Semester 8 Chapter XXV: Extractions & Pages

Here we go again. Let’s talk about pain for a bit. I mean physical pain, I’m not gonna go deep into emotional pain or anything like that. I consider myself a person who generally doesn’t mind pain. I don’t care much about injuries, falling from things, getting hit by things or getting tattoos. I actually think one of the reasons I get along with tattoo artist so well is that I don’t freak out and we usually talk for the whole session. However, there is one exception that fucks me up. Teeth. As I mentioned before, I’m about to get my braces and in order to do that, some of my teeth had to be extracted as there are too many of them. The day finally came this past Friday. And although I wasn’t too worried, I absolutely had that weird feeling all over my body the day before. I just hate when teeth hurt or when shit is being done in that area. Fortunately, my dad has a friend who is a dental surgeon so the thing was done in a friendly environment with local anesthetics and shit. All I had to do was to close my eyes (as the sight on all the fucking tools was driving me nuts) and just let them do the damage. No pain, just this dull feeling of somebody applying tremendous amount of pressure in places that pressure has no business being applied under normal circumstances. And then a tram ride back home with you face turned off, just hanging off your skull. That was Friday. I was supposed to go to Prague for the weekend but as recovery tutorial says no hanging outside, no warm food and no alcohol, I passed. Ever since than I’ve been lying around, watching stuff, reading like crazy and eating room temperature meals. But it is done. The feeling is weird; at the end of the day there are two massive teeth in my mouth missing, but in like 8 days the journey to get it all straight begins. Fuck yeah!

What else. I’ve been teaching a lot as usual. Still having fun with it. On Tuesday, the fam met up at this outdoor theater stage in the city center to catch a play. As my dad is very well connected basically with everybody in the city, it is really easy to get free tickets to events like that. It was me, him, his gf and the girls. When the show started, I realized I saw it last year already. But since there was a lots of improvisation and some cast changes, I enjoyed the hell out of it again. Same as everyone else. It was paused due to some heavy rain in the beginning but overall a great experience.

I had a friend in the city for a bit so we had chance to hangout here and there. I also went to this tennis club place close to the main railway station for the first time. No idea how the hell I didn’t know about it but it is pretty cool. Outside seating surrounded by greenery with trains going by on a nearby bridge here and there. What a spot. On Thursday I even did a beer with my neighbor for the first time. Oh yeah, and I picked up my driver’s license. I got that motherfucker; it can’t be any more official that this. Yesterday, the moms and the nephew stopped by to make us some zucchini risotto. You know taking care of me and alll.  

So here I am. Still at home, can’t really run or workout still. Apparently, these things increase your blood pressure which is the last thing you wanna do when you have two massive holes in your jaws. But in couple of days it should be all gucci. Now I’m listening to some barefoot hip-hop (I see you Logic) feeling pretty good. Shout out to all my people, shout out to everybody reading this. You know what it is. One!

Highlights:

• Surviving the extraction.
• Reading. I have so much time for it, it’s beautiful.
• Coronavirus. Looks like it’s slowly coming back over here. Like we need that.

Semester 8 Chapter XXIV: Grinding Till I’m Tired

This global pandemic situation is really weird. It has become a part of our everyday lives so sometimes you forget we have found ourselves in the midst of it but it is very real, it is all around us and it affects everybody. Some more, some less. When it comes to my life, it has turned upside down. If you asked me about my plans by the beginning of this year, I’d probably come up with bunch of scenarios, none of which would include half a year in the Czech Republic. And yeah, I do enjoy it here but I still consider it a temporary situation which is getting more and more confusing with each passing week with borders closed. America is still super fucked, China is still closed, some countries report what appears to be the second wave of this shit... Couple of weeks back, I was pretty sure that by September or October I’ll either be back in Shanghai resuming my Chinese life or in Thailand working on my dive master. At this point, both options seem light years away. I mean, I’m still doing well, it’s just strange. I’m sure all of us deal with issues we couldn’t imagine before tho. On top of that I’ve been having super confusing dreams about my exes from years back. And I usually never remember my dreams...

My last week was business as usual. The first half of the week was mostly work. Those days when you start working early and get back home in the evening. Since I enjoy what I do, it’s not really bad. At the end of the day, you are good kinda tired and you even feel a bit accomplished. Besides teaching, I’ve been working on some transcriptions and I also wrote a verse or two after some time. Might get back to recording at some point over the summer.

