usually prefer to
visiting ruins, temples or mountains.
Another thing that I splurged on for my relaxation
trip was a visit to a Korean spa. New York is one of the
big centers of Korean immigration in the States (unlike
Boston, which has a huge Korean student population, but
no real community) and there are plenty of services
geared specifically toward the Korean population.
I was interested in visiting this spa because it has
the full-body skin-scrubbing service that Korea is so
famous for. The visit cost $100 (¥11,400) for a body
scrub, shiatsu massage, cucumber facial, shampoo and
sauna treatment. This is certainly not cheap, but it's
not as expensive as flying to Korea.
The body scrub was so intense that I could see
little, gray piles of dead skin and dirt collecting
around the table that I was lying on. This usually
happens, even if the customer bathes every day.
The massage was equally intense, with the staff member
climbing up onto the table and using her feet to give a
more powerful massage. I couldn't imagine it being a very
pleasant job, but she was extremely efficient and
professional.
It was great to forget about intellect and wit, and
even interpersonal relationships, for a while and tend
only to my body. As a matter of fact, I didn't even
have to do that, since the woman at the spa did it for
me. All I had to do was lie there and enjoy the ride. I
came out as clean and pink as a baby. There must be
something to the saying "cleanliness is next to
godliness," since I felt clean and pink inside as well.
It felt as if I'd gotten rid of a year's worth of grime
and tension. It's a good way to start the New Year.
Shukan ST: Jan. 12, 2001
(C) All rights reserved
- a few too many 〜
- 多すぎる 〜
- lab
- 研究室
- physical therapy
- 理学療法
- treatments
- 治療
- alleviate
- 和らげる
- tension in my shoulders
- 肩こり
- (have)tended not to 〜
- あまり 〜 してこなかった
- vacationing
- 休暇を取ること
- find 〜 tiring
- 〜 は疲れる
- sightseeing
- 観光
- (take)time off
- 休む
- show up
- 姿を見せる
- trait
- 特徴
- never missed
- 欠席したことがなかった
- graduate school
- 大学院
- researchers
- 研究者
- breaks
- 休暇
- be doing 〜 a lot of good
- 〜 のためになっている
- stay up for days on end to 〜
- 〜 するために何日も徹夜する
- The bottom line seems to be that 〜
- 要するに 〜 のようだ
- be correlated with 〜
- 〜 と相関関係にある
- hanging out with 〜
- 〜 と一緒に過ごす
- crowds
- 人混み
- recuperate
- 回復する
- 〜 -free
- 〜 のない
- this time around
- 今回は
- eliminating
- 除外する
- tourist-trap 〜
- 観光客から高いお金を取る 〜
- monuments
- 記念建造物
- clueless out-of-towners
- 無知なよそ者
- trendy
- はやりの
- yuppie
- ヤッピー(高収入・高学歴の30 〜 40代)の
- all around
- そこかしこの
- ruins
- 遺跡
- temples
- 寺院
- splurged on
- お金を存分に使った
- spa
- 保養施設
- immigration
- 移住
- population
- 人口
- plenty of 〜
- たくさんの 〜
- geared specifically toward 〜
- 特に 〜 向けの
- full-body
- 全身
- skin-scrubbing
- あかすり(「肌をこする」の意味)
- cucumber facial
- キュウリを使った美顔術
- intense
- 強い
- piles of 〜
- 〜 の山
- collecting around 〜
- 〜 の回りに集まる
- bathes
- 入浴する
- efficient
- 手際がよい。
- intellect and wit
- 知性と理性
- interpersonal relationships
- 個人間の関係
- tend only to 〜
- 〜 のことだけ専念する
- As a matter of fact
- 実際
- enjoy the ride
- マッサージを楽しむ
- saying
- 言い回し
- "cleanliness is next to godliness"
- 「きれい好きは敬神に近い」
- (had)gotten rid of 〜
- 〜 を排除した
- a year's worth of 〜
- 一年分の 〜
- grime
- あか