Everyday in class or in the street you hear that Italy is still not unified. Still no sense of patriotism in the country. Today was no different. Our teacher Francesco was explaining the reasons to us. he being a northerner, a Florentine, had all the reasons memorized. The economic situation in the South is very poor so they depend on the people in the north for everything. and of course the northerners resent this fact a bit. In the South they lean a lot more towards socialism—they call the left. They are extreme leftists obviously since they have no money. And in the north they lean much more toward conservatism. In the South they are very traditional and religious and in the north they are much more modern etc. in the South their language is totally different, kind of a hybrid between Spanish, Arabic, and Greek. In the north more of a French and German thing happening. People from the deep South cannot understand people from the north when they speak etc. I guess its like what we have in America say if a person from Wisconsin was to go to Louisiana, but just a lot more pronounced. 

I listened today like I have for the past two months to everyone talking about how Italy has only been a unified for a hundred years or so. And they are all very competitive against each other. Each region thinking that they are a separate state all on their own. no one wanting to be part of a country. Everyone very protective about their own region and their own dialect and their own customs. I cannot help but wonder why don't these people just come together. I mean rather than acknowledge the problems and the lack of unity and complain that oh we’ll never be unified, why not let all that go and just start taking action for some serious unification. I asked my teacher this question and he said it was impossible. O.k. well there's the answer. They just don't want to work together for some reason. In Brasil there is such a sense of patriotism for example. They just love their country. Its nice. like in America. It doesn’t matter where you live, you love your country. I pondered this question all day. what can they do about the South also? I mean, it’s a tough call. Its kind of a barren region. Not much going on. They have no money. No industry. Not much of value. So the people of the north definitely have a point. The South isn't bringing any money in. Why should the people of the north support them. hey that's the free enterprise system baby. If you cant make money in the South, get your ass to the north or starve. But regardless of the problem of the South at least the regions of the north should all get together and really do something to unify themselves. Like their glory days. But these are not a “unify” type of people in Italy right now. not even neighbors living in the same town. They are a very “cold shoulder” people right now in their evolution. Not like Americans at all. Francesco tells us that it is because of their long history. That they have gotten like this. not to trust. Not to look forward to things. not to be too friendly for fear of being taken advantage of. 

In the new world of course we don't have this yet because we’re just too new of a people. last night me and Giovanna were sitting on these really ancient stairs while she rolled a joint and I'm starting to catch this buzz and I look up at this plaque that is on the wall of this mammoth building that is in front of us. and I'm like in slow motion reading it, “ Augustus Cesar ...” and I'm like “what is this place where we are right now?” and she drags from the joint and then says “it’s the tomb of our first emperor,  Augustus.” And I'm like “holy shit. We’re sitting here on the tomb of Octavian? The nephew of Julius Cesar? Augustus? The first emperor of Rome?” and she's like “yeah. You know about him?” and I'm like “uh yeah, a fucking little!!! The whole fucking world knows about him. That's where we got a lot of our ideas for America. From the roman pseudo-republic of Augustus Cesar and the Greeks.” 

I just sat there stupefied staring at this huge tomb which is more like a mini coliseum in its own right and thinking about where I was compared to where I live, America. Here was Augustus. Over two thousand years ago. This country was already running full tilt some fifteen hundred years before the free world even knew that America existed. America is such a baby country. The similarities are so many. And yet there are subtle differences that hopefully will help America last for much longer than Rome did. All day in class I was in a daze thinking about this. I tried to pay attention to our grammar studies but I couldn’t. I just kept thinking about America and what we can do to keep our republic strong. And not succumb to the same fate that befell Rome or Greece or Egypt or Turkey or any other great empires of the ages. I have a cold so everything seems like it is in slow motion. What can we do as a people? And why aren't Americans concerned with justice any more? Why do we let our politicians get away with so much now? Why do Americans seem so blind to all the corruption? Not Americans but just people, for surely it isn't just Americans who are guilty of this? Why don't the people revolt more and demand more honesty and more justice in our great republic? I'm not saying it will accomplish anything immediately, but little by little history has proven that the people will get what they want after constant insistence. Maybe we can find a way to eliminate the bloodbath that is usually also necessary. 

