Semester 17 Chapter XI: Back To Museums

Okay, back to this motherfucker. Kendrick has dropped a surprise album and man… We are witnessing something special with this guy in hip-hop. His catalogue is shaping up to be one of the best the genre has ever seen, he’s in his own lane and I honestly don’t think there’s a rapper out there right here right now who sees him. Not to take anything away from the legends and all the talent out there… Kendrick is just different tho. Lyrics, topics, flows, beat selection… It’s a treat. And I also think Drake hasn’t been the same since the whole altercation. I mean… He’s still one of the most popular artists of our time but he got it real bad, his new songs don’t hit and I feel that even his older shit has a weird aftertaste now. Kendrick went absolutely mental on him and Not Like Us isn’t going away anytime soon. Anyways, it’s always cool to get some new Kdot. And just days after Tyler dropped. Good times.

 

Last week tho. So yoga. Obviously. Still on it, researching options back in the Czech Republic so I get to do it once I’m there as well. Not really slowing down. Outdoor workouts are still possible but it’s getting a bit tougher. Temperatures are sometimes approaching zero but I feel it’s still good getting your ass out and breathe some fresh air. Got myself some vitamin D pills for the first time in my life. To compensate for short and often cloudy days. And again… What I really love about this place is all the cycling. No matter how shit weather is, you got everybody outside on their bikes. It makes it all seem alive.

 

Over the week, we went for some cool food (Xian Noodles, Beesechurger, FOAM & Quench) and over the weekend I got myself the local museum card. You pay 75 EUR and you get a year-long access to about 500 museums in The Netherlands. On Saturday, we checked Kunstmuseum. There’s a Dior exhibition along with some other modern artists. After that, we took it to Omniversum for a screening of a Jane Goodall documentary. Motherfucker at the counter failed to inform us that it’s in Dutch which was kinda bummer. Still, visually stunning and getting through about 40mins of all the weird sounds which local tongue is consisted of was doable. Sunday, we went to museum Beelden aan Zee. Also good. Sometimes, it’s just nice hanging out in galleries. All those generous spaces with good lighting devoted to art. And even though I enjoyed some of the pieces, the older I get the less I’m interested in conceptual art. Make me feel something off the rip. Don’t make me read pages of explanation or watch 7 experts speculating what part of this pile of garbage represents vagina. I know I’m sounding ignorant now but I also believe that you can create something original and deep which touches people’s souls and is digestible at the same time. Anyways, that museum is really fucking beautiful. And it’s just by the beach. Right after that, we went up a ferris wheel nearby. It was a relatively warm and super clear day so we got some awesome views.

 

It’s Monday again, I got some classes behind me, some in front, already did some yoga, all is good. Hope y’all doing well. Shout out to all my readers and everybody fighting the good fight. One!

 

Highlights:

• Kendrick.
• Yoga.
• Museums.

Semester 17 Chapter X: Amsterdam Vibes

Hello world, it’s that time of the week again and here’s another installment of your one and only. It’s Monday afternoon, I just finished my lunch, there’s a cup of hot coffee on the table, we’re all set.

 

Last week was mostly business as usual. Work, shitton of yoga, some workouts, some running. And a lot of headstands. There’s still some way to go but it’s looking good and I can easily stay upside down for quite some time now. I’m basically just building up confidence at this point and at some distant point in the future, I’ll start fucking with handstands and possible forearm stands. We’ll see how all of that goes.

 

On Friday, I had an opportunity to join a tour around International Criminal Court. Never would have thought I’d get inside a place like that but it was interesting and even though I’m generally very skeptical to these behemoth institutions, some of their efforts definitely make difference and it was cool learning a bit more about it. Had a cool chat about tattoos with a security guy over there. Apparently, in the Netherlands they can’t discriminate against tatted-up motherfuckers so you can work at a place like that fully covered. The guy was super interested in head tattoos. His wife doesn’t like the idea but he’s getting divorced so fuck it. My man. In the evening, I got out with some lovely people to this Paloma place not far from where I stay. It’s a relatively big restaurant and it’s not great. A bit overpriced, their vegan menu isn’t all that, but the biggest bummer by far was the fucking slowness. My friends waited for food for over an hour which was kinda annoying but then they somehow managed to take another hour to bring me a glass of beer. And that’s actually kinda impressive in a way. Anyways, nice evening, good vibes, good start of a weekend.

