Daily life
Daily life for the majority of Russian women is very much the same. One gets up at 7-8 a.m. depending on working hours of her company. Factories and plants usually work from 6-8 a.m., and offices and shops from 9-10 p.m. After a simple breakfast (normally just a sandwich with tea or coffee), she goes to catch a bus/tram/trolleybus/underground train. Most Russians live in flats in outskirts ("sleeping zones"), work in the center of the city, and have to spend from 30 to 90 minutes to reach their working place. Public transport is always overcrowded during the "peak" time, and she does not have any chance to have a seat. People in the transport are like fishes in a can, some of them are touching her, but it's quite normal - there is nothing one can do. People in transport are always unfriendly and irritated, though if you are pregnant, with a small baby in hands or very old, they will offer you a seat.
Normally the working day is 8 hours with one 30-60 minutes lunch break. If one works for a state enterprise, she may have a few tea pauses - there is a poor discipline on those plants, one can easily leave her job to settle some personal problems. Working for a private company means a better salary than working for the state, but also staying after hours often or from time to time.
Leaving her work at 5-7 p.m., she has to make her way all the way back home using the same overcrowded public transport. Having a car is still considered to be a kind of luxury, and even if the family has a car, it's always the husband who drives it. The price of the cheapest new brand car is about USD 5,100, with the average women's monthly salary 3000 rubles (about USD 100). One can afford to buy a second hand car but it's very expensive to keep it on the road. You will also have to use a paid secure night parking or have a garage, both options will make an average woman run out of money.
Using public transport makes one twice as tired. During the cold season (November-March) it will also make you cold because you can't move there, and it's the same temperature inside as outside. So if it's -20�C outside, it's probably -18 in the bus. I used to have my own car, and used to go to work by bus, and I can say for sure - public transport exhausts you.
After arriving at her stop on her way back home, the woman usually goes to the nearest shop to buy some food - bread, milk and meat. Russians don't go shopping once a week, they buy products when they are finished. One must buy or provide his own plastic bags in a shop, they seldom give the bags away for free. Carrying bags home also doesn't make the woman relaxed - even if it's only a few kilos and few hundreds meters (usually homes are within 0-2 miles from shopping areas), you still feel it.
The woman arrives home completely exhausted. If she has a child, she must fetch him from the kindergarten on her way back. If she has a family, she must make food for it. Cooking in Russia is more complicated and takes much longer, not only because of different recipes, but also because of the lack of half-ready products. There are half-ready products on the market but they are mostly imported and therefore expensive.
After the supper, the family can watch TV for a couple of hours, then they go to bed.
Some people regularly visit gyms, probably about the same proportion of population as in the west (which means most people don't). Weekly movies or dining out are rare, discos or night clubs are more popular but still unaffordable for many people. Entertainment is expensive, and usually they it is limited by visiting friends or relatives on the weekends.
Generally, the daily life of a Russian woman can be described as *home - work - home* or *home - work - shops - home*. You can say that it's normal for the life in any western country as well, but there is one big difference: even small things in Russia require much more efforts. Small things that will take you a couple of minutes, in Russia can take you half an hour or even the whole day.
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