Semester 10 Chapter XX: Family Guy

Hello world, your boy taeb is back at this with another one. Energy is good, vibes are alright, sun is shining, I just showered off today’s three dives, good music is blasting out my headphones… Life is good. I hope y’all doing at least as good as me. Just sit back, relax and let me walk you through my last week. 

 

So on Monday my sister, her fiancee and my nephew arrived. I was in the water when they did so my boss picked them up at the station in Rabac. I ran towards them the second I made it to the base and ever since that moment we’ve been spending quite some time together. It’s beautiful how great everything feels with them. Them two together, them three together… And I feel I fit that to some degree too. Honestly, I’m just glad they made it here and they like it. It’s a bit resorty but it turns out that with the baby all the pools, parks and playgrounds kinda make sense.

 

Besides our little evenings and stuff, I managed to get about 1,5 days off diving and we took full fucking advantage of that. We rented a car which was a bit of a hassle cause they really try to charge you for fucking everything (car rental prices are almost twice as high compared to Tenerife). But the car was good. Some fancy Peugeot. See, I usually drive some serious vintage shit so every time I’m behind a wheel of something that barely makes a sound and has an engine that feels strong, I’m a bit overwhelmed. So yeah, that was Friday. We went to Rijeka to hang out with a couple those three met on the train here. They spend their holiday in the area with babies (twins of my nephew’s age) too. I was clearly a third wheel there but I was enjoying myself. We got some awesome vegan food and soy cappuccinos, we walked around the town a little… It just felt good being somewhere else for a minute. In the evening I crashed at my sis’ mobile home cause they have an extra room just like that. That was also refreshing. 

 

We spent Saturday together too. By the pool, in this stupid fucking tourist train that takes you like 1km around the shore and is there only to get easy buck from idiots. And parents whose kids love trains and things that look like them. I never thought that I would be paying for that kinda service but since my nephew is a real train enthusiast, there we went. It was easy, the hard part was convincing the little fella that it’s time to leave that motherfucker. I witnessed my sister being bitten in her forearm first hand. Babies do get emotional fast. We also did a really good vegan burger in one of the restaurants in Rabac. Not the cheapest but really good. I feel happy that there’s a choice like this in such a small town. 

And today… I took my sister diving! I was concerned that it might be the kinda situation where you just drag somebody you love into something you love and that person won’t get it at all… But she totally nailed it, enjoyed it and we took tons of great pics. I probably haven’t seen anybody being this cool on their first dive. There wasn’t a fragment of panic anywhere, it all went super smooth and natural. That felt super good… We’re doing open water cert the first change we get. 

 

Apart from that it’s been diving with different people (we even did one awesome night dive with the young intern here!) and teaching some of the classes I got left for the summer. Lotta physical activity, good sleep, good food… Everything cool. My heart goes out to people in the Czech Republic who got affected by the tornado. For real. Don’t take shit for granted and if you love somebody tell them. One!

Highlights:

• My sis diving!
• Vegan Magnum available in Rabac. If the girls hadn’t come, I’d never know.
• The nephew. So much love...

Semester 10 Chapter XIX: Straightenin’

Okay, so the first week of real ass diving over here has been concluded. And it was a ride. I’m not gonna overdo this intro so without further ado, let’s get to it. 

 

Last Sunday, the boss and his lady arrived which means way less me time. The morning after this 14-year-old girl arrived. Her story is a bit unusual and I’m not gonna go deep into that but I’m gonna give you a brief sketch. She’s a professional athlete so her life orbits around that. Last year she did her junior open water cert here and since she liked it her parents (who I’m guessing are pretty well off and don’t have too much time for her) sent her here again for another 3 weeks to do some more diving and relax. Which is a pretty wild move if you ask me… Considering the fact they are not really friends with the shop owner and they have never spoken to me. Go baby girl, the world is full of nice people and there’s nothing that could possibly go wrong with strangers hundreds of kilometers away, right? Anyways, this whole thing... I’m basically something like a big bro/uncle these days. She’s my flatmate, we dive together, we hang out. It’s an entertaining dynamic. She’s a bit introverted, introspected and super active (also vegetarian). So we talk, we dive, sometimes we run. All is good and it seems it’s enjoyable for both of us. 

