A few people have asked me what my typical day is like here, so I thought I'd recount what I did today.
Woke up around 7:30, which was later than I'd intended (I meant to finish homework before going to school). As it was, still my normal wake-up time, so I went into the kitchen where my host mom was preparing breakfast. As I stood, teacup in hand, and started toward the stove, she informed me that nothing was ready and I needed to wait until she had cooked everything.
From the smell emanating from the stovetop, I could tell that she was cooking fried eggs. Now, normally I'm not the biggest egg fan, but I can choke down a few scrambled eggs or an omelet if it comes to it. As I discovered last week, however, I'm physically incapable of eating 3-4 fried eggs that are soaking in oil. While I waited for the eggs to be prepared, my host mom presented me with a plate of cheese, ham, and sausage, pointed at the plate of bread that is always on the table, and told me to eat a sandwich.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that by my standards a big breakfast is putting cream cheese on my bagel instead of butter, so the russian tendency to continue to push food on you is especially hard for me to face in the morning. I also always feel guilty about wasting food. I never got the "starving kids in Africa" speech, but the spirit behind that sort of thing definitely dominated my childhood.
Anyway, after guiltily not finishing my eggs (but eating some pasta instead), I finished getting ready for school.
I left the apartment at about 8:40, later than I intended, because I needed to buy subway tokens before I could go on the metro and I knew the line would be long. My walk to the metro stop is a straight shot down the street, with only two street crossings, and about 10 minutes long.
At the main intersection, which has on respective corners a mall, the metro station, and the bus stop, is also home to several stands that sell everything from books to meat, fish, and flowers (there is at least one flower seller at every metro stop in Peter). There are also several street-food carts which my host mom warned me on the first day to never eat from.
After braving the street crossing as the sign counted down the seconds (I got to the other side just in time), I entered the metro station and went over to the single automated machine for tokens, discovered it was broken and wouldn't take my 100 rouble note, cursed under my breath (in Russian!), and joined what I judged to be the shortest line. Standing in line, constantly checking my phone for the time, I again lamented Russian beaurocracy and the fact that I don't yet have my student metro card which would allow me to skip this whole process. I got to the window, slid 100 rb. under the plastic thing, asked for "четыре" (four), grabbed the tokens that were slid back to me and proceded through the turnstile.
A quick note about the metro in St. Pete: Every Russian I meet asks me, in one way or another, if I'm impressed with their beautiful metro (and isn't it so much cleaner and prettier than the ones we have in America?). Having seen the Paris metro, Peter's is impressive, but not mind-blowing, though I'm careful not to tell Russians that. I really think it's just a different standard of public transport that is fairly universal in Europe, but somehow never caught on in America. The metro stops downtown are actually pretty impressive, but the further out you get, the less artistic they become. In a minimalist, modernist way, most of them still look better than the average MBTA or Washington DC metro stop, but to me, it's not as AMAZING as Peterburgans seem to think.
Back to my story: Having wasted at least five minutes in line, I went through the turnstile and onto the escalator. The St. Petersburg metro has some of the longest and oldest escalators that I've ever been on. From the beat-up look of the ones in my metro stop, I'd guess that they haven't been updated since the metro was first built here in 1955. Last week, I timed how long it took to get from the top of the escalator onto the train platform below and it was over 2 minutes.
This morning, after buying my tokens, I did not have the patience to stand on the escalator for the 2 minutes, so, imitating the rush-hour Russians I'd seen do so many times, I put my left hand on the railing of the escalator, secured my backpack, and started a brisk walk down the steps, wet boots squeaking on the metal the whole way down.
Got down to the platform, walked almost to the opposite end before the train arrived (there's one every minute during rush hour), got into the second or third car and was lucky enough to find a seat. Several of my friends who live closer to the city center often lament not being able to sit on the metro. I guess that's one plus of my 30 minute ride.
My school here is about 5-10 minutes from the metro, so I got there with 5 minutes to spare before my first class. Checked my coat, double-checked the notice board to make sure my classroom hadn't been changed since last week, and proceeded to Phonetics. After Phonetics, we had a 10 minute break, then my group (4 of us) had Speech practice (this is probably a bad translation on my part, we practice speaking in every class :P).
After the second class, from 12:50-1:40, we had lunch. There are a few options near the university, but so far the only ones that my friends and I have gone to are "чайная ложка" (literally: tea spoon) a lunch place that serves soups, salads, blini, and tea; and the food court at the mall next to the metro stop. The food court is, in my view, a perfect representation of both capitalism's entry into Russia and the affects of gloablisation on world culture.
While several of the places at the food court are definitely Russian, there are also Sbarro, McDonalds, and Burger King. The overall look of the place looks like any other food court I've been in, too. The major difference in service being that I'm intimidated to order from Теремок (the Russian food equivalent of McDonalds) because they all speak fast and act as if they can't understand my Russian. Today, however, I packed a lunch from home to save money so all I bought was a cup of tea for 40 roubles (a bit of a rip-off, but whatever).
After lunch I had one more class, the one that discusses slang and idioms (I can't translate the title well), which went well. At 3:30, everyone in my program had a meeting with our program director to discuss various points of business. It reminds me of Morning Meeting in high school. There are 19 of us, including the kids who are here for a year.
After the meeting, I took the metro home. Coming off the escalator, I witnessed my first passport check. Thankfully, I wasn't stopped, but just inside the door, a policeman was interrogating a man who looked Asian or perhaps Tartar. Outside the station, there were several more policemen standing around. Forcing myself not to stare and avoid meeting their eyes, putting on my best impression of a Russian public face (slight frown, determined to get to my destination), I walked past. As I was not stopped, I have decided to count it as a victory: I look Russian enough!
So that was my Monday, now it's time to stop (congrats to anyone who actually managed to read this long post) and start homework. Or maybe reheat some dinner for myself....
Until next time!
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