Look for webfaction as a hosting provider. It's cheap and you have lots more options than just PHP. Plus you get shell access. You can even set up your own apache instance.
Other than that, don't worry too much about the language. Find something you like and stick to it. Just remember to always learn new things and don't get set in your ways.
++ for web faction. They're really inexpensive, straight forward to use, and you can use Rails, Django, Merb, Pylons, etc... Plus, you get shell access, and you don't have to do a lot of the server admin stuff if you don't want to.
Other than that, don't worry too much about the language. Find something you like and stick to it. Just remember to always learn new things and don't get set in your ways.