Update after a looooooong time

Hello~ Sorry for the extremely late e-mail. In order to prevent myself from procrastinating any further, I am sending out a blanket e-mail, so sorry for the impersonalness...

So right now I'm living in Osaka, Japan teaching English at an English conversation school (a company). I teach children of all ages and adults of all levels. The adults are a lot of fun, and the kids are okay sometimes too.

I'm also having fun living alone for the first time. I'm still trying to master things like cleaning and cooking. I can make fried eggs, omelettes, spaghetti, stew, and taco salad. I'm currently on the lookout for any really easy recipes you can make with one hotplate-thing. I'm about to try to make rice in my secondhand rice cooker for the second time. I'm scared. :(

I'm making a salary and this month I have a surplus of money for the first time and I'm really confused. What did I forget to pay for?

I have some Japan pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/elbudzowski/Japan

And some videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/squeekzoid

Our 2.5-week-long summer vacation has just started, so hopefully I will be able to upload some more cool pictures soon. I have one on my camera right now of a giant cicada--those things are really loud.

Summer in Osaka is terrible. I have never experienced this kind of heat and humidity in my life. It's inconceivable! I think it's almost over, though...

I've been taking Japanese classes at the YMCA, but I don't get a chance to use Japanese much. We're not allowed to use it at work and almost none of my friends speak it. Most of my Japanese practice these days comes from watching TV. The Japanese love their variety shows.

For Osaka being such a big, famous city, it's kind of hard to find postcards with views of Osaka on them--what's with that? I found them in one place: in the middle of the insane shopping district in the center of Osaka. At that time, I was low on money, I only bought five postcards. During this break, I'm gonna find my way back to that place, hopefully, and buy many more. If you would like one, let me know what your address is.

Anyway, I'll send another e-mail soon, and the next one will be more interesting (maybe)! I haven't been blogging at all either, so I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not dead, in case you were wondering. I'm sorry it took so long.

Let me know how you're doing! Your life is probably more exciting than mine right now...

-Elsa