I am so thrilled to be here! Its the start of an adventure. I am an explorer discovering new cultures and experiencing a different way of life. I have only been in Vienna for one full day and already I am blown away by the differences in culture.
Vienna or Wien is the capital of the Republic of Austria. It is on the north-eastern side of Austria which is a nation in central Europe. Over the years Vienna has been a center for economic, political and cultural reform. Currently it has a population of 1.7 million and continues to grow. Vienna uses the Euro as its currency and is part of the European Union. It was founded first by a celtic tribe but only grew into a budding city during the time of the Romans around 15 BC.
I arrived in Vienna on Saturday afternoon August 1. In order to fly to Vienna I had to fly from SFO to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Vienna. It seems like flying is always a hassle whether it be because a long flight, lost luggage or poor airline service. My flight was no different. I went into the flight knowing that it was going to be long but when I got to my seat I was put into a seat that was too small for my knees and had a broken headset. By the time I made it to Vienna my legs were sore and I was exhausted. Luckily at the Vienna airport I was able to meet up with two of my fellow students which allowed us to take a cab to the apartments.
Even after arriving at the apartments the adventure continued. We were quickly warned that tomorrow is Sunday and that all the stores would be closed. After dropping off my bags at the apartment I ran over to the store and bought food for the upcoming days. It was definitely a culture shock. Just walking around the store made my head spin. I proceeded to pick up cereal, milk, bread and jam; feeling those were safe bets and would tide me over until I could understand better what I was purchasing.
Unlike the US which has huge Safeways and Costcos. Vienna, like most of Europe has small supermarkets within walking distance to where you live. Our apartments were across the street from a Zielpunkt supermarket. Zielpunkt is a chain store like Safeway is in the US. Vienna has many different supermarket chains but the largest two were Zielpunkt and Billa. One major difference in super market behavior that I noticed off the bat was the fact that people are “ok” with you cutting them in line! If you don’t stand your ground and show that I am in line, this is my place they will proceed to cut you and try to make it to the counter faster. It is also common practice to let people with small items e.g. a drink or two cut right to the front and get out of the store sooner. Personally I am unsure how I feel about letting people with small items cut to the front. I believe the longest period in buying groceries is the part when you have to give the teller money or when you have to use your card to purchase your items. In general I feel like the teller can scan the items very fast and that it is the actual transaction that takes the longest. I feel like the places that would justify allowing low item costumers to cut to the front would only be large super stores like Costco. This is because in these stores people buy large amounts and the time it takes to scan all those items would exceed the time it take for the teller to complete the money transaction. I feel like in small stores like the Zielpunkt the costumer should have to wait in line like the rest of us though on the flip side it always made my day when I could jump in front of people because they wanted me too.
Vienna is an amazing place and the first couple days here have been wonderful. I am so grateful to have this opportunity and I look forward to many more exciting experiences.
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