Semester 10 Chapter II: Unmarked Territories

What’s up y’all! It’s Monday morning, I got new Jim Jones in my headphones (those Harry Fraud/Heatmakers beats never get old), there is a cup of hot coffee right beside me, sun is already up, sea looks calm, Chinese ladies from my compound are doing their routine morning exercise by the pool outside, life is good. It’s that time of the week again so without further ado, let’s get to it! 

 

Last week I did only one dive and it was in Alcala. Me and my friend did that one on Friday and it was awesome. I dived Alcala once before that but visibility was horrible then so I was kinda looking forward to getting an opportunity to do the site some justice. And this time it was way better. I set up my compass, we slid into our gear and went exploring. And everything went beautiful. Topography over there is amazing, marine life was all over the place and I even found a swim through I’ve heard about. Navigation went smooth. We celebrated the two awesome dives with some coffee around the corner. Great day right there. Oh! There was actually one more dive right after I finished my previous blog last Sunday! We did two dives in Tabaiba. One during the daylight and one night dive. Circling the wreck in dark was a trip. Definitely wanna do more of those in the future.

I was hanging out with my Irish bro quite a lot too. Since it turned out he had to leave the island at the weekend, me and some of my friends did a goodbye evening with him Friday evening. With the life I live people sometimes come and go but I’m pretty sure with this motherfucker... We’ll be in touch.

And then there was weekend. Me and the friend I go diving with these days did a trip to La Gomera, this small island I see every day out my window. It’s not the cheapest thing to do (return ticket for a 1 hour ferry ride is about 80 EUR which includes a car transport; to my knowledge local residents pay like 20% of that) but I always wanted to visit that and the stars kinda aligned. So I got picked up Saturday morning and in couple of hours we were walking around the town of San Sebastian, talking, drinking coffee, watching Tenerife from distance. I found us some accommodation on the other side of the island to get us motivated to travel around a bit.  We drove to the village of Las Hayas where we got ambushed by this massive cloud which brought some rain and removed all the visibility. So there went our hiking plans. We spent the rest of the day mostly in local restaurants. Surprisingly, there is a vegetarian place cooking local meals over there. It is also one of the least vegan friendly vegetarian places I’ve ever seen. I mean, they manage but you know how vegetarian places are usually ready to veganize everything on their menu? Not here... Out of like 20 options, 2 of them could be delivered vegan. Food was delicious tho... Vibe was great and we even talked to this grandma who onws the place.

Next day we initially planned some diving but due to the sea conditions, our dives got cancelled. More reasons to get back there. Anyways, we carried on to the west side of the island. I believe the place is called The Valley of Kings. Walked around the beach for a bit, grabbed some coffee and continued up north. We turned the day into a pretty dope road trip. Checking out some amazing views, stopping for a coffee or a beer here and there. I even drove for a bit which marked my first experience with automatic shift gear (shit is simple a fuck). Plus it was probably the best car I’ve ever driven. We concluded the day in San Sebastian before hopping on the ferry around 7:30pm and safely making it to Los Christianos around 9pm. Amazing two days.

 

So yeah, shit is moving forward, I got some diving planned this week, I got whole lotta teaching ahead of me. I’m picking up my boots, new fins and some smaller accessories soon... There’s some people I’m planning to see these next few day... Still having fun with things. Oh, and I had a pretty cool catch up with one of my fellow DM interns. She got back to me after reading my previous blog. Shit like that is one of the best things about writing this motherfucker. Keeps me in touch with people I like. So yeah, all of you out there.... You know who you are... Sending some love from Canaries. One!

 

Highlights:

• Alcala dives.
• La Gomera trip.
• Driving after some time.

Semester 10 Chapter I: Gearing Up

Here we go again! Let me give you a piece of advice. If you ever start a blog and if you think there’s a chance of you running it for some time, don’t name it after a place where you started it and don’t number your fucking chapters according to scheduling that totally might not be valid further on down the road. Look at this shit. This motherfucker is still named Shanghai Czech-in even though I haven’t been in that city for well beyond one year. And I title chapters by semesters. Well, the blog is already up and running so I’m not gonna do shit about that... Would I do it different tho? Well, probably not... Chaos is life. So welcome to the first chapter of Semester 10. There is no reason for Semester 10 starting particularly with this chapter but I felt it’s time. If you want some well-structured reading you probably stopped following about 4 years back, so I think we’re all good here. As for the others, thanks for kicking it with me for this long. It’s all love! 

