Semester 13 Chapter VII: Pain

Last week, there has been a shooting in Bratislava. An alt-right teen, son of an alt-right politician, took his dad’s gun, took a walk to a gay bar and shot two people dead, injuring one more person and eventually committed suicide. And that shit got me shooked once again. In the aftermath, whole lotta politicians, including all those conservatives, took the social media to express their thoughts and prayers… And I would like to express my sincerest “fuck you” to all of them. Two things. One, if you can’t accept the idea of making LGBTQ+ people equal to everybody else, sit your dumb ass down and shut the fuck up. You’re a part of the problem, you’re the fuel in all the hatred and you words don’t mean jack shit. Two, frustration leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, hatred leads to anger and here we fucking go. We live in the world where the alternative to right-wing liberals aren’t leftist but alt-rights. And this is the outcome. It’s all just heartbreaking. There’s no words left to say here, there’s no sufficient amount of thoughts and prayers to drop here. They simply can’t make up for this and they hold no weight. Unless you’re pushing for real change (let’s start with marriage for gay couples), go beat up your wife and infuse your son with toxic masculinity so the next generation can stay in this gorgeous cycle, maintaining all your fucking traditional values. Rest in peace to all those people who lost their lives to violence or suicide because of this. It’s bad. Real bad. And some extra “fuck you” to the whole Czech government. You guys are fucking clowns. No idea how you can live with yourselves. 

 

 

 

 

Okay, back to this thing. I’m a bit late with the blog because lot of shit has been going on. Last Sunday, I did a really nice hike with a friend up the hills above Santiago Del Teide. We spent the second half of the day in Playa San Juan at the beach. Beautiful day. I also kinda stopped diving. I’ve said it couple of times before and I’m not gonna blabber about it much more, but diving is a nasty business and the way they treat staff is straight up disgusting. And that goes for 99% of dive shops over there. I’m good tho. Don’t let it mess with my energy. I spent most of the week teaching and hanging out with my new favorite person on the island. Happy days. 

 

Saturday afternoon, my sister arrived so since then, it’s been about her. We spent the first evening in Cristianos eating out in the Indian restaurant (awesome) and chilling by the beach. The day after, my diver friend picked us up, we went to get my other friend and we went to Masca to do some hiking. Stopped by in Santiago for some coffee and we took it up the hills. Now, my friend has a Lexus so I was kinda hoping for a strong engine a bit more suitable for the hills then my Pluto. Now, the roads up there a bit tricky. Very narrow, serpentine on serpentine… Not the easiest drive. At one point, the engine died and my friend couldn’t make it running again. At one point we were basically blocking the whole road with whole bunch of cars lining up behind us, hitting a concrete block serving as a barrier on the side. Pretty fucked up situation. The other friend of mine figured it out but it looked pretty adventurous. Anyways, we made it to a small village of Los Carrizales where we started the hike. It wasn’t the easiest one, lotta steep climbing… But the views were absolutely amazing. Nobody around, just us. Afterwards, we drove a bit more up north to Garachico, took a swim in one of the natural pools in the town and got some ice cream. We wrapped the whole day up in the newly opened Chinese restaurant in my town. It’s just across the street from my building, it’s actually Chinese owned, the food is good and prices are real friendly.

 

 

Monday was a chill day. I took my sis to Palm-Mar first and then to Las Galletas where we just basically hanged around beaches. In the afternoon, I left to do some work but we reunited in the evening, eventually got joined by my diver friend, and we had dinner and some drinks together. 

 

It’s Tuesday morning, I got some work ahead of me and we might do some diving afterwards. Tenerife is looking well today. Hope y’all doing great too… Sending some love to everybody out there. One!

Highlights:

• My sister being here.
• Hikes.
• Hangouts.

Semester 13 Chapter VI: New Classes

Okay, here we go again. Another Sunday morning, some new music on deck, another beautiful day outside. Shit’s looking good. Let me start with Kanye. I’m really thinking it might be time to cancel that guy. His latest “white lives matter” t-shirt stunt is just… I mean… This guys has an enormous platform, he’s arguably one of the richest people on the planet and he has without a doubt produced some of best hip-hop we’ve ever seen. But he’s out of it. He just got it all wrong. And watching some of these interviews, I feel I understand where he’s coming from and what he thinks he’s doing, but that ain’t it. He thinks he’s for the people, he thinks he’s pro-black, he thinks he’s pro-freedom. But somehow he managed to become pretty much the opposite. Being all for people while accumulating crazy wealth within this capitalism system, being all pro-black while supporting Trump and wearing MAGA hat and WLM shirts, being all pro-freedom while trying to prevent women access to abortion… He’s got it all fucked up. Unfortunately, his platform (granted, built on very legit basis) is big enough for his insanity and ego to go completely bonkers. And whereas it’s pretty entertaining watching somebody going this ape-shit on mainstream media, it’s getting kinda dangerous. Cause yeah, I can call women bitches arguing that it’s freedom of speech and I don’t really mean it like that because everybody kinda knows that people call each other names and it’s just an expression and everybody knows what the truth is. But that totally doesn’t mean that I’m not hurting whole lotta people on the way and that I even might be doing more harm than good. Which is something he tends to ignore. I don’t necessarily thing he’s coming from a malicious place, I just think his whole shit is so clouded by narcissism, he’s no longer capable of critical thinking. And man… My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 808s, Yeezus… The guys has classics. But as time goes by, we might really consider just canceling him. And I’m honestly curious what the hip-hop community reaction is in the following weeks. It’s bad. 

