The next chapter

It's been more than two months since the conclusion of my trip around the world. I'd planned on the last blog entry being the last, but I've actually missed writing down my thoughts as I go about the business of finding my place in the world. I find that chronicling my plans, hopes, successes, and failures allows me to focus in on the things that are most important to me at the moment. I also enjoy reading back over previous entries in order to see the paths I've taken to get where I am today. To that end...
A couple of weeks after returning home, I began a west coast road trip. On the northward leg, I stopped in Carmel, Oakland, Arcata, Portland, and Seattle. From there, I flew up to Anchorage in order to meet up with my brother Gabe and head up to Denali National Park together. My good friend Jenn, from Humboldt State University, and her husband K.C. were working up there for the summer season. It was one of those situations where several things came together at once: I was able to go adventuring with Gabe (I'd invited him on my big trip, but he was unable to join me), I hadn't seen Jenn in nearly two years and missed her, and I'd always wanted to experience some of Alaska's natural beauty. It was a great trip, and all my goals were met and surpassed! Running around the Denali tundra like nutcases, leaping into the frigid waters of Wonder Lake, and stuffing our faces with more wild blueberries than a person has any right to...it was great! And seeing Jenn turned out to be even more fun than I'd expected, because she and Gabe got along so well. Most people that know him think I'm lying when I say that he's the funniest person I know, but it's true. He's very selective in who he allows his proverbial hair down with, but for whatever reason he and Jenn were just as goofy and fun as I'd come to love and. It was really wonderful knowing that they each got to see the best of each other, especially when I'd talked them both up so much beforehand.
After nearly a week in Alaska, Gabe flew back to Sacramento and I returned to Seattle to start the return leg of my journey, southward. In both Seattle and Portland, my objectives in visiting were: a) become somewhat acquainted with the highly reputed cities, and b) scout out the area for consideration as potential places to live. My basic conclusions are thus: I enjoyed both cities (Portland more so than Seattle), but I don't know that either is right for me at the moment. Nevertheless, I met some wonderful people, got the explore the cities a bit, and got a sense for what it might be like to live and work in either city.
The stops in Arcata, Oakland, Carmel, and Davis were all of a more social nature. I have good friends (or brother, in the case of Davis) living in each and I took the excuse to stop by and spend some time with each of them. Over the last few years, I've been fortunate to forge treasured relationships with some amazing people. Thus it was really fun seeing the "scuba people" at HSU, the Guardino family in Carmel, my brother and his girlfriend in Davis, and of course the delightful duo of John-Paul and Andrea Tyler in Oakland. I'm a lucky guy.
I'm still here in Santa Barbara, sort of in limbo. I've recently decided that, at some point, I want to become certified (through TEFL, most likely) to each english as a foreign language. This would hopefully enable me to combine work and play by teaching english in countries that I am keen to experience: Peru, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa, etc. This "career" path could open a whole lot of interesting doors for me. However, I've decided to wait to take the course until after Matthias and Melli's wedding next May (YAY!). That way, I'll have no obligations to limit my time there. Aaron Beaton (another great friend, from Australia) has informed me that he'll be attending the wedding as well and so now we're planning some trips to Eastern Europe (okay, well that's my hope anyways) afterwards. I'm so excited about the whole glorious situation!
So basically I think I'll just try to find some odds and ends work either here in SB or, preferably, up in Monterey. That way I can save money for the trip to Germany, and whatever comes after. It's a very exciting time for me right now, and I'm incredibly grateful to be in the fortunate position I'm in!