 

This last week I was sorting out my dive kit. Tuesday, I met up with a guy selling his BCD after about 3 weeks after purchase. For the divers out there, it was Mares Dragon which is a super sweet one with a retail price around 400+ EUR. For reasons that are beyond me, that dude was giving it away for 250. With the receipt, after 5 dives. I was really doing my absolute best to inspect every square inch on that fucker but didn’t find anything flashing any red flags. So Tuesday I got that. Wednesday, I went to Medano, a city about 30km away from where I stay, to meet with a guy running a dive shop over there to deal with the rest. Took a bus which turned out to be fast and comfy. I arrived about two hours before the meet up so I can explore the town a little. It’s a small one with many beaches, cafés, bars, surf shops and a nice little square with a veggie market. I spent some time dangling my feet off a wall by the sea, watching waves, listening to rap and thinking I’m a pretty fortunate motherfucker. We met at the guy’s shop, got joined by my Irish bro who arrived on his Harley-like bike (which I generally refer to as “mobility scooter”), we got some beers, I got my regs, fins and I also ordered my boots. Cause my elephant feet size is usually not stocked up anywhere. The important thing tho... I got my own shit now! Feels fucking great.

 

I’ve been quite social as well. Being out with my Irish guy, going out there with a friend to celebrate a pay raise in her already well paid corporate job in London... We were actually talking about the possibility of launching some diving thing together at some point... I don’t really think this would materialize but we’ll probably have some more talks on it soon. See, even if this particular thing doesn’t lead anywhere, I feel fucking grateful for getting all the support and positive reinforcement from people around. Shit feels beautiful.

 

On Saturday, me and two of my friends went out for a dive to this Mar Azul site. We’ve heard beautiful things about it so we wanted to try it out. The day was beautiful, the road down the site was adventurous, my kit fit perfectly... There were some more dive shops diving with customers too. However, it seems that these past weeks we just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to visibility. It was diveable but not particularly enjoyable. And the guys told us that this is probably shittiest they’ve seen it ever. I mean, I was happy to try out my gear and to be in water again but fucking come on! Some visibility would be nice. After that we did couple of beers at this trailer-like restaurant by the road nearby and then took it home.

 

I had a chance to talk to some of my favorite people last week. You know, these calls that last 1+ hours... Proper catch-ups. Been working out quite a lot. I still don’t run cause my knee is still kinda out. It’s that soft tissue thing so I’m pretty sure it’s gonna take like 2 more weeks for it to get back to normal. I walk around quite a lot tho. It is getting warmer over here and some of my peers are planning to visit me over here. Can’t wait for that to start happening! Sending some love to everybody out there. One!

 

Highlights:

• My new gear. Also, hanging out at that Medano dive shop. Makes you realize that dive shops can be managed in different ways and some of people in charge are actually nice.
• My host making homemade soy milk for me. Just cause he’s a fucking boss.
• Promising Young Woman. That movie is fucking amazing!

Semester 9 Chapter XXII: Zero Visibility

Hello world! Reporting live from Costa Adeje... Tenerife is still totally one of the better places to be these days. The weather, the open facilties, the sea... Only thing that I don’t particularly appreciate is the lack of diving. I mean, I still do but not really with the center and I’m honestly not sure if I’m ever coming back there... Don’t feel too hyped about the idea. I got people to dive with tho so I’m gonna keep myself in water at least here and there till the situation in the industry gets better. I’ve been also making steps to the SSI Crossover which is a pretty easy process that will eventually earn me an instructor certification with SSI – the world’s second largest diving agency. Which should also increase my employability. We’ll see tho.... Oh, and I also decided that next week I’m sorting out my kit. Since my center has been nothing but useless with getting me what I want for these past two months, I just contacted bunch of other people and I’m pretty sure I’ll get everything straight in the matter of days... 

 

So yeah, last week I went diving only once. Me and my friend went to this El Puertito site not too far from Adeje, and it was a bit of a fiasco. Visibility was non-existing, entry was a bit complicated. We managed to do a bit of the first dive but after that we called it off and spend the rest of the morning at the friend’s spot up the hill drinking coffee and chilling. I also managed to hit my knee a little while at it which kinda disqualified me from running for couple of days. Well, shit happens... Gonna try to do more diving next week. Hopefully...