 

Okay, what we’re doing here. Last week was a whole lotta diving. I did some DSDs, I did some fun diving in Abades and I did a boat dive by Palm-Mar Wall after some time. Feeling good over here. Still enjoying the shit outta diving, still vibing very well with people. Happy days. 

 

I also went out with my diving friend at one point, hung out with another friend of mine in Los Cristianos and even met up with some friends from the Czech Republic who came to the island recently. On my standards, a pretty eventful week. Apart from that, I had a chance to catch up with some of my people online. The usual. 

 

I got a bit more classes to teach and it’s all going super smooth. At this point, it’s really going super smooth. I feel happy for doing something I’m really good at and I also really enjoy. Plus it feels good being a bit more busy. I’m still on my workouts and runs too. Today, I’m about to do some chilled Sunday activities with a friend. Finally a day off. Hope everybody is doing well, hope you keep the negativity out your lives, hope your spirits are high. One!

Highlights:

• Diving.
• Hangouts.
• New classes.

Semester 13 Chapter V: Drip

Wassup everybody. Sunday morning, new EST Gee in the headphones, smell of coffee is filling up the room and I feel good. Last week has shown once again how insane is the world we live in. We got fascists leading Italy, we got Putin on his mobilization shit and his team keep blabbering about nuclear weapons, and honestly, the recent election in the Czech Republic has brought a whole lotta far-right suckers into power too. I guess we can always hope for better but I dunno… Doesn’t look very optimistic. Two of my students from Russia asked me about bunkers they can use in case of nuclear warfare last week. I don’t think that they are super serious about it but I also don’t think they are necessarily joking. 

 

Okay, this thing… I’ve done an Open Water Course with this lovely couple from Italy. One of the good ones. Both of them were cool, we had a good energy together, it was fun and it went smooth. And again… When you get people from being nervous at 1.5 meters to confidently diving at 18 meters in 3 days. It’s a good fucking feeling. The last day, we did Marazul, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Happy I got back into water. My neck seems all healed up so it’s on again. 

 

I spent some time catching up with some of my people online too. With one friend of mine, I managed to do nearly 4-hour call. It’s crazy how normal these internet hangouts have become. I’ve been teaching quite a lot too and starting next week, I’m gonna start working with whole bunch of new people. Some English classes… Pretty excited about that too. 

 

When I wasn’t diving, I was running, working out, writing shit and listening to music. Friday evening, I met up with a friend in Cristianos and we had a fucking great evening watching the sunset, chilling by the beach and vibing out. She doesn’t drink, so no alcohol, which is something I have no problem with. In fact, I kinda enjoy it more and more as I get older. 

I have some more diving ahead of me today, I’m gonna do some pull-ups in couple of minutes, It's shaping up to be a good day. Wanna send love to everybody out there. I’m not sure if we can change shit in the bigger picture… Shit looks fucked beyond repair. But small shit matters too… We’re not gonna save the world but we can still put some good energy out. Which counts. It has to. One! 

 

Highlights:

1. Bullet Train. Fun Movie.
2. New YG, EST Gee. And I love the Babyface & Ella Mai song.
3. Diving.

Semester 13 Chapter IV: Back To The Future

Yo, what the fuck is up, how’s everybody doing? It’s that time of the week again. It’s still dark outside, I got new Jessie Reyez in the headphones and I’m fresh off my morning coffee. When it comes to music, I’d also like to give a shout out to Ari Lennox and the new Babyface and Ella Mai single. Been in my rnb bag recently vibing out. Last week, I recorded a reference for some raps I’ve written recently too. Man… Music is life. See what I try to do here is flow like a river… Also, the other day I saw a video of Lil Wayne and Nelly trying to figure how how instagram live works and that shit was hilarious… And relatable as hell. If you feel like having a quick laugh, look that shit up… 

 

Okay, back to this thing. Last Monday, I woke up in Podgorica, had a breakfast, said hi to the girls and left for the airport. Flight to London went smooth but the real fun started over there. Now, I have transferred at Stansted before and I remember that being a nightmare. And nothing has really changed. I mean they try. They have electronic passport checks and there’s loads of them. But since the airport is a hub for all the low cost carriers, it still gets extremely crowded. I had about 2 hours till my next flight which is perfect under normal circumstances but it was fucking tight over there. Had to wait for the passport check, than waited again for the security check… And of course my bag got singled out for a thorough scan so I lost some extra time on that. Ended up running through the airport, making it to the gate like 3 minutes before it closed up. Happy days.

