Semester 13 Chapter XVII: Hip-hop & Vegan & Diving

Ay, here we go! The last blog of this year. To quote one of my old tracks: And the time flies like crazy and I’m still lost somewhere deep/Got standards so fucked up, they’re impossible to meet. Still valid. 2022 was an interesting year. Both on personal and on global level. I reevaluated my relationship with diving, I met whole bunch of new people, I got some more tats, recorded some more songs, I had a chance to create memories with some of my favorite humans. Shit’s been good. On global level it’s a different story tho. This world is just fucked. It is what it is.

Before getting to the credits, let me say couple of words about my last week. I went diving to Abades on Tuesday and I worked quite a lot. I got myself new running headphones as my old ones went to shit. Now, I’m ancient so I still use this USB stick MP3 player. So I need wired headphones. And it seems those are pretty hard to get these days. I went to this huge electronics store in Chafiras and they had like 3 models (as opposed to like 100 models of bluetooth ones). Got the most expensive pair (still cheap af). They only had “female” version tho, so now I run with shiny bright pink earbuds. Loving it. I spent Christmas Eve with my friend from Adeje. We went to a beach close to Caleta, swam, talked and vibed out. Not fucking bad for Christmas. Feeling grateful for that.

 

Okay now to the last year. I wanna send love to my family, my sister, her partner, my nephew, my dad, his partner… The whole clique. I wanna send love to my bros back in the Czech republic. My brother in Prague. Fuck, we still talk so much, we’re basically a married couple at this point. We gonna do some more dirt next year, this shit is far from over. My YLP partner and my day1 bro too. You know what time it is. Shout out to my Shanghai fam. Shout out to all the beautiful souls I’ve met this year as well. Whole bunch of great moments. Shout out to all the hip-hop heads, vegans, divers and runners. It’s all love. This world is a fucked up place but I consider myself lucky being surrounded by good energy for the most part and I don’t take it for granted. The love you give is the love you take. Keeping that shit on my mind.

 

I decided to do something different this year. Gonna give you some tunes I really enjoyed this time around. I’m definitely forgetting some but these are some of the tracks I had on repeat the most. So in no particular order, here we go:

 

 

And yeah… Thanks to all the readers too. Wish you happy holidays… If you love somebody, tell them. Fuck all that consumerist shit. Focus on mental health and be aware of energy around you. Hope 2023 is gonna be a good year for all of us. One!

 

Highlights:

• The people.
• The moments.
• The love.

 

Semester 13 Chapter XVI: Dip

What’s up everybody. Another Sunday on deck so it’s about that time again. Fresh off a run, Mount Westmore in the headphones, vibing over here. Hope everybody has had a great week, hope everybody’s feeling well, hope everybody’s surviving this winter which seems to be kicking hard in Europe.

My last week wasn’t really that eventful. I mean, I’m doing pretty cool moves with my work these days. I’m really cleaning my whole thing up. Got rid of the worst paid classes, increasing my rates for all the remaining ones, getting whole bunch of new gigs. So that is definitely moving. Outside of that it’s really nothing special. Which is kind of the reason why my Tenerife life is coming to its end. But I’ve tackled on that already plenty of times.

 

At one point, I watched this interview with this female Czech politician who apparently represents homophobic uneducated and chauvinistic segments of our society. And I was really impressed. So nature isn’t there to be protected, it’s there to be fought against. If a man hits a woman, it’s probably the woman’s fault, because she most likely did something to deserve that. There is no climate change because in her village it doesn’t seem like it. There’s no need to regulate fake news because people should be able to choose what they wanna believe themselves no matter how factual it is. Shit was amazing. I would also like to shout out our former prime minister and current presidential candidate who went on a promo run around schools and when asked (by some 7th graders) to name the planets in our solar system, he literally went: Moon, Mars, Pluto, Sun and Saturn. That’s it. He’s also like the richest person in our country. Guy’s a legend. I’m starting to feel this whole shit is a simulation. It seems impossible for all this shit to be real. Like instead of being human and protective of one another and this world, we are bowing to the most repulsive people among us. What’s up Jeff, I see you Elon! And our political representation doesn’t even pretend anymore that they have any kinda education or idea what they’re doing. They just say whatever fucked up shit is on their mind based on something they saw on their Facebook feed. Got some more understanding towards the flat-earth girl I met couple months back. I get it, it can get difficult believing any of this is real. Earth is still not flat tho. Just saying.

 

Friday, I met up with a friend and she introduced me to this Inside Job TV series. It’s hilarious. I also slightly changed my running track. It’s a bit longer now. I also accepted some diving around Christmas. Happy I’ll get back in water. It’s just before my friend comes for the NYE. Shit’s gonna get much social in no time. This evening I’m gonna drive down to Las Americas to check the new Avatar movie. Read some good reviews on it. Unfortunately, the only way to see it here is 2D on a relatively small screen (from what I understood, the real ride is that 3D mammoth screen version), it’s still better than a TV. And that’s that. Hope everyone’s good, hope you don’t buy into this pre-Christmas shopping madness, hope all of your are going vegan soon. One!

 Highlights:

• Inside Job.
• New Bun B & Gucci.
• Work.