 

I was also out quite a lot with some people I usually hang out with these days. Drinks by the beach, drinks in bars, walks around... Good vibes only. Other than that, I’ve done a lot of walking by myself, got back to some albums I haven’t heard in a minute and obviously worked. A lot. I kinda consider myself lucky cause when I decided I’m gonna open up some of my time slots I used to have reserved for diving, shit just got at me like a fucking tsunami. So yeah... Enjoying my new students, happy to see some of my old ones. Work is good...

 

I got a bit better with respecting the curfew. Still not super sharp with it but getting there. Step by step. So yeah, last week was good. And I don’t really do resolutions or anything like that but I totally want 2021 to be the year when I turn diving into a paid job and also want it to be a year when I reunite with all the people I haven’t seen since covid started. We’ll see what happens but this is where my head is. I even had a chance to catch up with my Shanghainese Lithuanians after like forever... That took me back down the memory lane... Shout out to all my peers over here, shout out to all my peers everywhere else, shout out to all my readers and everybody that keeps shit positive no matter what. One!

 

Highlights:

• All these evenings over here...
• Old-school Trae. Classics.
• Completing SSI theory session this weekend. Almost there!

Semester 9 Chapter XXI: Weddings & Ghost Towns

Yo, what the fuck is up? It’s another Sunday and here we go again. Got couple of things to start this thing off with so let’s get to it. This Gamestop shit is fucking beautiful. If anyone’s is under any impression that whatever system we live in makes any fucking sense in terms of equality or just basic logic... Here’s a wakeup call. And shout out to the internet for making this happen. You guys are legends for this. Secondly, can my favorite rappers just stop doing fuck shit? Can Lil Wayne please not make songs with Tory Lanez? And for fuck’s sake, please tell me that that shit with T.I. and women trafficking is all bullshit. I don’t wanna lose more of my heroes. And I also wanna be able to listen to What You Know or Top Back without a weird feeling in my stomach... 

 

Okay, now back to this thing. Last week, I was on my social shit once more having all the fun in the world and also having serious issues getting home by the curfew. I really gotta work on this. But I met with some of my people over here, spent some great days hanging out, spent some cool evenings drinking... Quite a lot of memorable moments. On Friday, I went out with two of my peers and one of our conversation got steered into UK passport issues. Long story short, at one point my Irish friend got down on his knee with some bullshit paper ring he made out of a napkin in like 2 seconds and proposed to my British friend. You know, so she can have an EU passport. That was pretty hilarious itself but our waitress brought it home. She showed up with a bottle of champagne congratulating and shit... We told her it was a joke having her pretty confused. Well, we got to keep the champagne.

I did two days of diving for the shop. And I fucking love what I did in terms of my relations with them. Now they have to ask me to come in and depending on my availability or general mood, I get to choose. Well, I got offered one DSD and one Open Water course and I felt like wanna do that. So that was Wednesday and Friday. Turned another girl into a certified diver and had a beer with her in Abades after. Great vibes, great talk. I did one more dive outside of the school today. Got contacted by one of my friends over here asking if I could dive with her and show her around some new sites. We went to Yellow Mountain and it actually went perfect. I’ve been there only once before and it’s been a while so I had no idea how smooth orientation’s gonna go but man... I found everything I wanted to find, we had two great dives... I even used my compass to get around for the first time in ages. Plus I met one of my fellow instructors who went through IDC and IE with me in November. We got a drink with the guy and had and caught up. Brought back all kinds of memories. Beautiful day.

 

My teaching gigs are going pretty awesome too. I work a little more but I have way more time these days so it doesn’t really feel like that. I get more money, I got time to do a run or a walk here and there and I usually spend at least one hour a day on the terrace catching some sun.

What else. I finally got a package with new braces from the Czech Republic so my teeth are taken care of. I’ve been in touch with pretty much everybody back home and all over the world too. The usual. The weather over here is real nice these days. All is good really. Sometimes I almost forget about this whole covid shit. And man, these walks around the town in the middle of the night with no people and no cars. I know I’m a dick ending up doing those but they are fucking magical. Some apocalypse shit... Well, I hope wherever you at, your life is going just as you want it to go. Shout out to all my people, to all my readers, you know what time it is! One!

Highlights:

• Diving. Once again.
• All those nights out.
• All my students.