The week in Tenerife has been quite calm. Was mostly working and resuming my life over here. Had couple of hangouts with my diver friend and spent a nice evening out with another friend down in Costa Adeje. When I was going out to meet her, I got to arguably the craziest traffic jam I’d experienced on the island. The highways was barely moving. The drive that normally takes 15 minutes tops took me about an hour. That was fun.

I stayed out of water. I got some offers but I turned all that shit down. Was really tempted but I feel like my neck could use a bit more healing time. I got a chance to visit my flatmate’s shop in Chafiras tho. It’s cool to see nice people being able to open their own businesses. It also kinda show the difference between government support here and in my home country. I mean the guy is self-employed like me and talking about how much he has being receiving throughout covid compared to whatever the fuck we were getting in the Czech Republic… Sounds like two different worlds. Shit was cool tho. 

 

The weekend has been super rainy. Which sucks because there’s not much to do but it’s also aight because it gives my neck some extra days. I hope you guys are doing well, I hope life goes well and that your spirits are high. One!

Highlights:

• Hangouts.
• All the new music.
• Getting back to healthy food, regular workouts and runs.

Semester 13 Chapter III: Montenegro Volume 3

It’s Monday morning and I’m sitting in this apartment in Podgorica. In about two hours I’m heading to the airport which concludes my current trip. And man, it was a good one. I spent the first half of last week in the Czech Republic. Took my dad to get a tattoo and then got another one myself, met with some more people, hung out with my family. It was fucking awesome. 

Wednesday evening, I hopped on a bus to Katowice where I arrived shortly after midnight. The connection wasn’t the best so I had to wait for about 6 hours for my flight. Luckily, I managed to spend some of that time sleeping. I made it to Podgorica at 8am. The girls arranged a rental car and the guy took it to the airport. So I actually drove to the girls’ mom’s apartment. I met with one of them as the other was on her way from Australia. We spent most of the day indoors as she managed to broke her leg couple of weeks back. It was great to be back and catch up. Their mom took her role as host super seriously and kept feeding me nuts, fruits and veganized local food. Mountains of food. I feel I’m still stuffed from that. Later in the afternoon, we moved to another apartment in Podgorica the girls rented for a month. We also did a trip to this lake not far from the city and then spent the rest of day drinking beer at the balcony and eventually got joined by the second sister. 

 

Friday morning and early afternoon, we all worked. Around 5. we hopped into the car and took it to this town close to Tivat to an Airbnb. The drive was quite adventurous as the fog up in the hills was thick as hell. We all survived tho. I’ve been to that area before, it’s beautiful, the views are amazing… Great pick. In the evening, we visited some of their friends and I got to experience some more of local hospitality. Some people our age, some of their parents, some beer, good vibes. 

 

Saturday and Sunday, I reunited with one of my favorite people from my Shanghai era too. Hadn’t seen that girl for nearly three years. Lotta things has changed and I kinda wished we got to spent a bit more time together but it was still great to do this. Totally brought back some memories. We went out to dinners, had some drinks and on Sunday, we did a little road trip and spend a lotta time by the sea just talking shit, drinking and listening to music. I loved the energy. We made it back to Podgorica in the evening, went for a dinner to this amazing Indian place and wrapped the day up. 

 

And that’s that. If everything goes well, I’m back in Tenerife this evening, I’m more dedicated to do this Bali thing next year and I really want to start spending some more time on figuring out what comes next. And again, I’m super happy I got to do this. One! 

 

Highlights:

• Reunions.
• Tattoos.
• Road trips.

Semester 13 Chapter II: Back Home

Yo! Back home. It feels absolutely great. These visits always remind me of whole lotta things. It’s great to have my people in life the way I do, it’s great reuniting with them, it’s amazing getting together to create some new moments and also take some walks down the memory lane. First things first tho. 

 

By the beginning of last week, I was still in Tenerife. Not much going on really. I pushed quite a lot of work for Monday because Tuesday was my flying day. In the evening, I met up with a friend in Costa Adeje and we had a really nice hangout for couple of hours. Next morning I got up, did some pull ups, packed my shit and went for a bus to the airport. To get an okay deal on my flights, I had to go for non-direct flights so I went through Geneva to Budapest and from there I took a bus to Brno. Spent the first night at my sis’.

