I have spent the past ten weeks studying and traveling around Russia, from Moscow, Bulgakov’s mighty metropolis of “multicolored towers” and the “dense hum of the most incredible rumors” to Dostoyevsky’s “splendid panorama” filled with “various taverns and cesspools,” St. Petersburg (1,2). I drank water from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal, toured around cities over a thousand years old, and listened the traditional songs of Old Believers in Siberia.

Even better, I haven’t been throwing all of my extra time into triple integrals and Lagrangian computer simulations for my physics classes as I would during a regular term, so I’ve had extra time on my hands for more artistic pursuits. I’ll leave the poetry to Nick, Amelia, Bulgakov, and Dostoyevsky, but there are many ways to be inspired! Although I suffered Nick’s gentle teasing for taking constant photos, the literally thousands of images I have from my time here yielded some relatively nice ones, allowing me to put together an album of images from all over Russia for the blog. I’ve also done some drawing in the dorm, inspired by the art and architecture around me.

Without further ado, here are 75 of my best photos from our time in Moscow, plus a few drawings to boot.

(1) Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1966). Translation Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky (1997).  Penguin Books. New York.

(2) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (1881). Translation Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky (1992). Vintage Books. New York.