Getting to Know You?

They haven't watched "Love Story" yet, and not everybody knows whether or not they passed the QRR or the language placement test. But Harvard's Class of 1993 has been in the Yard for almost a week, and there is only one more dance to go. They've taken all of the tests, they've sampled the Square's finest ice cream, they've had proctor meetings and they've decorated their rooms. With Orientation Week behind them, the Class of '93 is anxious to get beyond the introductions.

"I feel like I should be wearing a T-shirt that says my name, where I'm from, where I'm living now and what classes I want to take," says Marian Berger, pushing her not-quite-empty tray across the Union table.

"I did like it, but I'm ready to settle down into classes and into a group of people without having to introduce myself to everyone all the time."

Berger's dinner companion, a high school friend from Cincinnati, agrees it's time for Orientation Week to end.

"The name game is really hard, but it has been helpful. It forces you to keep meeting new people, which makes adapting to Harvard a little bit easier," says Michael Hill.

"The first couple of days you think, "This is awesome," but after a while you are just ready to stop. There is only so much you can tolerate," he says.

At the next table down, Arthur Toth says it will be easier to get to know his classmates after Orientation Week ends.

You see somebody, you say, "Hi, I'm so-and-so I'm from here,' and that's about as deep as the relationship gets," Toth says.

And he adds, "If I see one more panel discussion I'm going to die."

"I love the East," says Somara Saha, laughing as she explains that she "didn't drive" from her home in Arizona. "One thing that really surprised me was [that] I had heard that people in New England were really cool, but everyone has been really friendly."

"It's a really good idea to have an orientation period. Of course, the generic questions--what's your name, where are you from, what classes are you taking--are awkward, but it's a way to meet people. You meet someone totally different, you have nothing in background common to them and it gives you something to say."

"Everything this whole week is kind of a blur," says Husam Ansari, sitting on a Matthews Hall window seat, which has already become a favorite seat. "I remember conversations, but I can't remember who they were with. There have been too many."

"It is the same thing with meals. I know I have been eating, but I really can't remember what I ate for lunch or dinner on any of the days," Ansari adds. "Or I'll be telling people stories and then I'll have to stop in the middle to ask if I already told that person that story."

"But the week has gone really slowly. I feel like I have been here forever. I think it's because I've gotten to know my roommates so well that I can't believe it has only been a week. Also it must be because I didn't sleep at all, and I got up early. The days were very long."

"Grays [Hall] is the kick-ass dorm," yells Jake Silverman, running up the stairs to his third-floor room.

"I've been going to a few open houses, going to the parties, and going to the tests, I guess," Silverman says, stuffing a basketball through the indoor hoop that is the centerpiece of his common room.

But there's one activity he thinks he'll pass--the Yard plate hunt.

"If you find the plate you get ice cream," he explains. "You get ice cream everytime you turn around. I've got ice cream coming out of my ears."

Silverman, who comes from Princeton, says he isn't sure which college town he likes better, but that if Harvard is "like this all the time, it's okay. The parties have been great."

"I'm in a daze. You just go around and meet people. It's a little hard at first. Names don't mean anything," Silverman says. "I have met so many people and they come up to me in the Yard and say "Hey, Jake," and I don't have a clue what their name is, but if you wait too long to ask you just have to skip it."

Although at least one of his roommates has already mapped out a full schedule for the year, Silverman says he's devoted most of his week to partying and that he'll worry about classes when they start.

"I haven't even opened the course book," he says.

"We've also got to work on our decorating," Silverman adds, looking around the common room, which is an elaborate shrine to Chicago Bulls' star Michael Jordan, whose photograph stands behind the basketball hoop. "When you dunk the ball," Silverman says, pushing the basketball through the net once more, "you can see Jordan's face through the backboard."

"Every night everybody comes up here to play hoop until about 3 a.m. I think the people downstairs must hate us."

But many first-year students agree, whether they enjoy the activities or not, that Orientation Week sometimes makes it harder, not easier, to meet people.

"I thought it was hard because all the people were making an effort to run around meeting a lot of people as fast as they could. And I don't like making my friends that way," says Kim Zeir.

"It is an effort. You really have to be like 'Okay, I'm going to go out now and I'm going to meet people,'" Zeir adds. "It is supposed to make it easier, but I think it will actually be easier to make friends when the week is over."

And Alissa Kingsbury says, "It has been a little intimidating for me. I'm used to 100 people in my class, in a place where I don't need an I.D. card to get in everywhere and where there are no lines."

"I feel a little bit as though I have no identity, as though it has been stripped from me, and I haven't been able to establish one with the new people here," Kingsbury adds, calling out to her Wiggles-worth roommates from her seat on the edge of Widener Library. "But I like my roommates and I think it just takes time to adjust."

"It's nothing like I've ever really experienced," says Mark Kaplan. "Everyone is really friendly, which is a good thing, but it takes forever for people to remember your name. Sometimes I think that if I'm not out partying I'm missing something really important. I'm actually looking forward to classes starting."