Today my friend from Israel left to go back home. He will come back in a month or two and live in Sicily. He will attend med school here in Italy. Tonight I am sad from missing him. he and I were the last left from our original class. We had dinner last night. we talked a lot. It turns out that he is not Jewish but Palestinian. That whole group he lived with. Yes they are Israelis. But not Jewish. They are Palestinians who live in what used to be Palestine, but is now called Israel. But their families have lived there for hundreds of years. so they all stay there. Now on the same block he says lives Jews, Muslims, and some Christians and for the most part all is well. He says that according to him and his family and friends, the biggest problem is that Sharon is a monster and things were much better before him, and that the Jews should stop bombing things all the time and tearing down people’s houses indiscriminately. According to him because the Palestinians are so over-powered in the country and the Jewish people have all the weapons and the support from America they can do whatever they want; they even killed that American college student this year and we didn’t hear a peep about it in America. This was truly amazing. something we will read about later in history about how covered up this whole thing is to the Americans. I guarantee that if that girl was killed by another army in another country, watch out, she would have been a national heroin and we would have seen tributes to her on all the talk shows. But this was a complete cover up. she was ignored. Just a big hush hush. Mohamed and his friends point to this as an example of what is going on in Palestine and Israel and in America. That if you were to come there and see it for yourself you would see something much different than what we see on news in America. He says that if bombings stop from Jews then the Palestinians would stop their suicide bombing attacks. He thinks that they do it because they feel so helpless and desperate that it is a way to show the world what a desperate position they are in. It is true that it is very easy to log on the Internet to see how many Jews have been killed in Palestinian suicide bombings, but it is near impossible to get the statistics on how many Palestinians have been killed or how many homes destroyed by bulldozers. (this last statement just blows me away as I'm sure it does any rational person alive today, the idea of them bulldozing other people’s homes in this day and age and the rest of the world standing around watching. Its really something unthinkable in America. And yet it is happening with the permission of America.) I just think it’s a subject better left open and studied. And perhaps pass no judgment.  

This was a very important experience for me spending a month with Mohamed and his other Palestinian friends here. I have never spent time with Palestinians before. The whole time assuming that because they were Israelis and spoke Hebrew that they were Jews and then to discover on the last day that they were really Muslims and Palestinians was such a shock but a welcome one. I had always thought that they were these kind of monsters or maniacs with no lives because that is what they show on TV in America, no? as if they do nothing but bomb people and walk around with rags on their heads. No jobs, just throwing stones at each other. I believe that America is perhaps a bit Jewish biased right now. Maybe I sound naive stating this. Maybe it is obvious to others, but I think we don't really get the whole picture in the states. These boys were the sweetest most gentle and honest and loving guys at our whole school. And we’re talking out of hundreds of students from every country in the world. Very nice and normal guys, all in college or grad school, super into music and sports. And here they are speaking Hebrew because their country was turned into a Jewish country fifty years ago. Even though their families had lived there for hundreds of years and called it Palestine. Very tricky situation really. for the first time I got the other side of it because I have a lot of Jewish friends who live in Israel so I always get that side. And I have to say that they are always just as nice and gentle about the Palestinians as well. Never say anything bad. All of them just seem to want the whole thing over. And for there to be peace. The people who really complain a lot are the American Jews who always seem to blame the Palestinian people for everything and don't see the other side of it at all. the Israelis at least see that it is a two way street and it is all very political and has little to do with the people and a lot to do with the leaders and the other countries involved. And the politics. Try telling that to the American Jewish people. They just freak out. 

Now I am thinking of going there to see for myself. Mohamed tells me you could see all of Israel in a day so I should just come on over and check it out. We’ll see. Check out that whole scene. The music is awesome there. I think perhaps the most soulful in the world. The deepest sounding. If not a little repetitive. 

Studying Caravaggio in art history class. Holy shit. This guy was good. crazy. but good. and still reading the life of Leonardo. And all these guys were gay. I didn't know that. what is it with these guys? Supposedly all the ancient Greeks and Romans were gay; Plato and Socrates and their whole gang. And now it turns out that all the renaissance artists were gay too. What is it with these guys?

It is sad at the school now. Everyone is gone. Our little home-base is all screwed up now. strange new people arriving and all the old faces disappeared. Just a few of us left, sort of like ghosts, bumping into each other in the halls or in the street. ‘oh you're still here? how are you? what was your name again? where you are from? Oh yea lets have dinner tonight. Sure.’ So tonight I went to dinner with Xavier from Catalonia, and two students from Japan, and one guy from Sicily who is hanging out in Florence for the summer. For most of us, our last night in Florence. We ate and drank a lot. And then we drank even more. and just got wasted. what was fascinating was that here we all were, different ages, totally different parts of the world, all here for different reasons, our own little special reasons, sitting in this little apartment around this dinner table eating dinner together speaking in Italian. but none of us are Italian. seriously funny. One guy from Spain, one guy from usa, and two people from Japan. And no one could speak English etc, so the only way we could communicate at this table was though the Italian we have learned since we have all been here. it was very funny. And fun. We know collectively all of ten words. Luckily I had my clie. And I was able to translate and look up words. but this was a fun experience. In the morning I leave. I am happy to be leaving Florence.   

Sometimes you meet people and you know you will see them many times in your life. You know they are friends. 

And sometimes you meet people and you know that you will never see them again. that they are just passing through your life. And this is o.k. too. 

On the screen: a personal journey through American film with martin Scorsese. This is a great documentary that turns you on to all the best American films over the last 100 years. He talks you through them which is really cool. This is an important and powerful film. Very meaningful reflection of America itself through the movies. I have learned about the iconoclasts of film. I have discovered that there is a word already invented that describes me and what I am naturally all about. iconoclast. I thought I was a freak. (I'm sure I still am) But I never knew there was a label for this passion, this mission, that some of us are born with. What a magnificent film this is. Check it.