Everything takes more time than you want it to

This should be the tag line to all of life in Russia.

Everything takes more time than you want it to.

Going anywhere in Moscow takes an hour, either because of a long metro ride or a long walk.

Washing machines, even the new ones, take 75 to 120 minutes for a load, depending on the cycle.   But the machines hold about 5 kilograms (10 pounds) of clothes at a time.  For adults, that is two pairs of jeans and two shirts, or 8 shirts. For kids, that is a few days worth of clothes.  But there are no drying machines.  The word "dryer" is used for the rack you hang clothes on.  Ours is the large style and holds two loads of clothing.  So every day we run at least one load of laundry.  If we skip a day (last week we skipped 3 days), then there is a backlog.

Russia skipped the "pay by check" stage of financial transactions.  Once upon a time, everything was cash.  Nowadays, cash can be still used (most places), but most commercial businesses (shops, etc), will also accept plastic cards--but only if they have a chip in them, not the magnetic stripe, and usually only if they are a debit card and use a pin number.  A lot of places have trouble with credit cards you sign.

Because there are no checks, the most common way to pay, for example, phone bill, water bill, electricity bill, and school fees, is to pay from bank to bank.  Most Russians take the bill to the bank, either their own bank or the bank which is used by the payee, and stand in a line to pay at the window.  This means that "going to the bank" happens frequently and at the most commonly used banks (Sberbank in particular) there are always long lines.  Oh, and on top of the time expense, there is always a commission charged by the bank.  3-10%.  Some banks also now offer "telebank" services (internet banking), which is what we try to use when we can.  We still pay a commission (except for the cell phone), but at least we don't have to stand in line.

But imagine every time you get a bill you would write a check for, you have to spend an hour in line at the bank to pay it (plus time to and from the bank).

And there are a lot of things like this.

Now you see what we mean, everything takes more time than you want it to.