Cultural notes part II

I've been meaning just to talk about Russia for a while now. Nothing particularly interesting has been happening to me over the last day, so here goes.

Food

As far as I've seen, feeding people is a huge part of everyone's life. The other part is eating. Marina Sergeevna had been waiting for me to get home yesterday, and had a huge dinner on the stove for me. When I came through the door, she said that her little dochka (affectionate term for younger female) was home, and then she said "Now I have my obedka!" Obedka roughly translates to "little dinner-eater." Perhaps the strangest name I have ever been called, but said with such affection!

Transit

Perhaps I need to go into a little more detail about going here and there in St. Petersburg.

The marshrutki are little minivans into which numbers of people squish, and for about a dime more than the state-run transit, are very quickly squashed from one place to another. The drivers are specialists with an amazing ability to a) drive b) honk and c) make change at the same time. You have to yell where you want the marshrutka to stop, and if they can't hear you they'll either keep going or just career to the side of the road and let you out right then.

The subway has beautiful stations far below the earth- the escalators take so long to reach the trains that people get out books and magazines and read on them. I've seen someone get through three pages of a newspaper before we even hit the end. There are occasionally beggars of a sort I've only seen in subway stations- old women just asking for money. Most beggars here have a schtick or a ware to sell. It always strikes me as funny, too, because they have to pay to get down there.

The trolleybus is lately my favorite way to get around, because one goes by a block from my house, then goes past the university and into the center of town and back, which means it can put me basically anywhere in my normal circle of events. However, they are driven by real people on real roads, which means you have to contend with St Petersburg traffic when you're in it- I'm absolutely amazed that there haven't been any crashes while I was on one. Yesterday no one would stop to let it turn, and after a moment, it became a matter of the trolley driver honking madly and just turning into the oncoming traffic. (the roads of St. Petersburg are like a jungle- whoever is biggest and will sustain the least damage from an accident has the right of way. Honking doesn't mean "you stupid idiot" here, it means "I'm coming, I'm not slowing down, and God have mercy on your soul.")

Animals

There are lots of dogs here. Most of them are pets, and all of the pets are well groomed and fairly well behaved. There seem to be two classes- the big working dog class, and the little companion breeds. There are a lot of terriers and a lot of dachsunds, and also a fair number of rottweilers and german shepherds. Everyone walks their dogs on leashes, and I have not seen one dog who does not pull. Heeling? What's that? And the people don't even seem to notice. Moreover, not one walks with a loose leash, but I haven't seen anyone canted back against the pull. There seems to be some sort of balance.

I've already mentioned the puppy and kitten merchant- oh, heartbreak!- and the crows. Now let me point out that EVERYONE here feeds the pigeons and the sparrows. The back door of a little snack kiosk will open, and handfuls of seeds or crumbs will fly out, and then the ground will be paved with birds. They come over and stare at you if you sit on a bench for too long without contributing.

The other day I saw a dog that could have been stray- no collar, no recent baths- wandering through the streets, extremely heavy with milk. I thought, where are her puppies? Oh, there they were, in the box on the handcart that man was pulling. They were tiny and black and adorable. Who needs a leash when you've got puppies?

There was also a guy selling pygmy rabbits by the metro station.

I feel very sorry for the turtle in our kitchen. He just wants to go somewhere and walk and swim for more than twelve inches in one direction. He scrapes against the glass for hours.

Random observations

You have to pay for shopping bags here, but the ones you get are triple reinforced monsters that you can use to the end of the world.

Stores don't let you bring backpacks or large purses in- you have to check them.

It's not uncommon to see people carrying something together- a bag or a box, each person with one hand on one handle. It doesn't even have to be large or heavy. It just seems like a social thing.

There are beautiful flower gardens everywhere that look completely random, ugly and pointless until you go up a few stories in one of the surrounding buildings. Then it becomes clear that they are perfectly planted so that when all the flowers are in bloom, they make big flowers and patterns out of intricate colors, so that when you look out the window you can see them spread out below.