3 Countries, 2 Capitals, 1 Day

Although Jerry has me beat (4 countries in one day - he stayed right across the Polish border), I went to 3 countries on Monday. It was supposed to be only 2.

We were going to Bratislava so that they could put our VISAs on our passports (basically affixing a sticker on it). This was already going to be an all-day event (travelling there is like 6 hours). Here's the problem: the train to Bratislava we were on split at some random time (I guess they do that, and the ticket-checkers usually tell us if we're on the wrong half) and we ended up in Wein (Vienna). The way we found out we were lost was that the towns seemed to have German names. The only thing in Slovak (Bratislava's in Slovakia) was this little pamphlet we saw on the train Back to Bratislava (I have no idea what it means, but it looks like a sweating chicken nugget).

It was definitely irritating to be in the wrong place when we were on a tight schedule, and we were not happy about it. It ended up that the conductor on the train to Bratislava understood our plight and said we could make the rest of our trip to Bratislava without paying an extra 10 euro (~$15, the price from Vienna to Bratislava).

So for that trip we left at 5:26am and got back home at around 8:30pm, most of that time was on trains (just over 12 hours). Not the most fun day, though there were some good things like more time with the other 7-month interns (ESIs) and some good discussions.

So, 3 countries, 2 capitals, 1 day:
Czech Republic
Wein (Vienna), Austria
Bratislava, Slovakia

THAT's NOT ALL!
We had to go back yesterday (Wed) to Frydek-Mystek, which is a 3.5-hour journey for us from Šumperk. So we spent the first half of our day travelling there, just to show the forign police that we got our VISA. Now, I'm no expert, but I've heard people tell me important things over email, phone, skype, SMS, and maybe other forms of communication. I would think that the Czech Embassy we went to in Bratislava could have made a phone call to the foreign police in Frydek-Mystek and told them about our VISAs.

All in all it wasn't too difficult, just a little frustrating to have to travel so much for something so simple. That does mean that we can stay until December like originally planned. We're NOT getting kicked out of Czech (and most of Europe now that the borders are down) on November 2nd! Praise God for working the VISA situation out, when a small mistake had made the forign police mad at us earlier.

Even Now, a Generation Waits

One Percent from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, they are white for harvest - John 4:35
The next generation waits...
...waits to hear the message of Salvation
...waits to see the Word become flesh and dwell among them
How long will they wait?
How will you respond?

JV is doing Vision Nights all around the country. It would be great to go to them, if even just to see what God is doing in other places. Check out 2x3campaign.com and go to one of the vision nights near you. I HIGHLY Recommend it.

A Generation Waits

Josiah Venture is coming to the States to share the vision for what God is doing in Central and Eastern Europe. This video below expresses my heart for this region:

Next Generation from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

It would be great if you were in the vicinity of one of these vision nights and could come. They'll be in 11 locations. Check here for more information about JV and to see if they're coming to your area: http://www.2x3campaign.com/

Facebook Usage by Age Group

So I found out today that Facebook has some sort of demographics information based on what people are talking about in their posts. It's got only a few different topics, which really comes down to 3 categories: Politics, Sports, and Music. This is the basketball graph, but it looks like all the other graphs for the most part. These graphs really only show me facebook usage/communication throughout the week based on age. This is for all facebook users.

I find it interesting that the most active facebook communicators are the 18-24 range, and they talk least on Saturday (the low point on yellow, must be a weekend party thing). the 13-17 age group is least active on facebook on fridays (low point blue), possibly due to end-of-the-week assignments. Usage picks up throughout the weekend. For the most part people use facebook least on the weekends and more throughout the week.

I found this info on http://www.new.facebook.com/lexicon/new/?demographics&topic=basketball

I just think this graph is cool to look at Facebook usage, you might find it extremely boring.