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A new spin on an old tradition
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| Viennese Melange served on a traditional sliver platter |
Coffee is a big part of Viennese Culture. Legend has it that the first coffee houses sprung up in Vienna sometime after 1683 when the hastily retreating Turkish army left large amounts of coffee in their wake. Since then it has been a cultural tradition to sit for hours in a coffee shop, playing cards, talking politics, and especially reading the paper. It’s no surprise then, that Christians would take advantage of the Vienna coffee culture to gather study and discuss the scriptures. A few years ago, in fact, some friends of mine started a Bible study group in one of the Vienna Starbucks locations. In the next four years they have expanded to all but three of the eleven Vienna locations. What’s most exciting is that because of the open nature of the groups it has become a non-threatening venue for all types of people to explore the message and claims of the Bible. From time to time the SBUXfellowship has asked me to help out with teaching some of their leaders and before we had to leave Vienna for our visa purposes, Liz and I were looking at helping out with this group in some way. Just recently we had one of the leaders over at our new apartment and he mentioned that one of the three locations that they didn’t have a study was only a block from our place. I said,” That’s funny, I’ve been praying about starting a bible study.” So since then we have been praying about starting a study at the Starbucks in Millennium City mall. I’m really looking forward to see what God will do with this. Please be praying that people who might not normally feel comfortable going to a church might come and hear what God has to say to them through His word.
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It Takes a Team
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| The line waiting to get into the immigration office |
Earlier this month we had our new teammates, Adam Spencer and Kasey Krominga, come to Vienna and apply for their residence permits. They are still raising their support, but Lord willing they will be ready to join us sometime this year. We made sure they got started on the process early so they don’t have to go through what Liz and I did.
Having recently gone through the whole process we knew what to do to get them ready. We helped them get all of the documents together and walked them through the steps of the application process. You may remember that the residence permits that we apply for have a quota on them making them highly competitive. The competition is so fierce that you have to be here in Vienna on the first working day of the year in order to have hope of being approved. Each year there are more and more people applying and you have to get there earlier every time. The first year we did it, we showed up 2 hours before the office opened and were around number 30 and 31 in line (60 is the maximum amount of permits that are given each year). Last year we showed up an hour earlier and were still about at the mid-way point in the line. That year people started lining up the day before and were keeping a list to make sure that the first ones that showed up were the first ones that actually got in.
With this in mind we planned to show up at 4am (4 hours before the office opens) to stand in line. However, since Liz and I don’t live too far from the visa office I decided to walk up there on Sunday around 3:00pm to see if a line had already formed. Sure enough a line had formed and I asked if I could put Adam and Kasey on the list. The lawyer who was keeping the list said yes, but that someone would need to be there the whole time to stand in line for them. I quickly called the team and we organized a schedule to stand in line for the next 17 hours! When I got Adam and Kasey on the list at 3:30 pm they were numbers 20 and 21. Adam came to relieve me at 6:30pm and by that time the number was up into the 50s. So this year the quota number of 60 was already met 12 hours before the office was scheduled to open!
Be praying that the Lord would give us wisdom as we look at the future. The good news is that this residence permit will continue to be issued, but the competition for it keeps getting stiffer each year. Pray that the Lord would grant Adam and Kasey the permit this year and that He would show us how to proceed if we add any other team members in the future.
International Apartment Hunting 101 Part IV: Moving
Moving options
I could probably say more about apartments and finding them here in Vienna, but this series has gone on long enough and so as promised I will share a little insight about how to (or how not to) going about getting moved here in Vienna.
When we first moved here we pretty much just brought as many bags with us as we could and then made a big IKEA run and that was it. Now that we’ve been here a couple of years we accumulated more furniture and stuff than we could manage on our own so we looked into a moving company. Though we could have rented a truck and had some friends come over and help us over a weekend, we were under a time restraint and so really didn’t have to time to find a rental truck and a weekend where everyone we knew could help. There are a good amount of companies around and they have some decent prices (most charge by the hour) but I would suggest the following to save you some money. First, have all of your furniture broken down to move. The rental company will be glad to break your furniture down for you (and put it back together) but that takes time and time is money…tick tock. Second, make sure that all of your small things are in boxes. Again for the most part we did this but we were running out of time and boxes so I started coming up with theses “ingenious” ways of packing things like throwing them in bags and taping things together. This ended up costing us space on the truck and time because it’s harder to pack and carry irregularly shaped items. Finally, I would suggest asking the company to come and give you a consultation before you move. This was a huge mistake on my part. If they have to give you an estimate then you can agree on a certain price. This keeps them from “milking” the job and taking longer than they need…which I kind of suspect happed in our case. Though, to be honest, I was glad not to have to carry all of that furniture down four floors of stairs on the hottest day in the summer!
