Semester 9 Chapter VIII: Flying

Sometimes, I just sit back and take a deep breath to appreciate all the fuckery we’ve found ourselves in this year. It’s still kinda crazy realizing that whatever is going on in the world now would be totally unthinkable a year ago. Now we’re here. And not only, it’s a mess and the response to the pandemic is usually all over the place. Sometimes, it also defeats basic logic. So check this out. Restrictions have been lifted so people from UK can finally travel to Canaries. Good. Since British love these islands, plane tickets immediately became a hot stock and their prices skyrocketed from somewhere around 15 EUR to about 500 EUR one way. Okay. Now, in the UK, covid is still going hard. New infections, lotta restrictions in place. Same here, face masks are not going anywhere, the issue seems far from being resolved. So with that taking place, why not open a fucking convenient corridor between the places so drunk British can run around the islands spreading the shit wherever they go? I mean, I don’t really know what to do here but this seems like a stupid fucking idea no matter from where I approach it. Meanwhile, all hell breaks loose in the Czech Republic. Everything but stores with essentials and borders is on lockdown. My dad was supposed to come to Tenerife with some of his friends today and the flights got cancelled. Shit is still as real as it gets. And there still isn’t any kinda of finish line in sight. Fucking yay.

 

What’s been happening here tho. Well, mostly diving. So last week we did all kinds of things. I had a chance to assist some Open Water customers (the same guys who did DSD last week), I did another dive for my deep specialty, which marked my deepest dive yet (around 37 meters). I got a bit more confident with my mask removal skills and I’ve been steadily improving my buoyancy for which I get complimented here and there. Started inflating my BCD orally under water and I’m having fun with that. Almost caused a heart attack to my buddy during the deep dive tho. When I pulled the regulator out my mouth almost 40 meters deep to start playing with my BCD, she was sure I’m going through some serious narcosis and shit... Overall, I feel fucking awesome under water. I had a chance to lead a dive with all the briefings and all, and that went relatively okay too. As for the sites, we’ve done a bunch of Abades, but we did Tabaiba too and for the first time we did El Poris, a small town close to Abades. The dive is alongside this massive wall across the shore but more importantly, you can practice deep-water entry over there as there’s a ladder and steps. Actually, today is my first day in about 2 weeks with me not diving. So I just did some resistance bands workout, finished some work and the rest of the day is gonna be studying, swimming, reading and chilling.

 

I think I’m gonna get my own wetsuit too. It is getting chillier here and even though the rental suits are not bad, I could use a thicker one. Plus I feel this is what diving does to you. You start asking about options, doing your own research, trying to find a piece that would suit you the best. I mean, I’m bleeding money left and right this year, what difference would one wetsuit make, right? Plus I’m pretty sure I’m doing this IDC instructor course as well, so fuck it.

 

Apart from diving, it’s been the same. Lotta work, some new students which I feel really good about, lotta studying. Still trying to do my swims every time I get a chance to. Apart from that, it’s really just reading, music and trying to get some sleep. I could really use like 40 hour days now. I’m also doing my best to stay in touch with all my peers. Love! Shout out to all my readers too. Stay safe, stay dangerous, keep shit positive, we got this. One!

 

Highlights:

• All the confidence under water. Shit feels beautiful.
• Briefings. That part of leading the dive I do enjoy.
• Proper workout after like 2 weeks. Felt beautiful.

Semester 9 Chapter VII: Boats & Recalibrations

It’s Sunday evening, I got a beautiful sunset painting all kinds of pictures out my window, I got new T.I. blasting in my headphones (how awesome is it when one of your all time favs releases a new project), I feel tired in the best way possible, just finished a great homemade curry with green beans for a dinner. I mean, honestly, my spirits have been high, my energy is solid good, all has been good.

 

I’m on 65 logged dives at the moment and shit ain’t slowing down. That’s the thing I’m slowly getting used to. Now, I’m reasonable enough to recognize I’m still doing baby steps over here. With this internship tho, you get put into situations where you are actually one of the more experienced divers here and there. This is something I am trying to process. It’s not always necessarily about following someone’s instructions but one in a while it’s also about setting the right example, leading the way, helping with stuff and all. It is exciting, it just takes a bit of readjusting. Entering new doors, I guess. Last week, we did a lot of Abades as usual but we also did Tabaiba to do some deep-water skills for one of specialties we purchased. It was basically the same thing I did in Indonesia about half a year back as a part of my Open Water Advanced but it was fun. Tabaiba is a beautiful site, the wreck is awesome, and getting reminded how colors change 30 meters deep is still a bit of a mindfuck. The best part came on Thursday tho. This was actually the first dive we paid for as it included a short boat ride into open sea (the fee was kinda friendly tho). It also marked our first boat entry in Tenerife. We did two sites close to Playa de las Vistas (Moray Cave & Palm Mar Wall) and man, that shit was something else. Both dives about 30 meters deep but the aquatic life over there... Abundance of turtles and different kinds of giant rays... Massive schools of fish. There was a dope statue at the bottom of Moray Cave. Plus the fucking cave. The weather couldn’t be better and the visibility was crystal clear even at the deepest points of the dives. Pure concentrated beauty. On the surface, we even saw some dolphins jumping around. It was too good.

