In Which I finally encounter Marshytki

Behold the wonders of a rapidly westernizing fledgling capitalist society. The most popular form of transport in this city, after chastniki of course, are marshrytki, or in plain english, a crazy mother fucker with enough money to buy himself (or enough connection to steal one) a fairly larged sized minivan and drive it on a relatively fixed route through the city. All the vans are rigged out to sit 10-12 people, and basically, anyone at anytime can request to be dropped off somewhere along the route.

So this morning, by dumb luck, stroke of fate, or the fact that I'm retarded when it comes to blowdrying my hair (Lena, upon seeing me blowdry for the first time "Oy girlie! Theres hope for you yet!") and thus left the apartment later than usual, ended up catching a marshytka instead of the normal assrapage on the bus. They run on the same route, so its really a crap shoot which comes first. SO I see it coming, stick my arm out, shut my eyes, and pray I just dont get struck down on the sidewalk. Yes, sidewalk= oh fuck I'm late lane. The van comes rushing at me, screeching to a halt like fifteen feet further down the road. I grab my bag, take off for it, and climb in with just enough time to slam the door shut as the driver pulls away at like 50 km ph. I sit down in the last seat behind the driver, facing backwards, the lucky one with the priveledge of spending the ensuing half hour starting back at 10 morose Russians. Luckily, we were full up for about half way to my school, which mean the driver could just cruise past all the crowds on the corners. Unlike the busses, which seem to be in competition for who can carm the most people into the smallest foulest smelling place. My luck held up untill half the van emptied at the business complex not far from downtown. Then, in exchange for the six or eight people who got off, twelve more got on. This meant about 5 business men in suits stood crouching between the seats and in the wheel well by the door. Its no mean feat to stnad for any amount of time in a van of any size, and these psuedo-dignified suits looked so absurd standing there, I couldn't help but snigger. Then the whole company growled at me, so I pretended to by tying my shoe for the rest of the way. Just thankfully someone else asked for a stop at Smolny, so I didn't actually half to deal with the driver. But yea. Definitly a change of pace, and much cushier than the bus.