I’ve been also dealing with my braces. Gotta have two of my teeth extracted; one of the reasons my shit is all fucked up is that I simply have too many teeth in my mouth. Since my super fancy treatment consists of orthodontists sending me computer generated models and consulting me on the phone, I even had options on how to attack this. It’s all good, I just can’t wait for this shit to be over with and to have that motherfucker installed.

My people are doing well too, although many of them deal with issues similar to mine. We took the world where we got to travel wherever and whenever we liked for granted so being stuck is new to us and we just take it one step at a time hoping that we’ll be able to reunite and move on soon. Oh, well, when life gives you lemons...

So yeah, I spent some more time with the fam last week. Made a dinner for everybody on Friday, hung out with my dad drinking some Tullamore Dew yesterday talking about books we read and shit. Even had a cigar after a really long time. I also finished the plank challenge I’ve been doing for the past three months. It’s an app with sets of different plank exercises which are getting more and more challenging. I finished the whole shit with 4 minutes plank which seemed absolutely impossible when I started. Those 4 minutes felt like a month but I made it...

I’d also like to thank my readers again. This platform is a small one and I don’t really have any ambition with it. And I really just talk my shit over here. So the fact some of you follow this or get back to me with some feedback is awesome. It’s all love. Sending positive vibes to everyone out there and some more love to Poland! Oh yeah, and I just found out I got zero pictures for you from the last week. Totally forgot to take some, sorry. One!

Highlights:

• This new book about Kundera I’m reading. Some interesting shit.
• Jadakiss and John Legend – I Know. I heard this track when I was in Thailand earlier this year for the first time but I got back to it and it’s beautiful. Some classic shit.
• Dark Waters – great fucking movie.

Semester 8 Chapter XXIII: Intermezzo 2 || Tears of Rage

Poland. My thoughts are with everybody that is being affected by the wave of fascism that is taking over the country. And no, I do not think I’m exaggerating one bit. How else would you call legislatively supported oppression and discrimination of a minority? We are talking basic fucking human rights here. Sometimes I feel like an alien. How the fuck is this even a topic in 2020? This shit is so outrageous, I don’t even know from which angle I should attack it. That Duda motherfucker literally said, “LGBT are not people; they are an ideology”. Well, Mr. Duda, fuck off. You are a toxic, uneducated and evil piece of shit and so is everybody aligning with you. You are of the same cloth as those who supported slavery back then and who support racism today. You are of the same cloth as those who considered granting women equal citizen rights some crazy anarchist idea because women have no business being anything else than housewives. You are of the same cloth as those who would defend this insane capitalist chauvinist white man’s world no matter how much destruction and pain it causes. You a disgrace of a human being and so are all your buddies. It is inexcusable, it is not debatable, there is absolutely nothing to discuss here. You are ass backwards in every way possible and you are pulling Poland centuries back with your ignorance and hatred. I know we’ll probably never meet but I would love to punch you in your fucking face. And I would do it with passion. Fuck you forever, bitch. Oh yeah, and fuck Polish Catholic church which takes advantage of the situation too. I’m sure there are progressive people over there as well but the church as a whole has done tremendous damage in the process. And last but not least, fuck that Godek bitch. I’m not wasting any more space on explaining why but please, sit your dumb ass down and never fucking speak on anything again. The thing is, the shit you do actually kills people. You got teenagers killing themselves because they are being isolated and attacked for who they are. Because they feel they have no place in the world you are trying to build. You got people beaten up in the streets for who they are as well. All the suffering and blood is on your hands. All of it. This is no joke, you are fucking murderers. Of both spirit and lives. So again, FUCK. ALL. OF. YOU. Tell everybody I said that.

As for Poles, I’m so sorry. My thoughts are with you and my heart is aching. I wanna say better days are coming and I also wanna believe that but I don’t know... Stay strong, keep all the love flowing. Those insecure miserable nazis got nothing on you. I’m sending all my love to Poland. I have met many beautiful people over there, I know LGBT people living there and just imagining what it has to feel like these days... Watching the videos of demonstrations and seeing LGBT flags burning... Shit... I’m at a loss of words... For real...