 

When it comes to my technique, I feel I’m getting little better with buoyancy and navigation. Step by step, still loads to learn. I also dropped 2 kilos from my weight belt. 4 kilos just feel better at this point. If there’s no customers, we’re going through different skills or taking turns in leading our group. Today, I volunteered for assisting DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) customers. Those are people who have basically zero experience with diving and are about to enter the water for the first time. So you gotta have instructor around. However, we can assist and make sure there’s enough moral and physical support, and to help securing smoothness of the whole operation. Our group was two customers, one instructor, me and another fellow intern. I was assisting with some skills in the beginning and then I was just swimming around taking pictures of the guys’ big day. Since I was the only of our crew who wasn’t fully occupied with the newbies all the time, I had a chance to roam around a bit more. I took that opportunity and on the second dive, I spotted two turtles which ended up being totally one of the highlights of the day. So yeah, I suppose everything went well. Spending so much time in the sea doesn’t get old. At all. 

Apart from that, it’s still a lot of work. Teaching, transcriptions, studying diving theory. I’m trying to complete one module of the DIvemaster manual per day. It kinda goes, I’m busy as fuck tho. I also try to push at least 40 laps of swimming into my daily routine. I mean, I get quite a lot of workout naturally but I feel I’m slacking a bit. I use my bands like once a week tops. I still get unlimited supply of great food which is both delicious and nutritious. The weather is getting a bit colder in the morning and in the evening but afternoons are still all good. And the ocean is obviously the same temperature, so who cares.

 

Last week, I had a chance to catch up with some of my loved ones. I see you, I miss you, I love y’all to death. You know what it is. I’m in touch with my fam quite frequently as well. My nephew is still this little rascal causing chaos everywhere you put him but we’re getting into a habit of smiling and waving at one another when we skype. Looking forward to seeing everybody when I get back. I guess December the latest. Covid is still hitting hard. Czech Republic is on 11k+ new cases a day. Nobody knows where this shit is gonna go or where does it end. Stay safe and treat this motherfucker with some basic fucking respect. The truth is, no one knows for sure what to do with it. Not me, not you, not people way smarter and more educated that us. So don’t do stupid shit and don’t believe all the bullshit online. This is still the time for readjustment, for helping one another and to think about what lessons can we take out this. And I don’t really think saving global capitalism should be anywhere close the Top 100 Things To Do these days. Shout out to everyone out there. One!

 

Highlights:

• All the diving (yet again).
• New T.I. & Viktor Sheen. Flames.
• Swimming on the daily.

Semester 9 Chapter VI: Rescue Diver

Hello world, you are now looking at a motherfucking PADI Rescue Diver. On Wednesday afternoon, I did the last set of skills and thus concluded the Rescue Course. It was also my 50^th dive. Everything is intact for this Dive Master thing. We have even received a parcel from PADI with Dive Master crew packs. There’s this ugly book bag, some basic slates, some manuals. Lotta shit to go through, lotta theory to absorb and about the same amount of skills to master. The saga continues. Oh, and I did practically no photos last week. So sorry for that, gonna try to do better.