Semester 13 Chapter XV: Next Steps

Lately, I’ve been thinking shit through. About what to do next, about what to do with this Tenerife thing, what to do after and shit like that. And although it looks I’m gonna stay here for the next couple of months, all scenarios I’ve come up so far aren’t really compatible with me staying long-term. So far, the end of April looks like a pretty good time to wrap it all up. And there’s quite a lotta things to consider after that. Staying home for a bit, visiting my people in Canada, getting back to discovering new places. You see, this whole “no more diving” thing is a bit sad but on the other hand, it is pushing me to build my income solely on online teaching. And I’ve been solidifying that these past couple of weeks. And once I’m truly secured there, I can do whatever the fuck I want. Tenerife is still beautiful. I’m still happy with the weather, I’m still happy with the ocean, I’m still happy with lotta things here. But often I need energy that can’t be found here. And I’m not under pressure or anything (which feels good actually) but I’m also enjoying playing with all these different ideas. We’ll see where this goes. 

 

Okay so what happened over here. After a pretty long while, I went a dive. Got called up by my day one center in Cristianos for two fun dives on Tuesday. I did have time so I agreed and we went to Las Eras. Had two experienced divers, conditions were damn near perfect, we did two dives to around 30 meters, it was great. A reminder of my job could be if diving wasn’t a completely fucked up industry. Again, pretty sure, I’m gonna devote a whole blog post to this topic.

 

Rest of the week was pretty chilled. I do have much more classes and I also started filling up time slots I used to keep reserved for diving. Really moving away from that. But yeah, lotta new enjoyable work, some talks with different language schools, some private students. Shit is moving.

 

Other than I’ve been on my healthy lifestyle as usual. Diet is clean, there’s plenty of workout, there’s plenty of running, a hike here and there. Oh and I secured tickets for the NYE rave. Can’t fucking wait for that. So yeah, it’s been that. It’s sunday afternoon, I got new A Boogie in the headphones and I’m about do a bit work shortly. Hope everybody’s doing okay… Sending positive vibes to everybody who needs it. One!

Highlights:

• Andor. Really enjoyed that TV series.
• New SZA and A Boogie. Some good shit.
• Being back in water. For real.

Semester 13 Chapter XIV: Gearing Up

Hello world, here we go again. Another week has passed and I’m back with this nonsense. Before we get to it, can somebody please get Kanye some professional help? Can somebody prevent him from saying anything publicly and provide him with some guidance he obviously needs? I mean, shit he’s been on is gonna get him locked up (which, at this point, wouldn’t bee too bad neither). The sad thing is, he’s really getting to a point we might have to cancel him. Like fully retroactively cancel. If it was a white guy saying all these things, he would be out of here already. We used to love Kanye, we used to admire him and we still take him as one of the most influential hip-hop acts of all times. But this is just too much. He’s turning a full-blown nazi for fucks sake. 

Now, back to this thing. Last week wasn’t too eventful. I spent a lotta time communicating with different individuals and language schools to map out some future classes. According to my calculations, starting January, I might be where I wanna be in terms of income. So fingers crossed. Outside of that I’ve been on my military regime. Workouts, runs, swims and generally as much time outdoors as possible. Really trying to be appreciative for living in this kinda climate.

Last week, I hung out with a friend in Puertito at one point and I did whole lotta online sessions with my close ones. I was supposed to dive at the weekend but it got canceled. I was supposed to go to this hippie market in the north too but that got canceled too. Due to bad weather. Instead I discovered a pretty dope hike not far from where I live.

They actually shut down construction around Puertito. They are about to build a new complex… Dunno, probably apartments or a hotel or both. And apparently, some locals have issues with that. And I get that. The housing crisis, gentrification and destruction of anything local due to excessive tourism is very real over here. What’s funny is watching reactions of these privileged white people online. They post pictures of these old skelets of buildings in the area surrounded by cacti, asking people if this is better than nice new buildings. At the moment, you got some squatters living there or it’s just empty. And the answer is… Yes, of the fuck course it is. You dumb fucks. Why don’t you shuv all your money and airbnbs up your asshole and go fuck a yacht or something. Jeez.

Outside of that… New Metro Booming dropped. And the album (narrated by fucking Morgan Freeman btw) is dope as hell. So overall, things have been kinda slow here. Slow but enjoyable. I’m gonna get a bit more work starting next week which is good. Hope you guys are doing well. Sending love to everybody. One!

 Highlights:

• Hikes
• New Metro
• Running again (after that heel shit)

Semester 13 Chapter XIII: Low Heels

Hey y’all. Greeting from sunny Tenerife. Weather is still fucking great over here, vibe is good, energy is just where it needs to be. New Enchanting in the headphones, feeling good in this bitch. Hope your weekend is going well too. So yeah, let’s get to this thing. 

Last week, I planned out and booked my February trip to Europe. Gonna spend basically the whole month over there. Gonna get some ink, gonna spend some time with the fam, gonna go to Lithuania for a week and I’m gonna visit Amsterdam too. I love the plan, I love the scheduling, I can’t wait to see all the people, I’m just really excited about the whole thing. It’s all secured, it’s coming.

