to the west!

well. i suppose it's time for an update. i am not sure what the future of this blog will be like. i started it so i could document my experiences in china and share with others some things i was seeing. i didn't really stray to far from that over the year, all though i didn't post nearly as often as i intended to. but i think that i will keep it going. it will still track my experiences, but probably in a much different way. last year i couldn't really put much of anything about my faith on here, i couldn't share a lot of the lessons of depth i had been learning. i hope to weave those into my blog a little more and thus, delve a little deeper. using the blog title in the blog...not ok. last time, i promise.

so you may be wondering, where is jake? well, right now i am currently in seattle, sitting on a worn-in gray couch that makes its home at the bethany presbyterian youth house. a couple friends of mine have decided to save me from vagrancy and take me in while i search for a place to live/work. i am sleeping in a small closet-a much better setup than the couch. i might start sleeping in a larger closet here soon. but we will see. that is my living situation at the moment. i haven't found any great opportunities for housing opportunities yet, but i was really hoping to find some kind of job before then so i could get a better idea of where i should be living (since i want to bike and bus and not have a car). but i am changing this theory a bit and i have no priority on the other, i was thinking about loving my neighbors the other day and realized it would just be cool to have actual neighbors to love and a place to rest my head on a more permament basis and that it might be more important to find a community to live in first.*

in regards to the job front...i have been poking around, but haven't found anything that i am really excited about yet. i have found some things to which i have responded, oh, that could work. but nothing that i have felt really fit just what i am looking for. the problem may be that i dont really know exactly what i am looking for, but maybe not. i am going to catch up with some people this week that will give me some more insight in to this and i am starting to realize how valuable it is to just know people who know people. the internet is great for job listings and all, but nothing is as good as a personal recommendation/reference. something i have always known, but not something i have really had to utilize, thus i have not fully appreciated it. so jobs...are coming along. ideally, it would be great to be working in a position where i could gain insight into community/public health. i am really considering this as an area of future work (possibly more internationally, but also in urban areas as well). so that would be great, by my standards. but i am still just praying that i may follow the lord's leading.*

*but here is the asterick to all this. i am really considering moving out to new hampshire for a month or so to live with ricky, hang with ricky, surf with ricky, see the east coast, and study for the gre. i really want to see everyone in seattle that i haven't seen for the last year and try and set some stuff up for now, or for when i return to new hampshire. we will see. i'll keep you all posted on that. but that's whats happening. just a lot of thinking and doing surrounding those few things.