Before we move further, let me just send some positive vibes to the world and to the Czech Republic in particular. Yesterday, the number of new daily covid cases broke 8000 mark over there and shit is not looking very optimistic. More infected, more deaths, more bans and restrictions, not much light to look up to. Canary Islands are still quite deserted and all the hopes for any kinda getting back to normal are six feet under at the moment. I have tackled on this topic many times before so I’m not gonna go too deep with it; I’m no expert anyway. But it seems it is going to stay around. Businesses are going to go bankrupt, people are going to struggle, some people are going to die or suffer some long-term consequences off this shit. I’m happy and grateful that all my people are doing okay. And I hope that sometime soon, we’ll look at this whole thing as some distant memory while drinking beer together somewhere. The only thing is... I’m really sick of half-ass approaches and solutions. And that goes beyond this. Everything is connected. This virus is basically Earth slapping us in the face for the way we treat it (in this specific case, animals). On Friday, we took the day off diving focusing on specialty courses linked to AWARE project. It’s a great movement trying to promote environmental issues, protect endangered species and stuff like that. It is actually one of the reasons why I have developed such a strong thing for diving. But I’m confused... How do you promote saving sharks by advising on eating other seafood? Part of the presentation was dedicated to explaining how to take local habits into account when explaining how to treat your surroundings better. Now, from where I’m standing, some random island locals eating turtles for ages is not a problem at all. We (as in West) need to educate ourselves, we need to treat places we colonize and use for money, resources or tourism with respect. We are by far the most accountable and responsible for the state this world is in. How are we to better the world by not eating shark but keeping our stakes? I mean, look at the bigger picture for Christ sake. How are we to better the world by eating different seafood and talking about plastic straws while drinking our coffee from disposable plastic cups and water from plastic bottles wherever we go? How are we to save anything over here if we do not connect the dots? None of these things are isolated issues. All of them are connected and we should really recalibrate the way we approach them. And don’t even get me started on all of this and the links to politics and human rights. Cause I strongly believe that that shit is connected as well. So yeah, I’m happy I got through the lecture, it made me a bit sad (not that I did not know but the figures are really depressing as fuck) but I don’t know... I feel that the machine is so strong, even people who mean well often neglect essential parts of potential solutions. Shout out to everybody raising these issues among friends, shout out to everybody changing their daily habits, shout out to everybody leading by example, shout out to everybody fighting the good fight. It might seem we all fight different unrelated battles to some but in my eyes, it is all the same one. We are losing big time but I it ain’t over till it’s over, right?

 

Well, back to my life here. Apart from Friday (theory), we dived every day. And apart from Saturday (1 dive), it was always 2 dives a day. Getting progressively better and more comfortable with everything. We still do vast majority of our dives in Abades but I don’t mind. The other day, I grabbed a beer with one of the instructors at Ivan’s which is a café we go to when we wanna discuss something or when we just feel like chilling for a bit. Go-to place in the town. On Saturday, we spent the afternoon doing some surface skills. Had to swim for 400 meters. Now, in order to score 5 points, you have to be under 6 minutes. I feel that’s kinda doable in the pool, not in Abades’ waves. Made it in about 8 minutes, which means 3 points. Still the fastest of my group (I mean, I still feel I’m a way better swimmer than I am a diver). The other skill was staying afloat with no gear for 15 minutes with the last 2 of them with your hands up. That was a piece of cake. If I don’t dive, I teach. If I don’t teach, I go out for a swim, listen to some music or try to do some reading for my courses. All of it is fun. I’m absolutely favored given the circumstances. Recently, I’ve been having dreams about my Shanghainese gang. That’s probably the only thing that fucks me up a little. I can’t wait to reunite with all of them. For real.

Weather has been nothing but amazing (except of shitty cold rainy Monday – wtf was that?!), my hosts are still great and their meals are still bomb. The other day, I gave the guy money for another month over here. So that’s happening. Apart from teaching, I get quite a lot of transcription jobs still. Diving is covered from my savings but I’m pretty sure my everyday life is somewhat supported by what I do for living. Not getting rich over here but I’m managing. It’s Saturday, I got some new rap in my headphones, I got an amazing view on the sea right from my window. World looks nice from here. To everybody out there, stay safe, keep your head up and keep it going. And look at the bigger picture. It always looks different depending on who’s looking but think out of your comfort zone, think out of your box. I’m a firm believer that that’s where important shit happens. One!

Highlights:

• Diving again. And being a Rescue Diver and all.
• Swimming. Trying to do it a bit more in the pool. Great workout.
• Minnie, the dog. Forgot to mention her. It’s the dive school’s owners' rescue dog found in Madrid years ago. She usually sits next to me in the car every morning and she is like almost like a mascot of the center to me at this point. So shout out to her!

Semester 9 Chapter V: Cacti

What’s good everybody, here we go again. Before we get down to it, let me explain the title. When we were riding around the island the other day watching all the cactuses local flora has to offer, one of my fellow interns pointed out, that her Australian bf told her that the grammatically proper plural of “cactus” is “cacti”. Checked it online and it’s true. “Cactus” and “cactuses” are acceptable too but “cacti” is definitely a thing. Which seems totally hilarious to me. Went to my vocabulary at the speed of light.

 

What else... Life is still good over here. Lotta diving; I have basically doubled the number of dives I came here with already. Last week, we did some scenarios in water. It was kinda funny cause I got paired up with this tiny French girl and her carrying me out of water was a performace that ended up being applauded by everybody. Overall, it was cool. It’s hard to explain but with every new dive, the water feels a bit more like home. I mean, there’s still tons of levels to reach. When I watch our center’s owner hovering with literally no effort consuming like 20 bars of gas per hour, I just keep my mouth shut and keep on approaching everything diving-related with as much respect as I possibly can. But it keeps on stacking. We get some experience with customers, we learn, we get more accustomed to each other as a collective. When it comes to gear, I finally got fully used to my new mask and I got myself a neat snorkel too. Step by step.