 

Saturday morning, I caught one of my favorite hot yoga classes and then I was on my way to the station a subsequently to Amsterdam. The plan was to catch up with my friend who’s based there and to kinda sorta celebrate her birthday. She’s recently become a member of Amsterdam Soho House which I had not been familiar with at all. It looks like an illuminati place. They have this huge old building right in the center and if you’re a member, you get access to gym, sauna, movie screenings and a bar. We caught a movie called Piano Lesson which was confusing as fuck but I gotta show some love to the setup. A pretty small screening room but top notch audiovisual quality and they have armchairs so it’s pretty much like watching a movie on your couch at home. Their bar is on the top floor which gives you some pretty epic views at the city. My favorite moment was when I ordered some weird ass drink just to try something new. The waitress comes, I point out that shit on the menu and she goes… “How do you want it?” I, not having a clue what to do here, go… “What are my options?” And she goes.. “Dirty, filthy or we can do some other things with it”… At that point I just asked for dirty expecting someone would spit in it. See, if you don’t go to such places and if you don’t drink cocktails, you just don’t know. And I respect that lady because she gave no further explanation. Bro, you want it disgusting, terrible or shitty? Like please, can it just be nice and lovely? Anyways, got my dirty drink and drank it. All dirty and all.

 

I left Amsterdam on Sunday around noon and then I went pretty much straight to the beach sauna. This time it was four of us going and it was great as expected. Later on, we walked around the beach some more and in the evening, we went to a restaurant called Hagedis. Now, these guys are also a bit pricey (but then again, through Czech lenses most places are; there were some Swiss people among our group who were quite happy about how much shit costs here) but they are 100% vegan and the food is really good. Last time I was there, portions were quite small but this time, it felt better. We also went for a full menu, so it was soup, main course and a piece of cake. It’s a cool place and it looks so pretty inside. It might have been church or something back in the day.

 

So yeah, that’s where we at. This morning I went to another yoga class, I’ll probably do one more in the evening, and in the meantime, it’s quite a lot of work. Got some new students last week and totally had a moment of appreciation for what I do. I really enjoy this thing. And I feel I’ll keep enjoying it till AI replaces me or till our beautiful government raises taxes and other fees to the point when it all stops making sense. We’re getting there and I can't wait for another bump in January. Because sure, everybody has to contribute. Except rich. And super rich. And corporations. And then we can all act surprised Trump-like figures win elections all over the world. Oh well… I’ve been enjoying work a lot lately tho. Hope you guys are doing well, hope your spirits are high and you all are healthy and positive. Sending love to all my vegans. One!

 

Highlights:

• Amsterdam. 
• Dirty drinks.
• Sauna.

Semester 17 Chapter IX: Round 2

Funny thing is, this blog is old enough to contain a chapter where Trump becomes president for the first time. I remember going a bit ape shit on all the people that had cast a vote for him, being in disbelief and not being very cool about it. Well, 8 years have passed and we have another go. And I guess we are all a bit older, we are all a bit more tired and the world is also a different place. Since then, we got a war in Ukraine and Palestine, we got Covid, we got North Korean soldiers fighting in a war for the first time since the Korean war. And in the background, we got rich getting richer, poor getting poorer, middle class slowly evaporating and we have also probably jumped over an edge on our way to the environmental collapse. In addition to that, we got leftists losing big time globally and the whole discourse shifting heavily towards far-right. It is one hell of a situation. And I can go off again. Saying how fucked democrats are for not taking the “Bernie Sanders” route when they had a chance. I can criticize the whole Biden fiasco and I can dispute so many things about Kamala and her politics, it might easily take couple of pages here. I can also clearly state that having said all that, I would still take Kamala over Trump any day of the week. But you know what? None of that shit matters. Instead of a somewhat centrist woman of color, we have an alt-right joke that has somehow managed to maneuver from a nightmare all the way to reality. Again. Now with pretty much the whole executive system aligned with him. God help us. I think that in a long run, it’s a terrible thing for everybody but particularly for women, people of color, working class, middle class, international politics, Ukraine, Gaza… And the list goes on. But then again, I also think that unless the left puts themselves together and start offering a bit more bold and radical solutions to some very real fucking problems we are facing, they are pretty doomed. And I see no future in this half-assed approach. Things have to change. And I fucking hope I’m wrong. I hope those fuckers got this. I hope Elon Musk isn’t a money hungry lunatic that’s ego-tripping on everybody calling him a genius, hallucinating about moving humanity to Mars. I hope Trump calls Putin and ends the whole shit within minutes as he has said. I hope they have a plan for the climate that will work. I hope that they won’t restrict women’s rights, that they won’t destroy lives of millions of people in need and that everything is under control. I don’t believe any of this for a split second but I fucking hope that one day I open the news and I will be proven wrong. Anyways, that’s where we at. Let’s see what happens next.

