Harvard University

Harvard is where the novel begins, and is Selin's home for the first half of the novel, "Part 1," which follows her freshman year. She describes various lectures, classes, dining halls, and dormitories around the university, and rarely leaves the confines of the campus in her early days as a student. Harvard ultimately serves to represent a series of traditions and cultural norms that Selin feels she is outside of; she does not understand her teachers or classmates, and is confused by social cultures including drinking and discos. Harvard, then, is the place in the novel where Selin first feels alone, and it is where she meets Ivan, who she hopes might cure that loneliness.

Boston

Beyond the Harvard campus, Boston for Selin is a place of bars, restaurants, and Baskin and Robbins ice cream stores. It is also the place where she teaches English as a second...