One Week In

It has officially been a week since I arrived at Kibbutz Ma’agan Micheal. I have finished a week of class, four days of work, completed a load of laundry, and taken five runs. As an update to my post “Maybe it’s jetlag, maybe it’s the coffee.” I figured out why I couldn’t sleep. It was neither the coffee nor the jetlag. It was the mattress and the lack of a pillow with any cushion. Luckily, I was able to get a second pillow and switch my mattress. I can say with certainty that I have been getting my nightly eight.

Today, a lady from MASA came to check up on all the tourists. She told us that around this time in the program we should be getting over our first hump of acclimation to Kibbutz life. I would say her assessment is pretty accurate. I don’t get lost anymore. I have a great group of friends who I can talk to and feel comfortable hanging out with. My room is not a mess anymore.

This week I have been testing the waters with a new form of exercise. No, it’s too cold to swim. I have been running all around the kibbutz and on the beach. Most of my runs have been after class lets out, but today I decided to take run between work and class. The strong beach breeze provides a great way to cool off during the run. Here are some of my favorite pictures from my runs. The sunsets and sunrises here are so beautiful

Life is really laid back here. With the myriad of cultures on the Kibbutz, it is really fun how almost nothing is off limits for conversation: from shit to stereotypes. For example, today in class I asked my Mexican friend, Moses, what kinds of maids and housekeepers they have in Mexico (I meant this to be a little jab at him since he had to be the maid of the class this week: sweep, and clean after class). He calmly responded mostly Mexicanas and Guatamaltecas. Needless to say he got the joke.

Actually, my Spanish has been super helpful here on the kibbutz. About half of the program is from a Spanish speaking country. Without Spanish, I would be lost.

Today I found out that every Thursday in the kitchen we have a staff meeting where we celebrate occasions. Today it was someone’s birthday so we had pop ice cream and cake.

For now the week is over and Shabbat is near. I am not going anywhere this weekend, but next weekend I plan to venture out somewhere. L’hitraot for now.

The New Norm

Yesterday was the first day of work and class. The way the schedule works is that everyone works 24 hours a week, and we have 4 hours of classes Sunday through Thursday, but don’t have class on Friday or Shabbat. Each week we switch off who goes to class in the morning and who works in the morning. For me, this week I start work in the kitchen at 7 AM, get a break for breakfast at 9AM, then work again from 9:30AM- 11:30AM. I start class after lunch at 1 PM in the afternoon. It goes until 5 PM and we have two breaks. Every other week, when I have class in the morning, I actually don’t have anything on Friday. This means I have Thursday night and Shabbat to travel throughout Israel on these weekends.


So far, the ulpan class has been very interesting. I am in Kitah Bet (class 2 of 4). Although, everyone in the class knows Hebrew in some form or another, the teacher, moreh Tamar, explained that we would start from the beginning, but do an accelerated version of Kitah aleph. So far we have been learning the aleph-bet, not in the regular order of things, but in a way that we can create, and read simple words. The strange thing about the class is that about half the class learned Hebrew in a Synagogue Hebrew School setting, so they can read and write, just understand very little of what is spoken and/ or written in complicated sentences. The other half of the class never learned Hebrew in a class setting. Though they can communicate to the teacher in Hebrew without any hesitation, when it comes to reading and writing, they act like dyslexic kindergarteners, messing up reading two letter words. The teacher said that two weeks more in and we would all be in the same place. I am a bit worried that when the Hebrew speakers learn the phonetics, they will leave the non-hebrew vocab lacking people in the dust.

(my friend Moses from Mexico, who I sit behind)



Working in the kitchen has been pretty fun so far. The first day of work Yaron gave us bad information about our start time. He told us to arrive at 9:30 instead of 7. So we only worked half a day. There are six of us that work in the kitchen. Justin, a 22 year old, self-made, internet advertiser, works unloading shipments, while my roommate Noah, another gapyearie Emily, and another kid (I haven’t bothered to learn his name yet) work in the hot kitchen. I work in the cold kitchen with an 20 year old, Olim (new immigrant) from Australia: Ofir. Although she is technically a returning citizen (she was born in Israel), I still group her in the category of people who are staying in Israel after the kibbutz-ulpan program ends. The first day, for the whole (daunting) 2 hours, I just shredded onions through a food processor. It went by quickly just talking to Ofir.

In addition to Ofir, a man older man named Yizach, and a middle aged woman whose name I can’t remember at the moment work with us (I will find her name out tomorrow). Well actually they tell us what to do, how to do, and when we are doing it wrong. But they have been very nice so far.
Today, it was a little challenging getting up at 6:45 AM since I haven’t been used to it for almost a year (2nd semester senior year I got up the latest I possibly could with being late, usually 7:20). It is a little weird working for two hours without breakfast (breakfast doesn’t open until 7:30 AM so we can’t have breakfast beforehand), but I managed. Today I got to do more of a variety of mindless tasks. I got to cut up sweet potatoes, shred zucchini, shell hard-boiled eggs, and peel avocados.

The last two were to be used for a salad that was to be mixed together. The time went by pretty fast, and before I knew it, the end was upon me. The people were very nice. When the shift ended they gave us free freshly baked pizza that was being served at lunch, so I didn’t need to even buy lunch today!!!

Beach and Hike

For Shabbat a few days ago everyone decided to go to the beach since it was the first day that the sun was out. At first all the guys were just doing pull-ups on these tent frames that lined parts of the beach. Although most of the guys here are in great shape because they are training for the Israeli Army, after about 20 minutes of macho-showing off, everyone's forearms were too sore to continue.

