Urban/Suburban/Rural Life

I have lived urban, suburban, and rural life and the experiences in all three of them were quite contrasting. I grew up in the urban city of Moscow with a big population living busy and fast paced lives. The city was very crowded in the mornings with people going to work, school, or simply shopping. The buses and subways were packed with people; usually diverse groups of people.  Although Russia is not such a wealthy nation; Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world.  Due to urbanization, the prices for buying or renting apartments have raised tremendously high although if one drives to a rural area just couple hours away from Moscow, one could get that same apartment for much cheaper price. However, because people prefer living at the center and being close to development, Moscow has become expensive; especially to foreigners and tourists. Contrary to the examples that the text book gave as the introduction of the chapter which tells us of the situations with white shirts in China and Germany, it is different in Moscow. Although the city is populated and industrialized, there wasn’t as much pollution that would have gotten your clothes dirty. Most of the companies and factories were a bit far away from central Moscow so that the people weren’t as much impacted by the pollution. One aspect of Moscow that I was very much in favor is the fact that the whole city is accessible by foot or by the metro. Unlike in here, one could have easily gotten out of their home, walked to the subway and taken the metro to tour the entire city. From Moscow, I moved to a little rural area in Southwest Virginia which was nothing comparable to the way of live in Moscow. It was a very small area with a smaller size of population and fewer developments. The area had lots of trees and was a much greener place in comparison to Moscow. Additionally, the area wasn’t diverse at all and it consisted of predominantly white majority and a minority group of foreigners. From there, I then moved to DC metropolitan area which is much more populated, diverse, and globalized. DC region is a conurbation which consists of cities such as Arlington, Fairfax, and Chantilly, for example. One thing that I’ve realized since moving to Northern Virginia is that the people who live in the Southwest have much lower living standards in comparison to here. Economically, Northern Virginia is much more advanced and people live more glamorous lives while in the Southwest, majority of the people weren’t as rich and they didn’t own expensive cars or huge houses.