Moving right along...

I (John) have just been hired to promote a brand new academic center at the end of the earth. 

Okay, at least offered a job... 
Before they can hire me, the institute will first have to gain permission to hire a foreigner, which could take six months.
But the best news is that we still have six months remaining on our current student visas, so we have worked out a deal which will allow us to move there to focus on studying the local language and culture while we wait for my work visa to be approved.

One other exciting development, my boss-to-be has offered the newly added second story of his house to our family as we transition there. This will hopefully allow us to adjust gradually to our new lifestyle in a much more isolated spot. Caedmon and Whitman will have a three year-old playmate there, in addition to an elementary schooler and a middle schooler.
As for the town, it is set on a beautiful coast which has both Oregon-esque beaches with big sharp rocks and even cliffs, and other beaches which remind me more of what you would see in Florida (sea walls, piers, plenty of sand and no rocks). And the water is warm and there is plenty of sunshine and mild weather.

Thank you for thinking of us as I made my first journey up there for a two-day interview, abandoning Erin and the boys and spending two nights out of three on a bus. I definitely did not sleep much, but I spent the trip home marveling at (and a bit intimidated by) the fact we have such an ideal an opportunity to benefit a community in really big ways.
For now, we have about six weeks left to iron out the wrinkles in communicating via the national language, and round out our understanding of the majority culture here. Then we will have our last language and culture evaluation and move to our new home at the end of November. There are plenty of things in this transition which could make our lives easy or cause us big headaches/inconveniences, and we will do our best to keep things updated here...