I lived at the Alcyone, near Lake Union, when I just moved to Seattle, then centered on Tower @ 801, and from there discovered that up the hill there is something bigger—Capitol Hill. Downtown is pretty, a city of lights, but the shopping crowd is transient (though full of cute dressed-up women). Capitol Hill just feels alive. In comparison to it, Belltown feels full of pretentious yappies…

I’m happy just being here. In the US, I lived in Hanover (NH), Philadelphia and Princeton before, but never felt so good just coming home (after Moscow)! Where have I been all these years?