Mark Soderstrom, United States

During my stay in St. Petersburg, in the evening when the sun set in it’s particular Petersburg way, I often took short walks from my house to the Gulf of Finland where I could see Kronshtadt Island and the buildings on the Baltic coast. There on the extremely polluted shore, I tried to gather all my thoughts about this strange and beautiful country to which I had decided to devote so much of my time. At the present time, looking at my computer screen in my comfortable, air-conditioned apartment in my typical, unremarkable city in the center of America, I am forced to wait for next summer to continue my adventures in Russia.