Finally in an apartment: slow posting

I do mean to update this about once a week at least, but for the past ten days I haven't been able to use a computer for enough time to be thoughtful. My friend Nikita, who has been letting me jump on his computer for email, does some freelance work as a graphic designer and has been working under deadline on design of a website for a stevedoring company! It looks pretty cool.

I finally have a settled place to live on my own, and will get internet access of some sort soon, probably modem dial-up (Nikita has DSL, or whatever that is called, since he's online so much). That was quite an experience! So that will be my topic for a few minutes.

Months ago, I reserved a studio apartment near the main downtown street. Somewhere about June, I found out from the university that I had to get special forms from the landlady in order to stay there legally and still have the university register my residence. (All foreigners are required to register their place of residence with the local police station and office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-- this was pretty lax in the 1990s but got strict again this spring and summer right before the summit.) The landlady refused to do these forms and I panicked, although many people assured me that once I got here things would be OK after all. Everything would have worked out, but the landlady got tired of dealing with clients and decided to sell this apartment-- so I couldn't stay there anyway. Recently prices for any nice apartment, or any apartment at all near the city center, have jumped hugely.

An American friend and specialist on city development here said that prices jumped because there have been recent changes to regulations on mortgages which allow them to be more widely available for more buyers. She thinks that mortgages allow prices to go up, because people can pay more over the longer haul... Be that as it may, she and her Russian husband have been trying for two years to buy a place here, and keep getting bought out by someone who comes with cash and buys the apartment they want. She said they missed out on two places this summer, once because a guy from Moscow offered $40,000 above the asking price, and once because a guy from Kazazhstan did something similar.

So, I then had a similar experience... My agent Irina found another place for me downtown, and I was to see it about 10 days ago at 2pm. Half an hour before we arrived to see it, someone rented it for a year! Makes more sense for the renter, of course.

Meanwhile, Irina had hooked me up with someone named Sveta who said she could show me someplace south of the city that would be for $500. I had to go see it at 7am on a Saturday. As it turned out, she was giving me a look at it but promising nothing. A family of four arrived right after I did, evidently right from the train station, and rented the place for six days. I was later really glad that Sveta didn't want to rent it to me. It was really close to my good friends on Moskovsky Avenue, but very dreary and unloved-- not a welcoming place to return to alone!

Irina tried one more thing, which has worked out: a two-room apartment right near Sennaya Square, which is amazing transportation wise, right near the center. It's the first time I have lived so centrally and it makes me very aware of what a CITY I am living in-- lots of people, cars, noise, dust. However, the apartment looks into an interior courtyard of one of the old nineteenth-century buildings, so it's amazingly quiet. It's for 700 dollars per month, more than I thought I would pay but in light of the recent price-jump quite logical. "Two-rooms" here means that there's a kitchen (big, with a couch), plus two other rooms for living-- and this one has a huge hallway. My friends and I were trying to guess when the building was built, how the interior was divided up when... The whole apartment is probably bigger than our place in Eugene, I feel like I'm living in a train station because I have to walk so far (relatively) if I forget something in the bedroom that I want in the kitchen. There are good grocery stores right near me, though, and one of the biggest outdoor food markets is also very close. I know at least we can get spicy "Korean carrot salad" there if we want it-- Nikita bought some a few days ago.

The previous renter before me was a young man who could have been from anywhere else... He was a programmer and was here on temporary contract; I got lucky because his work was just finishing when Irina called him. His renting the place indicates a new kind of market for living space here -- the idea of living somewhere temporarily, along with a robust supply of temporary housing such as we have at home, was NOT typical of the Soviet period. People moved around sometimes but would often live in worker dormitories, or if they moved they got a company apartment and generally stayed (if they were lucky enough to get to big city especially). Alexander was one his way back to the Urals somewhere-- he didn't say exactly.

When I asked him whether the washing machine needed any kind of special detergent powder, he said, "I just buy regular Tide." Lots of Western brand names are in abundance here.

Right now I'm in a comfortable internet cafe on Nevsky. Scott arrived last night so we are heading for a day of strolling and sampling the numerous coffeehouses that have sprung up since 1999, and 2001 especially. The "Ideal Cup" chain, started by someone who visited the US and liked Starbucks, competes with "Koffee Haus" for customers and for having the most cheerful wait staff... something that is still quite a relief and an oasis from more reserved service in many places. I'll leave him some time to check his email too... 70 rubles, or almost 3 dollars, for an hour of internet time. Don't know how that compares...

More soon I hope! Thanks for checking and for writing notes.