Apart from that, I’ve been working on getting a bit more classes. It’s definitely moving the right direction. Couple more and I’m exactly where I wanna be. It’s kinda crazy how this shit goes. Sometimes I feel like it’s time to leave all of this behind and try to get like an “adult” job. You know… More security, more money, all that. But every time I go there in my head, I eventually go back right where I’m at. Shit I do makes sense to me. There’s no boss, there’s no office, there’s none of that shit. And it makes sense to me. I’m trying to be more open to more possibilities but I’m in no pressure switching shit up anytime soon. And all the new classes I’ve jumped on lately go smooth. Feeling good about all that.

 

Last week I hung out with my friend from Adeje couple of times, I met up with my guy from Brno for the last time before he left, but for the most part, I took it easy. Workouts, runs, shorter hikes. Enjoying the weather. At one point I apparently managed to fuck up my heel tho so I’m afraid I gotta take a break from running for couple of days. It’s all good tho. Yesterday, I drove to Abrigos for a swim instead. I believe that Abrigos might be the best place around for that. The harbor area is never crowded, you can jump into the water right from the pier and since it extremely well protected, you can actually swim there. I honestly have no idea why there never aren’t more people. Not complaining tho.

 

The ravers announced a NYE party too which makes me happy. Might have a friend visiting too so the end of the year could be fun. We’ll how it all shapes up. Sending love to all my readers. One!

 Highlights:

• The ocean.
• Nas new album.
• Writing shit.

Semester 13 Chapter XII: Re-opening Waters

Okay, I started reading this book. It was written by Isabel Losada and it’s called Environmentalism (How To Practise Without Preaching). It’s a really good read and I recommend it literally to everybody. It highlights the biggest environmental issues we face and suggests steps we can each do in our daily routines to do our part. So… I’ve been vegan for a minute and I consider myself moderately conscious when it comes to some things. I don’t shop for clothes (and most of things too, for that matter) anymore, I genuinely dislike owning more things than I need and I generally try to re-use things to their limit. Apart from some swag (which I compensate with tattoos), I don’t feel I’ve lost much. On the contrary, in this sense, I feel better than before. I’m still far from perfect tho. Really fucking far. Partly because I move around a lot so I don’t ever really get into thinking about a place I’m staying at as something I wanna cultivate for the future. And party because this world really puts obstacles in your fucking way. I’m not gonna go too deep here but we really need to re-think this whole plastic thing. Plastic should be banned. Or taxed to the degree when it doesn’t make sense anymore. It should become an absolute standard to walk up to a store with reusable containers for liquid products (both drinks and cosmetics) and it plastic bags for fruits just shouldn’t exist at all. And if yes, they should cost like 150 EUR each. And a punch in a face on top of it. I hate this. I buy the biggest possible packages of beans and pasta I can get my hands on but my house is still flooded with plastic. It’s everywhere. I really liked wet markets in Shanghai. They weighted everything and even though the ladies looked at me a bit crazy, they were happy to put the shit in bags I brought with myself. Here? Nope. Being encouraged to drop plastics out your life should be like the number one priority of our leaders. And it doesn’t look too complicated honestly. Well… Just got reminded of how fucked things are. Read the book tho. Every single effort is felt and appreciated. It’s a bit tiring trying to fight the machine but hey… I believe in energy. So keep you energy clean. Don’t poison it with bullshit. On any level. Limiting ways of fucking up the environment for the future generations is not such a bad thing now, is it… 

 

Okay, back to this motherfucker. Last week was pretty cool. I spent some more time with the guy visiting from my hometown. He went for a try dive, after which he decided to go through with the whole course. So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing OWD. It was after nearly a month in water for me. And I loved it. Conditions were beautiful, visibility was great, turtles were there. Abades rocked. This is what I wanna do here and there. Even if I hang up this whole diving instructor thing (which seems absolutely inevitable), I wanna do a course once in a while for a friend. It’s such a treat. The guy did great, another certification on my belt. 

 

I also did a short hike by myself. I went by the Abades exit and went up. The navigation was taking me up the steepest hills and I almost fried Pluto. After some time, I gave up, did a different hike on the way back instead and by in Abades for another shorter hike and a coffee on the way back. Wednesday and Thursday, I met with my friend from Adeje. One evening, we hung out around Cristianos, the other, we watched Fight Club. Over the years, that shit has become a comfort movie for me. Fucking classic. Saturday, I drove up to Radazul for a hangout. I’d never actually been there before. It’s just next to Tabaiba, where I dived on countless occasions, but I’d never made it there. Nice town, cool evening. 

 

Today, I met the guy after couple of days again. In Abades again. Beach convo, coffee, lunch in Medano. Happy days. Did some teaching in the afternoon and I’m bout to meet my Adeje friend later on. Overall, a good week.

 

It’s Sunday evening. I’m sipping on some tea, puffing some smoke and listening to some rap. I hope everybody’s doing beautiful out there. Sending some good energy to everybody who needs it. Or wants it. And love to all my people. Now and forever. One! 

 

Highlights:

• Doing the OWD.
• The night drives.
• The hangouts.