We are on the train bound for Pescara on the coast of the Adriatic sea in the region of Abruzzo. We are crossing by train from one coast to the other, all the way across the country. Beautiful scenery. My great grandfather’s family is from here—a little town called Penne. I brought Stephano from Germany with me. I have gotten used to this now. packing a little bag and just running to the station and going somewhere far away for the weekend. This time we didn't even buy a ticket. We just looked at the train schedule, found a town close to Penne which doesn’t have station it is so small and just jumped on the train. How much fun. Eventually some guy comes on and asks you for your ticket and you give him some money and all is well. We’ll get to the town and find a hotel and rent some scooters and just explore the whole region for a few days and be back for school by Monday morning in Rome. 

Abruzzo is the country. This is deep country of Italy in the Apennine mountains we are up over 9000 feet above sea level on this rickety train. Beautiful green rolling hills contrasting with rough rocky terrain here and there. this is old country. Farmland. 

Me and stephano discussing the difference between Europe and America and the opportunity you are afforded. The difference between the beaurocratic systems and how in Europe the beaurocracy really impedes your ability to achieve the “American dream.” How envious and how much they admire the united states in Germany he tells me because of our opportunity for anyone to be successful regardless of their upbringing. 

There is a couple on the train just behind me from Marco Island, close to where I grew up. we are reminded of what a small world it is once again.

We are in the middle of nowhere it looks like here. The town we are going to Pescara and none of the other ones in the vicinity 

I am doing all the talking for us here. stephano does not communicate as well in Italian as I do. which is funny. 

O.k. we are here now. the end of the earth. Pescara actually appears to be a very large industrial city. we are staying right on the beach at this very nice hotel. Checking into the hotel we had a big problem. They refused to let stephano stay here because he didn't have a passport. They were adamant about it. of course as an American I just ignored the managers and demanded to get what I want. And as an American you can do that. but if you from some other country it is a different story. 

We just saw the blackouts in north America on television here. I haven't watched television in about 8 weeks. Wow. Is it terrorism? We are watching the crowds of people walk the streets and the people playing in the fire hydrants and we are laughing at the spirit and resilience of the Americans. God I love us so much. We are wonderful people. stephano agrees. But he says Germany thinks we are fools in some ways because we have the greatest country in the world but we let our presidents and politicians do things that cause great damage to us in the long term. he uses the blackouts as a perfect example of how we spend billions of dollars for weapons to pay back the companies that subsidize the political campaigns of the men who become president and congressmen instead of spending our hard earned money on things that could have prevented the blackouts. He says that the whole world is talking about what a ticking time bomb America is because our leaders have misappropriated hundreds of trillions of our money.

We were watching MTV and stephano says, I think it’s a good thing that we don't understand your lyrics too much. One time we translated some songs that were very popular from Britney spears in your country and it was such shit. We thought this would never be popular in Germany. The people would never listen to such shitty lyrics. We wonder how you can listen to tings like this. i explained to him that not all of our music is that bad. But it does make you wonder. What strikes me the most from hanging out with Europeans the last two months and hearing all their ideas and opinions and stories about America is that they think we are such idiots and yet they think we are so smart and wonderful at the same time. its this amazing dichotomy they say in our country because it so large and has so many people. I think this is very enlightened of them to realize that.  

Watching TV here is really funny. We are going back and forth between the Italian, German, and American channels and noticing the differences. Wow. What a handful TV is huh? After not having watched for so long. People freaking out over the openly gay bishop that was elected in Belgium. We have decided that these are people who are not happy in their lives and so they look to other people—kind of get in their business—and look for faults in others. Someone called in CNN really and said that everyone who voted for this bishop is demonically possessed. And she was completely serious. Can you imagine? “demonically possessed.” What is this the fucking dark ages?