O.k. check it out. I am starting to read the history of Rome again from the beginning. It hasn’t been two thousand years. Its been two thousand five hundred years that Rome had begun—slightly different than its current form, but still Rome. Five times longer than the US.  

America is the new Roman Empire. People say it all the time. for a hundred years they have been saying it. John Lennon said it. But unlike Rome, which was an empire started by actual Romans---Italian people---who took it back from the Etruscans and Greeks, America is not made up of Americans. In fact, for unfortunate reasons, there are very few Americans left. America is made of everyone else from all over the world. So it is difficult when people refer to America as if its some “country” because really its more of a combination of a lot of different countries. America is the New World. And the rest of the world where America comes from is the Old World. And what is America but just a mini-Italy, or a mini-Japan, or a mini-Korea, etc. that is why I find it hard and I think others find it hard to come down on America or “Americans” because what is America or what is an “American?” I mean every country in the world is represented in America. Unfortunately there's not really many “real Americans” or native Americans left anymore. So now America is the place people come to when you want to live in the New World, no matter where you come from. You can always come to America and chances are you can find an area where there are a lot of people like you, from your original country, so its o.k. for you. you can find people who speak your language and still uphold your customs. But now they live in this new world called America. Its really an amazing concept. Wonderful. Unlike other countries that are made up of the people of that country, America is like this new place entirely. A new place built upon an old place. With all new inhabitants. From all over the world. Maybe its obvious. But when you break it down its beautiful. and it can really touch the heart. of course until we fess up to and reconcile what we did to all the original inhabitants, its also very ugly. And that's unfortunate...

The future

[When will we have the technology to take the ideas directly from the brain right to the preferred medium? Where we can completely bypass the whole need to process the information into some format like the written word or a film or a song. I would love to just be able to get the thought, and then I don't know, perhaps push a button in virtual space which would choose which format I would like the idea to take shape in, do a little bit more thinking, answer a few more multiple choice questions and then out pops a song, or a screen play or a novel or a video game. And then bam it goes into our collective conscious as one of the millions of options of media we have at our disposal in that moment. To be consumed or not to be consumed. no need to sit down and have to write it or design it or draw it or even “pitch it.” just think it. This is our future. The possibilities. May the most prolific win. But when? I am sick of always having to type all day. and I am sick of having to record all day. ] 

Sometimes I sit in class and stare at the nuns from the different churches out of the corner of my eye and I think about them. there's like four or five of them in my class. what do they think? do they ever think about if they are sexy or not? There is this one from Chile and this other one from Korea. They are so cute. And I swear to God they both are always flirting with me. Maybe they don't even know it. But as a grown man its so hard for me not to flirt back with them. I forget that they are sisters and they have this vow of celibacy. Its crazy. I really try not to though. I wonder if they ever stand in front of the mirror and try to look sexy. And I wonder if they ever fantasize about people like we do. I wonder if they ever get these really strong sexual urges like we do and just go for it and masturbate. And then I wonder if they are taught to then feel guilty about it. I hope not. I wonder how they manage to be fulfilled as people without the love and sex and companionship and passion of others like we have in our husbands and wives and girlfriends and boyfriends. And what about children? They never get that. I wonder how they feel about it...I wonder if they ever long for it. I wonder if they ever begin to doubt their very own existence due to never having children---their lives forgotten and their legacy non-existent as soon as they take their last breath.

Dinner tonight with Giovanna again, the Roman girl. Very nice. She took me to St. Peters Square and the Vatican. I gotta leave here now. I like her. I am starting to like her more. She's very smart. And fun. And full of passion. and she looks like your classic Roman girl, Etruscan, dark eyes, dark hair and skin. Sexy. God I would love to see her naked. I'm not going to stay here. I need to get home and start building again. So I deliberately ended the evening early, didn't kiss her goodbye. I can’t get tied up in something like this now. sounds funny but I had prayed about this a few nights before. I just said something like ‘God I just want to meet an Italian girl and feel that feeling of being in love again.... c'mon, I've been here for like two or three months now. the least I can get is to sleep with at least one Italian girl! Just give me a few nights for your sake?!’ or something like this. And then bam the next day it happens. I meet this girl in a gelateria... God always comes through for us when we pray... Hehe.