one week

Well, at this point I've decided spending a week in one city is too much time to spend in one city. Maybe from here on out I'll volunteer in different cities or something. You can truly do only so much sight-seeing before you feel like you've already seen all the main hotspots in a city. This is the point I've reached here in Prague. I've seen a lot, but everything else that I could see costs too much money.

Lately, I've found I really enjoy hanging out in local cafes and reading and journaling to God. It's been really nice to get back in the Word and also spend some extended time in prayer for people back home. I can spend 2 or 3 hours easily in a cafe before I'm ready to move on. I have a Kindle so I have plenty to read, plus I've been getting a copy of The Economist in every airport or train station that I've been in so far so that provides plenty of reading and catching up on current events as well. For whatever reason, I really love The Economist now, maybe that's a sign of growing older. Or just of me being a geek, as one friend so lovingly puts it.

I went on a couple of free walking tours in different parts of Prague on a couple different days so that was fun. On the first tour I met a lovely woman, probably my mom's age, and we talked for the entire 2.5 hour tour. She was an economist, so of course I had plenty of questions for her. She also owned her own business so I was also interested in that as that's something I've considered doing down the road. She told me to enjoy this trip, because I'd probably get snagged by a woman when I get back home. I thought aloud, "Yeah, I probably wouldn't be able to travel a lot if I started dating or ended up marrying a woman." I mean, even if the other person likes to travel, suddenly now it's twice as expensive. Plus they would probably not be down with couchsurfing, which would add enourmous expense to a trip. The only way I'm able to do this trip is because of couchsurfing. Tomorrow I'm staying in a hostel for the first time on this trip, and I will have been traveling for about a month so I'd say that's a pretty good job of getting couches along the way. She also said that if you want your own business to become successful, you basically have to eat, breathe, and live your business. According to her, you can either marry a business or marry someone, but usually not both. I'm sure that's the reason behind a lot of divorces, but in the same breath I know people who either have their own business or are the CEO of a business and still manage to find time for their spouses. At this point I think I'd rather marry a business to be honest. That way I could provide jobs for people in this tough economic climate. I still remember my pastor asking me a couple of years ago what people needed (he was starting a church and wanted to meet needs in the community.) I told him, very simply, that people needed jobs. How cool would it be if a church had a program for either training people with basic job skills or having a database of companies looking for people so when someone came to a church and needed help with a job we could really help them? Just an idea. I have lots of ideas, unfortunately they usually don't gain a lot of traction due to my inability to stick with a project for very long.

I'll be in Australia in a little less than 3 months, and I think I'll be ready to settle down in one place for a while by then. Need to start praying for a job to open up when I get there. I've got the first part down in already having a work/holiday visa so that part is taken care of. Another thing I need to arrange will be renting a flat somewhere in Sydney. I got in touch with a secretary from Hillsong Church and she gave me a list at the time of people looking for renters so I'll be in touch with her again soon so I can look at some options when I get there.

Well, that's all for now. It's been nice catching up with some of you over the last couple of days and hopefully I'll be able to contact more of you either tonight or tomorrow.