 

On top of that, we’ve had a group of divers from the Czech Republic visiting. Bunch of instructors bringing whole lot of people who started their courses in pools back home and came to do their open water skills and dives. Plus couple of their associates seeking some fun diving. Huge part of my involvement was logistics. Driving the van (I figured out a way how to reverse all the way to the dive center which is by far the most challenging driving maneuver I’ve pulled off to date), filling up the tanks (yup, I can work the compressor now too) and leading the fun dives. Again, everything I did went super smooth. People I worked with were happy, I handled a bit of panic in the beginning (which sometimes happens if one is out of water for about a year), we spent some nights outside the center talking, drinking beer and sharing stories. They all left today looking happy. 

 

I had to reschedule and cancel some of my teaching last week. Which wasn’t really surprising. I also hit couple of bumps with the shop owner. At one point I really stopped liking the attitude and general approach towards me which resulted in an honest face-to-face convo where we cleared out quite a lot of air followed by an evening of alcohol consumption. I believe we have both set some boundaries and clarified some situations which makes me feel optimistic about the summer over here again. Cause at one point I totally had all kinds of ideas. You see, I love diving but I already let one asshole taking advantage of me for free for couple of months so now my bullshit radar goes off quite fast when it comes to shit like that. I’m totally not setting foot in that river again. That’s on everything. Oh, and I also took control of the sound system. See, the boss brought this big ass speaker and the first couple of days he was blasting some local commercial radio which was killing every single bit of my spirit. That has changed too. Now it’s rnb, funk, soul and occasional hip-hop. And I see colors again. 

And that’s that. It’s a beautiful afternoon, I did two more dives in the morning, I’m about to go for a run with my new buddy and tomorrow my sister is coming along with the fiancee and nephew. Can’t fucking wait! Hope all of you are doing great. Love & peace to everybody. One! 

Highlights:

• Deep dives, shallow dives, more dives.
• The tropical weather. I love this shit.
• All the people I had a chance to connect with last week.

Semester 10 Chapter XVIII: Last Days Of Solitude

What’s good, everybody… Just got back from gym, listening to new Migos, vibes are all good over here and I sure as hell hope y’all doing well too. I’m gonna keep this one short because honestly, there hasn’t been too much happening last week. 

 

In terms of tourism, it’s still pretty low. You can tell there’s more people but the demographic seems pretty homogeneous. It’s mostly couples with babies or pregnant couples or couples with babies and grandparents. I have never seen as many strollers and baby bellies at one place before. It’s pretty safe to say that these people are not the primary target group for diving. So in terms of diving business, I’ve been dealing with some phone calls, e-mails and planning. 

Since I brought my road bike from the Czech Republic, I decided to take it out for a ride. That was Wednesday. I found this village named Skitača on the map. It’s the highest point in the area and the whole route was about 55km. I figured this would be a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong. This whole area is hilly as fuck and at points I was really cursing out loud to relieve the stress. The views were beautiful, the weather was nice but the whole thing was a different type of exercise. I was so fucked after it, I actually immersed myself into the sea for the first time over here (if I don’t count diving of course). 

 

Oh, and they’ve opened up a bike rental place next to our center. It’s a small operation with couple of bikes and e-bikes to rent and they employ this 19-year-old kid whom I’ve been hanging out with a little bit. Cool guy. Yesterday, we drank some beers after his shift. His English is a bit broken but it’s more than enough for us to chat. He’s given me a bit of an insight of what’s it like to grow up in a region like this. Small town, everybody knows everybody, not much to do, people’s mentality a bit screwed by tourism… Plus loads of drugs everywhere. For whatever reason. I enjoy having some company around during the day. 

 

I’ve been teaching a lot and the workouts and runs are still on the daily. You know what it is. Today, the boss is supposed to come and we have quite some diving ahead of us the next week. It really seems that the days with little to no diving are officially over. We’ll see. Shout out to all my people. And I’m sending some love to all my readers too. One! 

 

Highlights:

• New Polo G and Migos. Flames.
• The bike ride. Blood sweat and tears.
• Mare of Easttown. Some dope TV series right there.

