We're been here two months and we're settled for the most part. That might sound like a long time to get settled, but we were reminded that there's much more to LIVING in a country than there is to just visiting. One difference has to do with the amount of plastic you need to carry around when you live in a place.I'm not talking about credit cards, but instead I.D. cards of different sorts.Well, the first one is sort of like a credit card--the bank card (blue one below). It's a "Bankomatcard." Yes, they say "card" now in most cases instead of "Karte" like they used to (again, see future blog on what English is doing to German). Austrians use Bankomatcards a LOT, more than they use credit cards. And that's, of course, a good thing. They're spending their own money instead of some bank's.
The second card is actually one that I didn't get here in Austria, but instead 22 years ago on a fine August afternoon. It was the first day of orientation at the University of Maine--it's my University I.D. card. I figured since I'm working for UMaine this year, I might as well bring something that makes it look like I'm affiliated with them. I'm sure you'll agree that I haven't changed a bit...
The red card is our VorteilsCard. It actually took two months to come although we had a provisional paper ticket to use in the meantime. It gets us half price train tickets within Austria if we travel as a family. If we travel to a border country (Austria borders on EIGHT countries!), there's a 25% discount. There's also a Card for single travelers.
The photo I.D. in the second group of cards below is my Aufenthaltstitel, or more commonly, a visa. My status under which I'm in Austria according to the card is "Sonderfälle Unselbstständiger Erwerbstätigkeit" or special cases of non-independent business activities... No, I'm not a spy. In other words, I'm not working for an Austrian company, but I'm not working independently either.
The second card is, in good German, our CarSharing card. Before we leased our car, we thought we would do car-sharing which is very popular in Europe. It's like renting a car but you belong to a company that allows you to call at a moment's notice, reserve a car from some parking lot in the city (if one's available), and then you used the CarSharing card to UNLOCK the car! If you're not authorized, the car doesn't unlock as you swipe it across the sticker on the windshield. The rates are about €2 per hour and then €0.48 per kilometer. It sounds very cheap, and it isn't bad, but it is true that kilometers add up very quickly. We used this once before we got the Citroën. A trip to IKEA cost about €35 ($48).
The third card is a must-never-lose card if there ever was one. It's a Jahreskarte for the Salzburg buses: a year's card. I can use buses without paying each time for a calendar year. It is übertragbar" which means that Jenny can use it if I'm not traveling with her. But if it gets lost, there's no free replacement!
The e-card (again CARD, not Karte) now takes the place of the Krankenschein (or doctor's form). It used to be that you'd take a Krankenschein to the doctor if you needed to see one, or a dentist or an eye doctor, and he or she would rubber stamp it and send it to the Regional/National Health Organisation (or Gebietskrankenkasse). Now they swipe your card and get paid. National health works here once again after an overhaul in the 1990s. For €23.42 a month (now just short of $30) Jenny, Nikolas, and I are covered for health, dental, eye, and medications. Unbelievable. In order to get that rate, Jenny had to register as a student at the Universität, but the total cost of that was €379 or about $520 for the semester (see future blog about college costs!) (see "Salzburger Schnipsel" to read about Jenny's life as a student)
The second card is, as it says, and IKEA Family Card ("Family" instead of the German "Familie"--awful!). With this card, we get some things cheaper, but perhaps the nicest perk (pardon the pun which will become clear in a second) is that we each get a free cup of coffee in the IKEA restaurant. Cool, huh?!Finally, we have a run-of-the-mill library card. It's quite impressive, though, you consider the number of libraries it includes. The Universität Salzburg is an old European school with no one campus you can point to and say, "That's the university." It's all over the city. It could be the huge Nawi (College of Natural Sciences) or a branch of the Theological Seminary (one department has three room). You could be anywhere in the city and walk by a door that has this emblem. Anyway, every department has their own library and then there's the Main Library in the Old City. This one card allows me to check books out of all of them.
Finally, I give you a side-by-side of my two I.D., the one I used in 1990-1991 when I was a student in this program and my visa which I use as my main I.D. this year. See...not a hair's difference....
