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.

Semester 13 Chapter XI: Farewells

Hey y’all. One day later than usual but in the full strength and ready to go. Last week was pretty eventful and enjoyable. Still completely dry but that might change this week as I’ll probably do some diving with a friend. Weather is still super nice over here, I’m still in bit of a limbo in terms of what’s happening in the following weeks but I’m taking it easy. Whatever is bound to happen is going to happen. 

 

So last week. On Sunday I drove to Medano and for the first time ever climbed Montaňa Roja. It’s a short and easy hike and it’s also quite crowded compared to most of hikes uphill. It was nice tho. Good weather, nice views, good exercise. Later on I met up with a friend who got back to the island bringing me whole bunch of stuff from mainland Spain. Lovely. 

 

I also met with my diver friend twice. Once for a walk around Galletas in the beginning of the week and once on Friday for a goodbye drink along with her boyfriend and some of their friends. She left the island for good two days ago. We went to this Thai place in Silencio, got couple of beers and we wrapped the evening up in 33. I’m grateful I met that girl and even though we haven’t really been hanging out that often these past months, we have experienced whole bunch of entertaining shit together, I made friends with her sis, we’ve done some hiking, we’ve had some good talks… And maybe we’ll keep in touch in some shape or form in the future. 

 

On Saturday, this guy from my hometown arrive. He’s a friend of a friend and since I fully trust that person in his taste in people, I had zero issues meeting up with him for some beers and talk. We went to a bar in Abrigos on Saturday and met up again for Sunday to do a hike around Viaflor. This was my second time doing this Lunar Pasaje trail and it was awesome. We did a snack in Medano afterwards and eventually met up once again in the evening for some more beers.

It’ Monday afternoon, I got Lil Baby bumbing out the speaker, I already did some work and I got another teaching block ahead of me. I just did my run and I already did my workout today too. I’m on it. I’ve been also writing quite a lot. Keeping it up. Hope everybody’s doing well too. Sending love to all the readers and to all my people. One! 

Highlights:

• The hikes.
• The goodbyes.
• Nothing Changed. Been on this songs for weeks now.

 

Semester 13 Chapter X: RIP Takeoff

Okay, this one hit different. I love hip-hop. I love this culture. Wholeheartedly. And I hate that this happens in it. The last time someone’s demise fucked me up like this was when I learned about Nipsey back on a subway in Shanghai. Well, now it’s Takeoff. There’s not much to say here. He was easily was of my favorite modern rappers. I remember listening to Migos in 2014 when I was briefly staying in Nanjing. That was before Culture. I remember listening to Culture when it dropped. I was in Malaysia with some friends and that shit blew my mind. Slippery is still one of the coldest tracks of 2010s. I loved Last Rocket, I loved Culture III and the last album he released with Quavo just couple weeks back is amazing. And I know rap is a hypocritical genre. I know that it’s all love one day and I’m gonna shoot everybody up the next. I know it’s lotta violence in lyrics, I know it’s lotta violence in the streets. But there’s also energy that brings people together, there’s certain kind of demeanor..., there’s flow, there’s something between the lines that connects millions of people all over the world. And Takeoff was one of the good ones. No stupid beef, no aggression towards anybody. In his zone, killing beat after beat… One of the most unique voices and flows of this generation. He was 28. For fucks sake. So yeah… Rest In Peace man. And thank you. You definitely made your mark and you will be missed in the game. 

 

Outside of that, I feel like I’m in a transition phase. Diving is still pretty much dead and I honestly don’t expect much of change when it comes to that. I’m working on some other things now, exploring possibilities and mapping out my next steps. I don’t feel like sharing too many details over here as I have no idea how it all turns out, but there are definitely some things shaping up. The question really is “when” do I leave Tenerife for good. Might be by the end of the year, might be sometime in the spring, might stay couple months more. It should be a bit clearer in couple of weeks. One way or another, I’m spending a portion of winter in Europe. I’m either relocating or just enjoying couple of weeks of there by the start of next year. We’ll see how it all goes. 

 

Life over here has been good but totally uneventful. Which is a recurring problem with Tenerife. It’s a great place to get some good air, to be close to the ocean, to keep all your healthy habits… But not the best place to experience shit. Plus the friend I hang out with the most wasn’t here for the whole week. So I focused on work, my workouts… I wrote a little bit. Hoping I’m getting in my zone again. Another shot at making this shit a habit. Oh, and I changed tires on my car and got the sticker for the next year. Pluto passed the technical check! 

Well, it’s Sunday morning, I’m checking out the new Taylor Swift album just to see what’s all the fuss about (it’s actually pretty good) and apart from one class in the afternoon, I have a free day ahead of me. Haven’t decided on what to do with it yet but I’m sure I’m gonna figure it out. I hope you guys are okay. Stay safe and keep shit positive. Shout out to everybody out there. One! 

Highlights:

• Moving forward.
• Running on the daily.
• Actually go to swim in the ocean one. Might do a bit more often now when I don’t really dive.