Semester 10 Chapter XVII: Road Trips & Homecomings

Aight, so check this out. As I mentioned the last time, I was asked to do a quick trip to the Czech Republic this past week to load the van with some shit and bring it back. It didn’t take me too long to accept that challenge. The interesting moment was realizing that it’s even doable. Me feeling comfortable enough driving 700+ km in one day aside, it felt surreal to be able to get into a vehicle in the morning and be at my dad’s place in the afternoon. See, every time I’ve lived abroad, coming home felt like a fucking project that needs to be carefully mapped out, thought through and put together weeks in advance. And it ain’t cheap neither. So wrapping my head around how easy this shit is in my current situation took a minute. 

 

Anyways, Monday morning I went diving with this German guy who popped up in the shop. I’m fucking killing shit at Girandealla. Given the fact I haven’t really had a chance to properly get familiar with the site, my orientation is totally on point. It was another deep dive. Good visibility, massive jelly fish, whole schools of fish floating around. All the good stuff. And I got back to the entry point. Straight up. The guy was super happy and he left the first review for our shop online (yeah, that’s how old-school my boss is – this shop barely exists on the internet). 

 

Tuesday morning I got up early, went for a breakfast, threw my backpack into the van and off I went. I feel real good driving now but I hadn’t had experience with such a long distance so I was wondering how that’s gonna go. And it was great. Well, apart from Croatian border when this fucking guy decided that a tatted-up guy in a van has to be a drug smuggler so he stopped me, asked me turn the engine off and step out of the car. Then he spent about 20 minutes inspecting the van’s completely empty trunk and sniffing around my boxers and socks. To some people, I’m such a usual suspect... The rest of the journey was all smooth tho. I had some hip-hop blasting the whole time and since it was mostly highways, I was just relaxing, enjoying the sun a watching the world passing by. I dropped the van in the town my boss lives in, he drove me to Brno and before 6pm I reunited with my dad and his gf. There was a bag of cashews on the table as a welcome gift and an amazing vegan dish ready for me waiting on the stove. And some beer. And some whiskey. Plus one of my closest friends happened to be in Brno for one last night that day. So we went out for some drinks afterwards. Czech government has lifted some of the covid restrictions so the city is back alive. Weather is nice, restaurants are reopening, there’s young people everywhere. We ended up drinking some more beer at one of the squares in the city and it was awesome. So many people, such a great vibe. Kids wearing some crazy ass clothes, people vibing to some music. I got reminded of how cool my hometown gets to be. 

 

Wednesday evening I went to my sis’. This time around my nephew actually ran towards me and gave me a hug. Now, when a 2-year-old does that it really melts your heart a little. The rest of the evening was just amazing. I just love them for who they are, for what kinda family they’ve become, for the environment they’ve created for the little one. That energy is beautiful. 

 

I spent my Thursday evening at one of my bro’s spot just outside of Brno with some Jameson and Laphroaig and did a sleepover over there. The next evening I caught up with the last of my dayones who also happened to visit Brno. In a way, it’s absolutely crazy that during those couple of days everyone I love in the Czech Republic was around and available. And it was yet another awesome night. There was this dj playing some techno in front of a café and again… So many people, such a vibe. I met some new people and even one girl who recognized me as a guy she matched with on Tinder years back. We never actually went out (because Tinder is shit and for the most part, people have no idea why the fuck are they even swipe on it – that includes me) but she was also cool as hell and I stayed with the group we formed till about 1am. Wanted to stay longer but I didn’t want to overdo it. 

 

See, Saturday morning I got up early again, got some breakfast with the seniors, my dad walked me to the van and I was back on the road. This time I was even faster and I was in Rabac after 3pm. Went for a run, taught one class and went for a dinner to the hotel. In the evening, I had another catch up call with a friend I met in Tenerife. 

 

So yeah, pretty eventful week. Throughout all of that, I kept myself busy with my classes, devoted some time to reading and music. Got Carter 2 bumping in the dive shop at the moment and I’m looking forward for whatever next week’s gonna bring. Shout to all of my people back home! You guys are the shit for real for real. One!

Highlights:

• Foushée – I’m in love with that girl’s vibe.
• Driving. Who would have thought that I’ll end up doing shit like that.
• The dive. LOVE. THAT. THING.