Today I went to the house where Dante Alighieri was born. Right around the corner from the school. Just standing there innocently enough. Today I got a bicycle. The owner of the school gave it to me to use. I figure I will use it for a while and then get a scooter. This one has no brakes so it is kind of scary. And the bumpy cobblestone streets make it almost worse than walking everywhere. but I am getting around a lot faster. 

(Today I saw democracy in action. When our teacher informed us that starting next week we would start having classes at 1 in the afternoon instead of at 9 in the morning when we normally do, the whole class erupted and grew into this giant mob of unified opinion saying absolutely not. No we will come at 9am as we signed up for. What was so fascinating is that this is a class of ten students who do not know each other at all from all over the world: 2 Americans, a Serbian, a Mexican, a Scott, 2 Costa Ricans, a Guatemalan, a Swiss German, and an Israeli, all different ages, but it was cool to watch everyone agree that we refused to allow this to happen to us. all these different people saying, o.k. listen if they force us to do this after we have flown all this way and paid all this money then we will strike in front of the school. It was a classic democratic moment.)   

Watching the godfather III on my freshly made bed on my laptop (you gotta love the laptop—did we ever live without the laptop???---one device on a trip and have it do everything for you--- your whole office and entertainment center in one little package—looking for the smallest one you can get) the third godfather is the not so good, I don't know what he was thinking making Al Pacino seem like such a wimp and a joker---he isn't even the same character, foolish stuff this movie. bad writing. But Sophia Coppolla is hot. The movie makes me think of my own father. I wonder what goes through his mind sometimes. Rumor was that they were going to make a godfather 4 and Garcia as the new godfather. I hope so. That would be cool. Number one and two are awesome. But this one is just a pretentious piece of you know what. 

I just read on the Internet what is happening in the states with GW bush. Interesting. Lying about the wmd in Iraq. Much worse than Watergate. But it seems that with scams or scandals this big, that they will somehow get away with it. almost as if something as innocuous as Watergate you can get in trouble for or for example that comment that senator Trent Lott made actually got him to have to step down, whereas with something this big where the whole administration just perpetrated a big scam so they could invade another country I am almost sure that it will just become yesterday’s news in a few days. They will just find a way to make everyone forget about it like they have with all of the questionable activities of this president. All over this town you see no war and peace signs hanging everywhere and spray painted on the buildings. The Italians were one of the most vocal in their opposition to the American invasion. I think they have seen so many more years than we have, many invasions over thousands of years, so they understand a lot more than we do about this. right now America seems to be somewhere in the middle of the Decline of the Roman Empire book. Moving much quicker toward the decline than Rome did. 

And unfortunately I really believe in my heart that if we do not start to change things quickly there it will just keep getting worse. People just don't realize it because America seems so comfortable now. And so powerful. It is like they never studied their history of other powerful countries in the past. I wonder if other people remember seeing that boy genius on TV a few years ago. He was only five years old but he had this amazing IQ and he had read every book ever written and he was very upset and he compared America to the roman empire and said it would fall very soon if it stays on this path according to what he had studied historically. And he was almost crying. It gave us all goose bumps watching it. it was like a message. I think for example with the current administration we should say ciao ciao and let him go. Just calmly and quietly tell him to leave. Just because it is supposed to be four years doesn’t mean it should be. I think that serving four years is an honor, the highest honor in the land. So if you fuck up. if you things that you would instruct your own children not to do like lie or cheat then you should man enough to step down from that position. The same with Clinton. So many bad things with him After he lied to us and then lied about lying he showed he wasn't really an admirable man, and take all the legal and technical bullshit out of the equation, and what you have left is a people who should have just said politely but resolutely goodbye Mr. Clinton. Thank you for serving but next! And we should continue to do that until we get someone in the presidency who is as admirable and respectable as that position calls for. Same with Bush and Cheney. Just their nefarious connection with Enron alone is enough to make any American sad and angry that they still are in those positions. I think if America has a chance, I say it now believe it later, this is what we have to do. Will the people do it? No. I am sure of it. They will not. In fact, no matter what bush or Cheney or any of the evil monsters that occupy these offices today do, the people will not do anything to stop them. Sad but true. I think that the American people are too easily misled by pomp and circumstance, by phony smiles and meaningless flag waving. And also most people do not seek out alternative news sources so they just never know what is really going on. They think the networks or CNN are the real news. so for the most part you cannot even carry on a conversation let alone debate with someone about these types of matters because they are just so far behind in what they know. but enough of that. it makes me sad. Because you see in it the pattern of all of humanity throughout history. This is the nature of how the rich and powerful control the ignorant masses and make them live in compromised times year after year and century after century. If we want to protect our sacred presidency, we need to start doing this---just booting these guys out as soon as they fuck up the first time, unless they really get out there and say hey I'm really sorry. I will try again. I would love to see in my day a president who we can be proud of and really respect. I would really love to see that. I just think it would be wonderful.

It is hard to stay focused on the United States while you are here. It is something that you don't think about.