 

Okay, back to this Hague thing. I’m still heavily hooked on yoga. It’s small steps but I feel much more confident in certain flows, I think it does good to my hamstrings, it’s still stimulating and I’m still having quite a lot of fun with it. Going on the daily, often more than once. My headstands are also going well, now I’m slowing everything down trying to fine tune it. I really like that with yoga there’s no cheating. In the gym or with most things I do, you can kinda sorta do it a bit wrong, push it a bit too hard, get the technique all fucked up and it still somewhat goes. When it comes to lot of things in yoga, you have to dig deep into your patience and accept the fact you simply can’t do certain shit. And then take it a tiny step by step, fucking up all the time, falling, losing balance, not being able to reach certain poses. And you breathe and you repeat and you slowly figure it out. There’s no skipping, there’s no cheating (it simply doesn’t work), it’s really just you and your body and mind. It is physical but it can get very meditative, it’s really fun.

So yeah, loads of that. Feels like I spend pretty much all my free time on it. I still do my outdoor workout, I still run. The weather is getting colder but it’s not terrible. And on Sunday, I popped into the beach Sauna once more which was awesome. This time, I went at around 3pm so it was still daylight. It was a nice afternoon, people were walking around the beach and then there was me with a 4 other people running around half naked swimming in the sea. Happy that thing exists.

 

I got another month in The Netherlands before going back home for the holidays, there are some cool visits planned, there’s quite some things to do, it’s all moving. Hope you guys are doing well. Keep you head up, keep it positive and don’t entertain bullshit. One!

Highlights:

• Yoga.
• Sauna.
• Workouts.

Semester 17 Chapter VIII: New Hobbies

I don’t know man, I just really enjoy these beginnings. When you find a new thing to do and you get a bit obsessed by it. It’s happened to me before with music, with traveling, with diving… Some shit lasts only for a bit (that downhill biking in Canada would be a prime example of that), some stays longer. And I’m totally getting deeper and deeper into this yoga thing. No idea how long this lasts but it’s that familiar feeling of stepping into something and being excited about every little thing about it. Plus it really helps with adjusting to this new place. I meet people, I slowly improve and anytime I have an extra hour or two, I just check what’s happening in one of the studios and go. And even though I still suck at pretty much everything yoga-related, I can already feel tiny improvements. I can stretch further, I can stay longer in my headstand, I flow a bit smoother, it’s all getting there. I sometimes go to hot yoga classes, too, and in a way, they have this sauna effect. No matter how cold or shitty the weather is outside, you get warm to the bones. Puddles of sweat underneath you. So yeah, that’s that.

What else. Outside of my sessions, last week was kinda chilled. On Friday, I grabbed a dinner with this Czech dude (whom I had met at one of the yoga practices) and on Saturday, I managed to visit the jazz bar we now sometimes go to once more. There was this blues band with an old dude with a hat and a pony tail playing your typical blues and they were actually pretty good. But man, the amount of chauvinism in the lyrics and between the songs was heavy. Pretty sure at one point my man was joking about strangling women with guitar strings. I mean, I get that there might be a generational divide with certain topics but this dude…

It is getting coder here but it’s not really rainy nor windy so I still workout outside and I still run with my shorts. You combine it with all the yoga I’m doing and you have a pretty solid routine. Work has been going well, too. And I really enjoy morning sessions at one of the cafés in the neighborhood. Wanna shout out Quench and Plenty once more. Hope you guys are doing well, hope y’all keep it positive and your spirits are high. Sending some love to everybody out there. One!

Highlights:

• Yoga.
• Workouts. 
• Vegan cakes.