Telaio

Ciao a tutti!

Last night, we had a great time together at one of our favorite bars, Kikuya. There, we exchanged our final Secret Santa gifts. I had Grace and gave her a Universita' di Firenze long sleeve t-shirt, which I had heard her say she wanted to buy. She loved it. Jeff had me and bought me a Pane D'oro cake which I have now packed away in my suitcase for Christmas. He also ordered me a mysterious book that hasn't arrived in the bookstore yet. He did an awesome job!

Today, we didn't have class, but Elisa set up a visit to see real silk looms (telaio/telai) in action. We thought it was going to be boring, but we ended up loving it! Students in attendance included me, Andrea, Grace and Carla because we all take History of Costume together. During the semester, our teacher had explained how a loom worked, but it was too complicated for us to understand. So, Elisa had us go to this place and get a tour of everything in English. The woman who gave us the tour was, of course, a master at fabrics and weaving, etc. I can't even describe how crazy the process was. The looms were enormous and sooooo old. They worked by manual operation, and we watched one woman weave very intricate and expensive velvet. The other woman weaved brocaded silk. Our tour guide said that all their clients are strictly the very wealthy including, kings, queens, the Pope, Versace, Fendi, Gucci, etc. We even saw some of the fabrics woven with with emblems of the designers. It was awesome! Now, I can really understand and appreciate why nice clothes can cost as much as they do. Fancy silks and velvets can't be machine woven; it's all done by hand!

After the telaio, I visited the Galleria Palatina to confirm what I had in my notes for Museologia. Then, I came home and packed. Everything is ready to go! My suitcase looks hilarious. Maria Pia helped me put wine bottles into huge water bottles, and then tape them up to keep them from leaking if they break. The Pane D'oro box is enormous, and I have a ton of little gifts everywhere! I just hope that everything goes smoothly at the airport tomorrow. Maggie flew out today and called me when she was at the airport. She told me that there was a lot of trouble with the personnel there because there were so many American students pissing them off. Everyone was trying to get away with going over weight, etc. Of course, I'm going to be grouped in with the rude Americans who don't bother to learn Italian. So tomorrow, I'm going to try to prove them wrong and speak all in Italian and be really nice. It won't be that hard. I hope they don't address me in English.

Anyway, that wraps up the first semester... I'll be home in America from Dec. 18th thru the 29th. Then, I'm flying out to Paris, where I will spend New Years with almost everyone from Holy Cross that is studying abroad (it's HC study abroad tradition). Then, I'll be back in Florence on the 3rd of January, ready to start studying for finals. Ugh. I may send an update from the US. We'll see.

Tanti Auguri, Buone Feste, e Buon Natale!