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International Apartment Hunting 101 Part III: Private vs. Agent
It’s time to continue my blog series on Apartment hunting in Austria. I apologize for the long hiatus, but in the mean time we found an apartment and well; it’s quite the undertaking to get moved around here. I’ll talk about that in another post but let me talk about something that you should consider way before you move, when you first start looking into an apartment.
Here in Austria we you can use a real-estate agent to help you find a rental property. This may sound strange to many of you, but renting is so much more common here and what are the real-estate agents to do? Of course, agents don’t do it for nothing, and they can really add to the expense of finding an apartment. Most apartments here require a hefty deposit up front, usually at least 3 months Kaltmiete or flat rent (without utilities or building costs). Agents usually charge another 3 months flat rent in Provision (realtor’s fee) so going with an agent can cost you 7 months’ rent up-front! Most if not all of that you will never see again (landlords are notorious here for not getting your deposit back to you-we are still waiting on ours, in fact). It’s much cheaper, then, to find an apartment through a private individual. The downside is that private offerings are much more rare and since you are likely not dealing with someone who is a real-estate professional. This means that you are subject to their schedule when it comes to viewing the apartment and much of the time this means that they will book multiple showings at a time. This gives the potential landlord a huge psychological advantage when it comes to any negotiations because group showings tend to have an auction-like atmosphere. The first one we showed up to there were at least 4 other couples there and we were the only one with a small child. It starts getting really hard to be objective in your evaluation as you start hearing others in the group getting excited about certain features in the apartment. The place we finally settled on was a private place but the landlord owns a number of apartments and we were the only ones viewing the place at the time. It was a great experience and we have a really good relationship with our landlord.
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Pictures from the refugee ministry
We are discouraged from taking pictures of the refugees because of the sensitive nature of there situation, however I was able to snap a few pictures of the staff of the “Oasis.” These are some of the folks who make the ministry to the refugees possible.
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International Apartment Hunting 101 Part II: Landlords
The Second Rule of Real Estate (when renting) is Landlord Landlord Landlord
Before I moved overseas I rented apartments all the time, and in the States you certainly want a good company running your apartment complex, but when renting directly from private landlords, which I have found is more common internationally, it is essential to find a landlord whom you can trust. I learned this lesson the hard way while living in Russia. One of my landlords there, in an effort to protect his son who was facing criminal charges, kept his family registered at the place where I was staying. It was not a happy morning when the police came by the house and did a thorough search through my stuff looking for stolen items. Can you say “not cool,” kiddos?
So here are a few things that I look for in landlord when renting from a private person.
1. Character- Are they abiding by the laws as far as you can tell. Do you have a rental contract or is everything just verbal agreement? Is he paying taxes on the place? How does he feel about you registering at the apartment? Sometimes this stuff is hard to find out unless you ask. So ask!
2. Flexibility- Of course you can’t expect to get away with murder, you need to make sure you stick to your contract and get your rent in on time, but are they at least open to negotiation on certain non-essential things like pets or allowing you to get rid of the furniture in the apartment that you don’t want.
3. Availability- This is important. You are going to have problems with the place and you need to be able to get a hold of the landlord sometimes. Again this one might be hard to gauge at first, sure in the beginning they’ll bend over backwards for you, they want their place rented! However, once the deposit is in will you be able to call them when you are having a problem with the stove that belongs to them or you need to find the gas meter so that the utilities guy can read it?
4. Likeability- Now your landlord probably won’t become your best buddy and let’s face it, if your landlord is going to be coming over to check in all the time that might not be such a good thing either, but if you can at least get along with them that can go a long way.
Bottom line, a rental agreement with a private person is not just a contract, it’s a relationship. That’s an important thing to remember. Of course, the relationship goes both ways so I need to make sure I’m a good renter (regardless weather I have a good landlord). After all, who knows what the Lord will do through your tenant-landlord relationship.
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International Apartment Hunting 101 (Location)
Part I: Location
This ain’t HG TV. Trying to find an apartment overseas can be a daunting task and you would be really lucky if you end up with three awesome places to choose from (don’t get me started on all those whiners on House Hunters). I’m no expert, this is only my fourth time apartment hunting internationally over all and second time in Austria, but I’ve gained some insight into the process and I thought I would share.
Location is a huge consideration and there are so many variables. There’s normal stuff like distance to work and quality of the schools, but there are a few different things to consider when trying finding an apartment in an urban environment in Europe.
