Saint Petersburg | A Beautiful City
In the middle of the night, the lamp’s switch is on. I am sitting in my chair. My laptop is placed on a table. My roommate is sleeping and I can hear his snoring sounds. It is a beautiful scene outside the window. The lightning of buildings, the bridges, the football and basketball grounds, and silent roads. I am recalling my memory and writing this article. I picked up some books from the library today.
At the end of September 2018, I arrived in Saint Petersburg, Russia for study a Master’s degree in Information Security. I saw the things are very different between developed and underdeveloped countries. I noticed people follow the pedestrian signals. There is extra electricity and no electricity shortfall. Presently, Saint Petersburg has more than 90 rivers & canals and over 600 bridges. The behavior of people is very kind. I met with different people; and attended different seminars, events and also attended the International Conference on ECO Environment. I started writing officially in this beautiful city.
Transport System
When we talk about the transport system, there is no motorbike in the entire city. They have government buses, trams, and underground metro trains with different routes which broaden in the city. The bus timing is around 5–10 minutes. The tram timing is around 10–15 minutes and the underground metro train timing is after 2 minutes. All the governmental transports are on electricity. The metro train provides a free internet wife service for passengers. The government provides the transport card to Russian citizens and Internationals also with a different types of categories. I have a student transport card. I recharge it every month with 1035 rubles and travel to the entire city by all public transports.
Cashless System
Wherever you want to go to the entire city. You don’t need any cash. You just have a Debit Card in your pocket and you can pay with your card. It is good for security. Debit Card is accepted everywhere, for shopping centers, coffee shops, restaurants, and sports clubs, etc.
Libraries
I like reading. When I came here the last year. I tried to find libraries where I can study and spend time on the internet surfing. In Saint Petersburg, there are so many libraries; I visited three main libraries. The National Library of Russia (two branches, Mayakovskogo Library (Fontaka Branch), and one other), and the British Book Center Library. All the libraries have good service of books, reading rooms, multimedia rooms, and qualitative internet. My favorite library is Fontaka River Library. Because this library has a lot of books in the English language. And the other thing is, the staff is very cooperative, and the third important thing is the timing.
The first requirements for most of the buildings are an entrance card. And I think it is good for security reasons. When you are inside the library or any building you feel safe. The criteria to get the entrance card is very easy if you have real identification. I also want to appreciate the timing of all libraries. The timing is from morning to 8 pm in winter. In summer the timing is up to 11 pm and also opened 7 days of the week. I saw people are reading books on trains, buses, waiting for areas, cafes, and coffee shops.
Educational System
Here, the educational system of universities is based on theory and practice. What does it mean? It means if you have two lectures (periods) in a week or after a week. Then you must have one lecture based on theoretical, which is given by Professor. The other period will be based on practical, it contains for discussion between teacher and students, or lab work. The same pattern is continued to the entire semester.
At the time of the final exams of the semester. Depends upon the professor that if a professor wants to give an exam oral, or in writing. The assessment of the semester’s final result is based on assignments, reports, attendance, behavior in class, and also the final exam. After all, if any student fails, then the professor gives three more attempts to pass the semester without disturbing, so, a student can prepare again and try to pass, there are no extra fees for these attempts.
Anti Cafe
The word ‘anti-café’ is new for me, I listen here. The anti-café meetings are for everyone, including children and old age people. The basic thing of this meeting is to spend free time, to learn some new language, culture and history, play games, and to meet with new people and to improve communication skills. The meeting of the anti-café is arranged once a week in almost all anti-cafes, but there are many anti-cafe’s with different days of the week. Most anti-cafes costs 2.5 rubles per minute and you get a good meeting with new people and also you get free cookies and tea.
The winter is very cold. In January the temperature goes to -30, even the river gets to freeze, so for the safety from this situation, the district heating system starts from October to April. The temperature is comfortable inside the buildings, metro stations, and also buses; even you don’t feel that it is winter. If you are a traveler, you have to find out the necessary things before you travel.
People’s Behavior
The behavior of people is very kind, really it is very kind. Once a day I was in the Fontaka River Library, I was sitting in the multimedia center and doing some work on my laptop, in my left side, I could see the Fontaka River outside the window, and on the opposite side of me a young man was sitting on the chair and using a computer, sometime later an old age man came to the multimedia center and sit behind the young man, within a 3–5 minutes young man finished his work and went out from the library, but my inspiration was, an old man asked the receptionist very kindly in the Russian language, that has this person gone? She said yes, he is gone. Again he asked that can I sit here in this chair to do some work. She replied yes you can.
This communication was very kind with soft words, I really inspired.
Originally published at https://capitalwriter.com on June 9, 2021.
