After finished my post last Wednesday, I went back to the rink and watched the Junior ladies free skate. The top 4 skaters were especially impressive. I think that US figure skating is en route to producing the same triple – triple jumping teens that Russia has been exporting to international competitions the past few years.
The unique thing about nationals is that when you finish competing, you can relax, where normally you would head back home to school and training for the next competition. National provides a great platform to get to know the kids you competed against throughout the year, not as competitors, but as people. Throughout the week I tried my best to hang out with as many people as possible. I got coffee and lunch with Jared and Stacy, the team Hannah and train with in Ann Arbor. We all enjoyed the gem of a coffee shop called Aromas, that was on the outskirts of old market. I also found that the WISA (Wheaton International Skating Academy) teams were particularly friendly even though they were from 2-6 years younger than I. I have been competing against them ever since I began ice dancing five years ago, and for the longest time I thought they were robots, programmed by their Russian coaches, we called the three-headed dragon. (Although they have four main coaches, when we coined the phrase we had only seen three of their coaches at competition) After the rest of the week hanging out with the WISA teams I determined that they were in fact NOT robots.
The last group of kids that I spent a considerable amount of time with were the junior pairs skaters. I really had never met any of the pairs skaters since pairs skaters and ice dancers do not usually compete at the same competition. Especially being from Cleveland, where we currently have no competitive pairs, it was very interesting getting to know the “pair skater persona”. While all of the pairs skaters were very nice people, I couldn’t help but realize that there was something off about them. I can only speculate there is a defective switch in their brains that should regulate fear. It may have been the fact that some of the girls were so ready to try press lifts in the lobby with guys (including me) who have never done pairs, or maybe it was that the guys were trying to press lift other pairs and dance guys, or lastly trying to do throw twists in the hotels hallways, that led me to this conclusion. Regardless of their sanity/ lack of fear, the pairs skaters were lots of fun to hang out with.
One last really cool thing that happened at nationals was talking with a bunch of important people in US figure skating. During the novice events I bumped into Patricia St. Peters, the president of USFSA. I had met her before at the USFSA Scholastic Honors Scholarship breakfast, but I reintroduced myself, and even ended up showing her the best way between the hotel and convention center (they were connected by a bridge, but it was very confusing getting between the two, because level 2.5 at the hotel went to level 2 in the convention center which then turned into level 4 in the arena with escalators in the wrong direction). My coach Brandon also invited me to this PSA (Professional Skaters Association) reception that was held at the convention center. Since I began coaching this year I had to get a membership with PSA, so I was technically allowed to go to the reception, even the majority, (if not everyone else there) were coaches of the skaters at nationals, judges, and members of the technical panel. I got to meet the assistant technical specialist of my event, Stephanie. I explained to her that this was my last year competing, but was interesting in becoming a technical specialist. She was super friendly and encouraged me to go to a technical seminar. She said that it was great I was interested because they need more former skaters who know technical side of skating to be on the technical panels. I also had a nice talk with Bob Horn one of the top ice dancing judges in the US! Like a lot of the officials and coaches I talked to throughout the week, he congratulated me on my performance improvement performance-wise throughout the year, and couldn't wait to see my improvement next year. This subject was really bittersweet for me. Although we placed 8th this year at junior, the top junior team and 7th place junior team both age out of international junior competition next year. This means we would have been the 6th ranked junior team in the US, almost surely guaranteeing us a junior international grand prix event had both Hannah and I not been braking up and going to college next year. While I have some regret leaving the sport of figure skating, I think my 6 month cold turkey in Israel and then Europe will be a good thing to lighten the blow.
Since I have gotten back from Cleveland, I have been frantically trying to get ready for Israel, or so I have been telling everyone and myself. In truth, I haven’t even begun to pack since I got back Sunday afternoon. Instead, I have been working on saying goodbye to people, and having some last wonderful tastes of Cleveland. Yesterday, I had brunch with friend Natasha. Although she is technically still in high school, all her classes are at CWRU, so we have hung out a lot this year. We had the best mac and cheese at Lucky’s café in Treemont, a neighborhood in downtown Cleveland, just across the Cuyahoga. Then I went to the rink one last time, to skate an hour of freestyle, and teach my last ice dance lesson. It was both exhilarating and sad to be on the ice one last time at Pavilion. Though I haven’t done free style for a month, my spins were better than I had left them, and my jumps through my double axel were perfect. For dinner last night, I went with my friend Hannah to Deweys, the local pizza shop. We had a whole 17” pizza of the “other pizza” ( a combination of pesto sauce, chicken, white sauce, cheese, and pine nuts). Afterwards we went to Tommy’s to get one last milkshake. I got a mocha and brownie milkshake. It was to die for!!! Today for breakfast I went to Luna a local pastry shop, and got one last gougere, a nest egg, and two macaroons (salted caramel and lemon). For lunch, I am heading to Anatolia café with my singles coach Molly (Jackie my dance coach was going to come too, but is unfortunately sick). And for dinner, I think I am going somewhere local with my family. I guess I am literally trying to devour the best parts of Cleveland, and take them with me to Israel. While it is sad to know everyone will be missing me, and I will in turn be missing them, I can’t help but feel glad to be missed. Or glad I will be missed. It means people care about me and I have had some impact in their lives.
Anyways, I probably need to get going and start packing for Israel. After going through about 3 pairs of clothes every day for the past 6 years (school clothes, skating clothes, and soccer clothes), I have not only developed a propensity for creating lots of laundry, but also over-packing for trips. It is going to be a real challenge to bring only the essentials to the kibbutz. Goodbye, for now. I may update again if I get bored on the plane ride from Newark to Israel, or once I get to the Kibbutz. Here is some last food for thought. (macaroons from Luna)
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