 

Wednesday, I went to see a doctor, worked some more and then had some family time. I really love how Brno feels when you get back to it after a while. I’m still not ready to live here but it gives me really good vibes. The city is full of people, there are so many cool spots... Plus the weather is still kinda summerish. We went to a café first and then we ended up at my sis’ again for some dinner. Lotta catching up. And I really enjoy spending some time with the nephew. The guy is awesome. 

Thursday morning, I went to my practitioner again for a blood screen and then I proceeded to a bus station to go Prague. I got picked up by a friend and we went to her tattoo shop to finalize a piece we started like half a year go. It went great, it was fun, positive vibes only. After then, I met up with one my closest bros and we took it back to Brno. We did couple of drinks in the city, we got super twisted and we wrapped up the night at the rooftop of my dad’s building. Some legendary spots, some legendary memories, some legendary music. Fucking epic. 

 

The rest of the week, we were doing bike trips around the city, meeting up with different people and going to all our favorite spots. The only thing that really fucks me up every time I come here is my diet. I’m so clean when I’m on my own, but here it’s like bread, beer, sweets, more bread, more beer… It’s part of the game tho. Sunday evening, we had another family session and we did kinda late bday celebration for my sis’ fiancee and me. Good good and drinks, vegan cake, some gifts… What more to ask fore. 

 

This morning, I took my dad for a tattoo. Another late bday gift. His second one. Feeling great about that. Got another three days ahead of me over me and my schedule seems pretty packed as usual. That’s what I love about this shit. Who know what I’m gonna decide on these following months but if it all comes crashing down, I might spend next summer in the Czech Republic just to do some clubbing, travel around and actually spend a bit more time with people I care about. It has been nice. Hope you guys are doing well too. One!

Highlights:

• Tattoos.
• Family.
• Lucy In The Sky With Diamons.

Semester 13 Chapter I: Awards

So listen… Couple of minutes ago, I have received an e-mail from PADI awarding me a Certificate of Excellence. Apparently they collect feedback on courses and I kinda rock on that. Which is real nice and all and I do wanna express my appreciation to everybody who has had kind words for me. If you enjoyed your shit, there’s a pretty good chance I enjoyed it too and it’s honestly something that keeps me going in the whole thing. And as for PADI… Yeah, that pdf certificate is cool but I’d really appreciate a discount on your fucking annual membership, some free gear or you know… Kinda anything. It’s all good tho. It’s diving and it is what it is. 

In other news, we had a big ass anti-government demonstration in the Czech Republic. They talk about 70k people out in the streets. Granted, we have a fucking disgusting government. Bunch of right-wing free market happy asocial idiots with no understanding of basic human rights (such as affordable housing or general sense of equality among people no matter sexual orientation, ethnicity… you name it), our prime minister is a fucking joke and the whole situation is flat out depressing. What’s even more fun tho, is that those fuckers demonstrating… Are that times 10. So we got ass backwards fucktartds in power being demonstrated against by straight up fascists. And one could say that it’s kinda obvious… I mean everything they say. You keep people hungry and frustrated for long enough… You keep them feeling like they have no saying over shit… At some point, all it takes is an opportunists with the right populist rhetoric… And it’s that. It’s Trump, it’s Brexit, it’s our world being destroyed by the very same people who are in the real power pulling the strings. And one could also assume that we would learn anything from this going over and over again but nah. So yeah, let’s just watch it all fall apart. Cause we don’t want humanity, we don’t want socialism, we don’t want equality. We want to produce more shit, buy more shit, fuck up this planet beyond recognition, keep racism in place… And prevent gays from getting married. Cause apparently that’s what’s important. Over and out.

Okay, so what has happened here. Monday I went out with my friend from the UK for the last time before she left the island. I still wasn’t 100% but my health has been steadily improving this past week. I was taking it quite easy tho. As for diving, I did a DSD and Wednesday and an Advanced course Friday and Saturday. Saturday, we did a boat dive. Hadn’t done that in a while and I totally enjoyed that. I also did some teaching, got some more students, passed an interview for this language school… So I might get some more work sometime soon. All good.

It’s Sunday, I got the new Ravyn Lenae playing out the speaker and no particular plans for the day. Thinking about going out for a run. Leaving to the Czech Republic in two days and I’m pretty excited about that. Didn’t take any pics last week but I’m gonna throw in some for the next one. I’m also starting a new semester with this chapter. 13 semesters ago, I moved to Shanghai. Shit sounds surreal at this point. Shout out to everybody that’s been with me ever since, shout out to all my people. It’s all love. One!

Highlights:

• Boat dives.
• Online hangouts.
• That vegan ice cream in Cristianos. On point.