In Vienna: A Case of the Friendlies! :-)

Day 5

02 February 2011

I had a great experience at work today! A very nice co-worker from a different department forwarded me some websites aimed at helping expats meet other expats (how thoughtful!). Then she, her name is Delphine, asked me to meet her in the company’s coffee lounge. We talked for over a half hour and she filled me in on some of the things she had to learn when she moved to Vienna from France. She explained that the Billa stores are for food shopping or “everything in the kitchen” and the Bipa stores are for all other household items. I also finally found out where the holy grail of grocery stores is: the train station. And why is it so special? Because it is the only grocery store in the whole city that is open on Sunday.

She also divulged one of the secrets of the local grocery store check-out process. Once you pay for your items, you do not start putting them in bags at the check-out stand (nor do they bag them for you). You put them back in your basket (quickly!) and then go to the shelf/table on the wall by the exit door to organize your groceries into bags. I went to the grocery store tonight and finally felt like a pro with my Austria check-out skills! Well, kind of. I learned another important procedure at the grocery store – you have to weigh and place a price tag on your own fruit at the scale next to the fruit bins. There is no scale at the check-out counter. Whoops! The check-out girl was very nice about my mistake when I told her my favorite line, “Ich spreche kein deutsch” and even went to weigh and tag my oranges for me (well, I guess she had to do that part but at least she wasn’t rude about it).

I also learned a couple things about restaurants. First, tipping in restaurants is 5-10%. Second, when you hand the server your money for the bill, you say the total amount you want them to keep including the tip – so if my meal costs 20 euros and I hand the server 25 euros, I would say “22” when I handed them the money. Then the server would know I only expected 3 euros back after the tip. How efficient!

After Delphine helped me understand numerous things, she explained she co-leads a French group made up of several expats. She invited me to meet them for dinner next Wednesday clarifying I would be in good company with another non-french speaker planning to attend the dinner.

Aerobics on Sunday with Nina and dinner on Wednesday with Delphine & co. Yay! I am starting to make friends. J