Post 1 (one week prior to leaving)

Hello everyone, I guess this will be my first post in what I hope will be a blog about my wonderful adventures in Israel. For those readers who don't know me, my name is Jacob Jaffe, I am from Cleveland, Ohio. I deferred a year from Brown University in order to pursue my passion in ice dancing. This year my skating partner Hannah Rosinski and I competed at the Junior level. While it was a tumultuous year, marred by nerves, injuries, pressure, and rocky competitions, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

This afternoon marked what I believe to be the end of my competitive skating career. Hannah and I placed 8th overall in Junior Dance at the US national championships. I have to say this is a very bittersweet moment. Hannah and I put together the best short dance and free dance of our careers, scoring our personal bests in both and almost edging a 3 time junior team (who placed 5th last year at this event and has been going to international junior grand prix competitions for the whole time) out of 7th place. We were about a point short. Anyways, it made the whole event that much sweeter to be right in the competition. Our goal for the season was to finish in the top 8, so Hannah and I were very happy that we achieved it.

Now, I get the rest of the week to relax and enjoy my last nationals as a competitor. Today is Wednesday, I get back to Cleveland on Sunday, and then a week from today I leave on a ll:15 flight to Newark, then onward ho to Jerusalem. From there I will take a train to the town right outside of Ma'agan Michael, the kibbutz I will be living on for 5 months, then i take a taxi the last few miles.

I still can't believe my nationals are over, and I am going away from home and everything for half a year. Most people experience this feeling when they go off to college, but I guess I am living my life a little differently than most people do, or at least trying to be an individual the best I can.

While I am not quite sure how this whole google blogger works, I guess I will try to end this first blog post with this picture Brandon, our dance coach from Ann Arbor took of Hannah and I after we finished our Phantom of the Opera Free dance as we were heading back to the locker rooms. Maybe it represents the end of one adventure in our lives and the beginning of a new adventure.