A Finnish Boy Bought My Lunch

The bank on campus no longer has money.  Can anyone explain to me what purpose a bank has if you cannot remove money from your account?  Granated, you can apply for loans at this bank or transfer money to someone elses account and probably deposit money....but you cannot withdraw cash.  I do not understand.  I only had 1,55 euros in cash and did not think that the school machines could take my credit card but was not worried because there is a Nordia bank on campus and now that I have funds in my account I should be good to go.  Wrong.  So, I went into the Dipoli cafateria and looked for my fellow American students - no sightings.  I then walked up to the lady in the dining hall and asked her if they can take credit cards from America.  She looked at me like I was completely out of my mind and said they did, so I went back in the line and got some turkey soup (best school meal in Finland so far, btw).  I went up to the register to pay and she swiped my card.  It didn't work.  I asked her if she could punch in the numbrers (which would have worked) but she insisted that she couldn't.  I said "idk what to do, I only have 1,50 euro".  Life was at a standstill.  Then some guy came up behind me with his food and said "I can pay".  He gave her his bank card which had a chip...I felt uncomfortable.  I told him "thank you so much".  Then I said "I have this much" and with no protest he took my 1,50 so really he only bought 1 euro of my lunch, but still.  Without him I may have starved.