At the Fall Semester Welcome Barbecue, the most Asians and Asian Americans I’ve seen since arriving in Ithaca. But to each one I introduce myself as just the girlfriend, no relation to the cell biology or any other science or university department. Just the trailing girlfriend. I don’t intend or want to, but I can hear it, that grating self-pity. It’s either that or what I’ve said, but many afterward appear to avoid me.