Daily life in October

After a slow period about two weeks ago, the pace of my interviewing is picking up, and I’m also beginning to really enjoy my city life. It’s especially fun when I am able to walk to the place where I need to meet someone. I did this twice last week – I live about 10 minutes on foot from the office of the Committee on City Planning and Architecture, and about 17 minutes from the 19th century palace where the City Legislative Assembly has its sessions. Once again I feel grateful to live in the center, because I get to know new areas of the city. I try to walk on routes that avoid streets with heavy traffic, and I try to cross footbridges and walk along canals as often as possible (I’ll include a picture I took last week). I live near the heart of 19th century architecture, so there’s lots to look at. One of my favorite views is of the somewhat dilapidated lower-class market Apraksin Yard. Its false façade rises high above the street and always makes me think of Dostoevsky, whose Crime and Punishment took place right in this neighborhood. In fact, an acquaintance took me to several “Dostoevsky” locations after an interview I did late last week. We went to the courtyard where Sonia, the novel’s heroine lived; her window looked out into a yellow wall, since the courtyard narrows right there and ends in a point. You can no longer get into the courtyard of the building where Raskolnikov “lived” – there’s a gate across it with a code. Good thing my friend Olga took me there about 10 years ago, although I can’t say there was much to see. I remember it was pretty striking, though, to realize how small his room actually was.

When I am not in too much of a hurry to get somewhere, I like to walk. I feel like I’m at least getting somewhere… Last Wednesday evening I had to travel the entire length of the main part of Nevsky in order to meet up with a friend, and it took me an hour because I tried to take a bus. I should have just walked the whole way! There are no traffic jams on the metro, and a pedestrian can always get through. Among people I interview who drive, the main lament is always the constant traffic jams around the city. Sometimes people are surprised to learn that we have the same problem in most of our cities! Here, the problem results mostly from poor infrastructure: narrow or bad roads, ineffective traffic light rhythms, and inexperienced (or desperate) drivers. There are about 250 cars per 1000 population, parking is almost nonexistent, and there are already serious problems. In the next five years the specialist that I talked to anticipates a doubling of the number of cars per 1000 people. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any need to persuade residents to take public transportation. The main metro lines are frequently packed, with various swarming patterns near the escalators, at the doors to the trains, and at the entrance to certain stations. People would use buses more if they ran more frequently, and if they didn’t get into traffic jams along with all the other vehicles. I still like above-ground public transportation such as buses and streetcars, but they are definitely at the bottom of the transportation totem pole.

On Friday evening I walked home from a seminar I attended on the eastern edge of the city center, and since it was late and I had no plans I decided to spoil myself: I went into Sbarro Italian Eatery near my apartment, and order two slices of pizza and a bottle of Lipton iced tea. As always with such efforts, it didn’t quite work: the pizza had sat too long under a lamp and the half-liter of tea kept me awake for hours. But I also took home a slice of “American cheesecake” and watched TV for a while.

The building in which Sbarro is located has beautiful women’s heads built into the façade. It is often very strange to see Western restaurant chains that I think of as inelegant or second-tier located in these grand old buildings. McDonald’s has that effect on me often; you get the feeling that it’s a chic meeting place here, as is Pizza Hut. Kentucky Fried Chicken has a restaurant right near the Subway on the lower part of Nevsky (Petersburg’s answer to Fifth Avenue) – right across from chic fashion boutiques. My Chinese friend likes going to KFC.

My visiting of Chinese restaurants is going somewhat slowly, more slowly than it should. But I lost heart after a couple of mediocre experiences. A longtime Chinese resident of Petersburg recently told me that Chinese food here is pretty authentic, but I’m sure it still depends where you eat… Fortunately for my research, I had lunch at a really good place last Wednesday. The tofu with green onions was excellent, as was the soup with seaweed and fried eggs. While I was there, a whole group of Chinese visitors came in (tourists? business travelers?) and had a quick lunch – a good indicator! The portions were so huge that I took home 2/3 of the tofu and left behind about a half gallon of soup. I’ll have to get someone to agree to go with me on my next outing. The local yellow pages include 85 Chinese restaurants, but the man I interviewed said that there are at least 150. I’ll try eventually to find out when they were opened.

I think I’m over halfway to my departure. It’s hard to remember the hot days when I first arrived. It’s still not too cold, but cold enough to wish that the central heating would come on in my building too… “Central heating” in most of Russia means a system of pipes that run steam to radiators in each room of apartments all over the city. You can’t control when it comes on, and you can’t regulate the temperature except by wearing a t-shirt or opening a window; you also can’t control when they periodically turn it off (to save some money). The system “gives heat” in a gradual way, and they haven’t gotten around to my building yet… So far I’m OK, but I look forward to the morning when I can put my hand to the big heavy metal radiators and warm myself up. Meanwhile, there’s always tea and jumping jacks.