1. Parks– Not having a yard, you’ll want to find a place that has at least a small park with a good playground nearby. We are really lucky here because Vienna is packed with little Kinderspielplätze. (Now only if Adam Spencer were around to help us find them-it’s a talent only he has.) There are a couple of bigger parks around town and we are certainly looking around those areas. I think it would be a great way to get to know people by going down to a park and playing a game of soccer or frisbee or something. Who knows, maybe we could invite them over to our place afterwards for fellowship…start a Bible study. The possibilities are endless.
2. Public transport- Whether you own a car or not your access to public transport is a pretty important factor. Right now we don’t have a car so for us it is essential. There are three main kinds of transport here in Vienna. First, is the subway or U-Bahn. Over 70% of the population uses this form of transport on a daily basis. So even if you have a car, it’s still a good idea to think about how far you are from a U-bahn station if you want to have other people over dinner or a small group or something. The U-bahn is your quickest form of public, allowing you to get almost anywhere in the city usually in 30 minutes or less. The next two types of public transport are trams and busses. A tram, also called a Bim in Austria, is a lot like those trolleys running on tracks in San Francisco that you see on the Rice-a-Roni boxes. They are great for short distances but not a U-bahn substitute because of their slow speed due to frequent station stops and street traffic. Busses, or Autobusse, are in the same category as trams, but they seem a bit faster to me. What you really don’t want is to live somewhere with a long Autobus or Bim ride before you get to the U-Bahn station. That can turn a 15 minute commute into a 30 minute commute really quickly…or, um, slowly.
3. Shops- Shopping must be done almost daily. This is a result of limitations due to transport (imagine walking home with all of your groceries), and storage (smaller fridges, freezers and cupboards). It’s a really good idea to find a place that is a short walk from some type of grocery store. It’s even better to be close to several stores because different stores are good for different items. For instance, there are lower-budget stores like Hofer (the Austrian name for Aldi), Lidl, and Zielpunkt that have great prices on your basic staples. There are also higher-end grocery chains (Spar, Billa) that have a few specialty items that are nice to be able to get. It’s also not a bad idea to have a DM or Bipa nearby. These are Liz’s favorite. They are kind of like Walgreens or CVS without the pharmacy. Pharmacies are always stores unto themselves and are generally pretty easy to find just about anywhere you are.
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Our Visa Situation Explained (as much as it can be)
What visa are you on and how does it work?
We are currently on a tourist visa. We are only allowed to stay here 90 days out of 180 (approximately 3 months out of 6). In other words after being in Europe for 90 days (3 months) we have to be out of Europe for 90 days in order for our tourist visa to reset so that we can legally enter Europe once more.
What’s the difference between the tourist visa and the one you are applying for?
The “visa” we are applying for is actually a residence permit, not unlike a U.S. green card. This residence permit will allow us to stay in Austria long-term. The tourist visa that we are on only allows us to stay 3 months out of 6.
So your tourist visa will be finished on Monday?
We are leaving on Monday, March 28th which is day 88 of our current tourist visa. We are doing this because it is advantageous to leave a couple of days left on our current visa so that if our residence permit is ready to be picked up in less than 90 days we will be able to come back to Europe as soon as it is ready. Otherwise, if we stayed until Wednesday we have to stay the full three months outside of Europe even though our residence permit was ready. Sending it to us is not an option we have to be in the Vienna immigration office to physically to pick it up.
Why didn’t you just apply for your residence permit in the States?
We pretty much had to do it this way for a couple of reasons. First, we had to have a rental agreement in order to apply for our residence permit. As expensive as it has been flying back and forth it would have been even more expensive to maintain residences in both the U.S. and Austria while waiting for our residence permit to come through. Second, the competition is extremely stiff for one of these residence permits. There is a quota for how many are given out in any one year. I think the number is around 60 or so for Vienna. There are well over 60 people applying every year for this permit so if you are not physically present at the immigration office on the first working day of the year you will have zero chance of receiving a residence permit that year. That’s why Liz and I were at the immigration office at 5:30 in the morning (two and a half hours before the office opened) and still we were numbers 35 and 36 in line!
I have heard rumors that the quota system will go away next year and it may be possible in the future to apply from the U.S. Pray that this will indeed happen for the sake of our teammates that wish to join us here in the future!
If you applied in January why haven’t you heard back yet? What in the world could be taking so long?
This is being handled by a government institution. Need I say more?
How many more times are you going to have to do this?
Let’s pray that this is the last time! I expect that it will be. Even if we have to stay the full 3 months in the U.S. this time I feel pretty sure that we will get an answer during our next 3 month stint in Europe. Based on what happened last year most people who received their residence permits had heard back from the immigration office by June or July at the latest. Residence permits are always much harder to get initially than they are to maintain. So as long as we stay current with our residence permit we shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
I hope that answers all of you questions. If not, post your questions in the comment box below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
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