The Car Rental Guy

I arrived to Vienna in late May after an 11-hour flight from Bangkok to begin my final MBA term. Webster had arranged pick-ups for each of us as we arrived, and I made sure to have my flight information sent way in advance to assure my ride would be there. I exited customs at the Vienna airport and there was a large gathering of people waiting for passengers in a horseshoe shaped “U”, none of whom seemed to be there for me. I hauled my three bags back and forth through the masses a few times, always remembering to say “I’m sorry” as I ran over people’s toes, and still didn’t see anyone holding a sign with my name on it. I then realized this was the one time throughout the year that I failed to write down the address of where I was going, and lucky me my computer was dead, so I needed to find an internet café so I could get on my email to get the address of my apartment. It wasn’t obvious where one would be so I went to a car rental place to ask the man there, and he offered that I could just come behind the counter and look up the address using his computer since there was no internet café in the airport (it’s a pretty small airport). He was extremely friendly and helpful and even helped me get a taxi after I got the address. I thanked him, asked his name, and asked for his boss’ email address so I could write the boss a note saying that he was a good employee. We said our goodbyes and I was on my way.

I was raining and cool the morning I arrived, and the 30-minute-mostly-highway cab ride went smoothly until my cabbie decided he needed to text and drive at the same time. We were in the fast lane, and every time the road would curve he would continue to go straight until he would almost hit the median, then he would jerk the car to the right to avoid an accident. All because he wasn’t paying attention to the road due to his more important than my life text messages. By the third close call, I yelled at him and told him no more texting while I was in the car. The rest of the time the phone sat in the passenger seat and not in his hands.

About a week later I emailed the car rental boss telling him about how his employee helped me, and the next day I got an email from the employee telling me he lived within 5 minutes of me and asking me if I wanted to grab a coffee with him! Too bad I’m not into balding, beer-bellied middle aged men.