 

This weekend, we got Saturday off and we took advantage of it. I mean, my co-interns are really nice. They rented a car weeks ago (well, given the location they live at, it makes all the sense in the world) which opens possibilities for various trips. So I got a text Saturday morning that there’s a trip planned and if I wanna join. That was an easy yes. We met up at the airport (about halfway between them and me) which made me use the local bus service for the first time. The good part is I got a bus station like 10 minutes’ walk from my building. The downside is their ticket system. Since they don’t accept cash (hi, covid), you gotta purchase this card (2 EUR) and top it up. Works good on paper but on my way, I witnessed two local (!) ladies that were rejected aboard cause they didn’t have sufficient balance. Which would also be cool, if it wasn’t for the fact most bus stops on the way have no means of topping up. No counter, no machine, nothing. So I basically witnessed two ladies with money in their pocket being pushed back from nearly empty bus back to a station by the highway. Something is clearly wrong. Also, when you use the bus, you’re not only required to beep in when you get on but also beep out when you hop off. I did not know that, I did not notice that, so instead of paying like 2 EUR for my first ride, I paid like 6 (the maximum for the route). Not that big of a deal, it just makes you think if all the antient tickets or cash based systems aren’t a bit more... human...

 

Anyway, I made it to the airport, hopped in a lovely Fiat Panda with three of my new buddies and went to Anaga Natural Park at the very North-East part of the island. Now, Tenerife is something else. First of all, when you get off the highway, you pass so many small towns and villages, you wonder what the locals do over there. Is it all agriculture? Dunno, gonna find out. Next, the nature over here is crazy. To get to our destination, we had to go through mountains, and man... You change your altitude so much, climate literally changes around you. And I’m not talking only temperatures. You got everything from beaches and palm trees to moon land with nothing but cacti to pine trees forests. You get from tropical paradise to rain in like 3 minutes. You get from clear visibility into the center of a storm cloud within couple of turns. It’s like jumping through a portal again and again and again. And it’s all beautiful. When we made it to the shore up north, we got rewarded with black sand beaches and breathtaking views on the sea and the mountains. We got some beers at a random restaurant and took it to La Laguna (one of the major towns), cause the guys needed some shit in Decathlon. After that we did a quick stop at Lidl for some groceries. I didn’t really need anything but almonds and peanut butter always come handy, right? Then we took it to Abades, where they stay. I’ve been there so many times already for diving but I actually haven’t had a chance to enjoy it just like that. So we dropped their shit at their place, which was the first time me actually seeing where interns normally live. It’s not bad but I am real good being in the situation I’m in. For real. And then it was the beach. Sea felt good, I felt asleep on the shore after and around 5pm, I walked like 1km to the highway to catch a bus back home. One thing you gotta give them: the frequency is real good. I waited for like 3 minutes. Compared to car, the ride from Abades takes about 3 times longer. When you got headphones, it ain’t really an issue tho.

 

Sunday morning, just as I was working and sipping on my coffee, I got hit by another text – another trip proposal. Destination: Teide, the highest mountain on the island (over 3800 meters). Another easy yes. This time it was me, the Italian guy and the French girl knowing way too much about English plurals. And if I’d though I’ve seen all Tenerife has to offer the day before, I got slapped in the face with how dead wrong I was. We elevated all above clouds (fucking literally), ears equalizing like a motherfucker, and ended up in this volcano land with lava fields, rocks, hills... Words can’t do this shit justice, check some pics around. We did a little drive around gathering info on how to do an overnight hike to the very top (which is something we’ll hopefully make happen at some point), stopping at some unbelievable spots and eventually following one of the easier hikes in the area (about 8 km). Got back home around 5 feeling grateful for being involved in this. And for another great fucking day. Finished my weekend with 40 laps in the pool.

 

My host family is still as awesome as can be. I get so much delicious homemade veggie food over here, it’s ridiculous. Here and there, I catch up with the guy for a quick morning coffee or a food in the evening. Every evening I get a lunch box with the food for the next day. I repay by bringing home some groceries when I get to it. It’s a beautiful symbiosis.

 

When it comes to workouts, I usually do it on my off-days only as diving is quite demanding as it is. But I feel I’m kinda maintaining whatever state I came here in. Feeling good. Teaching is going great and my other gigs are going too. Still on some good kind of busy shit over here. Covid is still wilding out, Czech Republic is heading to some deep shithole, Trump just caught that shit as well... I don’t even know what to say to that. Please stay safe, make sure your close ones are good both physically and mentally and don’t entertain bullshit. All the love from Adeje. One!

 

Highlights:

• You know I gotta put diving here again.
• New YG and 21.
• This curry with tofu and coconut cream my hosts made the other day. My god!