It almost happened today! I almost became an official Austrian! I almost bought my dirndl!!!
(Just in case you're not aware: a dirndl is the traditional Austrian dress.)
Anyway my friend Emilie told me about this awesome sale in her town on dirndls. Everything was half off!!! Now dirndls-good dirndls-are really expensive. A reasonable price for a good quality dirndl is about 150-200 euros! So I had to take advantage of this deal!!
Anyway, I took the train to Gleisdorf with Crash and Courtney. These two are hilarious, it was probably one of the silliest weirdest train rides I've ever experienced. We met up with Emilie and her host brother there, and headed off to the dirndl shop. I tried on a ton of different types of dirndls. I had my heart set on getting one with green in it. In older times, the styles, patterns and colors of a dirndl symbolized where you are from, and being from the Steiermark, I had to have a green dirndl.
Unfortunately none of the green dirndls looked good on me, so I thought it just wasn't my day to buy my dirndl, and I was pretty much ready to be done. But while waiting for the others, I decided to try on a red one that looked kind of cool, just for fun. It actually turned out looking really good! and it was 90 euros!!! Super!!
But I was still a little skeptic. I had always pictured my dirndl being green, but everyone kept telling me it looked really good on me, and I even got an Austrian boy's opinion on it, and lets face it. that's all that matters. Right?
Anyway I said I'd think about it a bit more while we got something to eat. So we headed to this American snack shack place and all had milk shakes! My first milk shake in ages I was so excited. Maybe I should't have gotten so hyped up about it, sadly it was kinda a let down. Crash and I, the only two Americans, were both pretty disappointed with them, but all the others thought they were great! Milk shakes are supposed to be thick like ice cream, but these were just like milk put in a blender with some Oreos a literal translation of "milk shake".
Finally time to make my decision about the dress. I decided It looked good, was a great pries, and if I really didn't like in two weeks, I could always return it so back to the store we went to buy it!
This was such a big step for me. Finally buying my dirndl! Something the other exchange students and I have been talking about before we even got to Austria. I got up to the cashier and noticed a sign. It said only "debit and cash only." Crap. I only had my credit card with me.
So I ended up not getting my dirndl today. The store is hold it for me to buy tomorrow, but it was a little sad going home empty handed today. But my trip to Gleisdorf wasn't a complete waste. I had a fantastic time hanging out with Crash, Emilie and Courtney, and Emilie's host brother is really cool too. Also I got to try Austrian's version of milk shakes, and see Gleisdorf for the first time. Even though it's just half an hour away, I've never been till today, and it's such a cute town. Not too big not too small. And to top it all off, it was the first warm day, we've had for a long time, and I felt so cool walking around with my new aviators on and my hair up! Anyway I had a fantastic afternoon, and I can't wait to get my dirndl tomorrow. Pictures to come soon. I'm going to need all your opinions on it!
