Francis Fukuyama on living in California in the 1980s: "To this young, single male in his late twenties, California thus seemed rather like a land of unlimited possibilities, sexual and otherwise. It was not, however, one that I was able to take much advantage of. Or at least, not to the extent that my Bulgarian colleague Alex Alexiev did. Like me, he worked on Soviet projects at Rand. I went hiking and skiing with him and his fellow Bulgarian friend Simon in the Sierra Nevadas, and admired his ability to attract women. Alex hated Communism, and would later return to Bulgaria to launch a political career after Bulgaria transitioned to elections in the early 1990s."