About an hour after this the South Americans attempted to organize a futbol game. Between round the circle sips of yerba mates, and lots of arguing, we managed to organize ourselves into teams of 7. My team was decent. We had a couple non-football oriented South Africans, a Canadian, some others, and then there was Arielle. He was the core of our team. He scored almost every goal. We ended the game after an hour because everyone's feet began to kill from running on the shells. For clarification this was more due to the hardness on the top part of the shells, no one got any cuts on their feet.

Then we had another mate break.

After, the South Americans began to sing Spanish pop songs to the tune of drums and a guitar. Although, I couldn't join in, due to a lack of knowing the lyrics and being able to sing, I offered moral support and enjoyed the music. We stayed on the beach until about 5, then it got cold and we left.

The rest of Shabbat was pretty chillax. Nothing happened.

On Sunday, I coerced everyone to get up early for a hike. About a group of 15 of us went on the hike to a park, the Ramat Hanadiv Gardens, about 3 miles inland of the kibbutz. In order to get there we had to walk on the road for about a mile and a half, then find a path that lead up the hills that were maybe 500 feet high. At the top of the park we had a great view of the whole kibbutz and the sea. To our surprise, there were two hidden gems up there. The first was a special yellow flower that had an edible stem. There were hundreds of them and they tasted like organic, earthy warheads. The second surprise was at the park there was this fabulous play ground. It had a giant slide the used canopy ropes to get people up to the top. It also had a log swing that looked like a connected Newton's Cradle. I don't have too many pictures of it now, but when I get them off of other peoples camera's I will try to post them. This all was Sunday morning.

(a future CWRU student Giddon with the edible warhead flower)

Sunday afternoon was a whole nother story. It was what most people would call an orientation to the kibbutz, but Yaron, the head of the program, insisted it was the "opening ceremony". The first thing they did was separate everyone into groups by native language, in order to talk to us about behavior, what to do and not to do, mostly use common sense and all. I learned two things. Don't go to the beach alone at night. I also learned to avoid punching, being punched, and anything of the sort. I don't know what happened at the last ulpan 109 (we are ulpan 110), but everyone was alluding to there being a fight, with punching of course. And actually, later in the day Yaron, begged us to not be like 109, which he outright said was a failure.failure!failure!! They also warned us against "going for romantic walks with yourself on the beach."According to Yaron there are camera's all over the kibbutz. While I am sure the cameras are for security, everyone couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the kibbutz using the cameras to get a little extra money. ;)


I also found out i was going to work in the kitchen starting Monday. I hope it isn't too boring.

Maybe it's jet lag, or maybe its coffee?

Today was my second morning waking up in Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. Again, I woke up before 10 AM, what in Cleveland has become my typical get out of bed time! I am not quite sure what the problem is with my biological alarm clock.

My first night and second day on the kibbutz I had no coffee, no sleep on the plane, yet i went to bed at 1 AM and woke up at 6:45 AM.

Last night was a whole nother story. So after a fantastic Shabbat dinner, a food post will come eventually, they were handing out free espresso in the coffee shop next to the hadar ochel (dining hall). Naturally, missing my Phoenix coffee shop mochas and feeling a bit tired with the big discotech night ahead of me, I had 3 lattes.

The discotech was a very new experience for me because being under 21 I have never gone clubbing. The way the discotech works is that adolescents from all around the area come to the pub at the kibbutz for a giant dance party. If you are from the Kibbutz or living on it like all the Kibbutz- ulpan students it is free to enter, otherwise you have to show an I.D. and pay about 30 shekels or so to enter. At the pub the drinks are pricey. I think the reason the kibbutz hosts the giant parties is to make money off the entrance fee and the over-priced drinks. Anyways, I danced with my fellow students until about 3 AM when I tried to go to bed, but because the pub/discotech is 50 feet from my room, I wasn't able to fall asleep until 4 AM.

This is where strange things started to happen. This morning I woke up at 6:15AM, just as the sun was rising through the clouds

Though this picture looks cloudy, it was the first time since I got to Israel that there was a touch of sun, and it wasn't spewing rain. I walked around the Kibbutz for about 30 minutes and ended up wandering into an artist's studio. Although his name eludes me for the time being, he offered me some tea (perhaps later I will post my favorite sculptures of his). He recommended that I get a friend and take a day trip hike to the nearby mountains a few miles east of the Kibbutz. Ramat HaNadiv nature park is the name of the area. According to him, it is 4 hour or so hike/climb, and once there I can get a beautiful overview of all of Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. I think that will be my afternoon today since everything is closed on Shabbat anyways.

Lastly, I want to let my readers know I am in heaven here. For the longest time my dad has wanted me to ease up on my expensive coffee addiction (mochas, lattes, cappuccinos, etc.) On the Kibbutz not only is there free espresso Friday nights, but in the dining hall, there are 6 different espresso/coffee/hot chocolate type machines to choose from.

Here are just a few of them


The total cost of a mocha is a shekel, or about a quarter!

Though the good inexpensive coffee here plus jet lag have contributed to my lack of sleep, I am very confident that soon enough I will have a full and healthy sleep schedule. :) ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.........

First Day in Israel

Hi everyone, I got to Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael safe and sound.

My flight over was pretty comfortable. My mom couldn't stop taking pictures of me with her before I left: in the airport garage, around security, check in, etc. The flight from Newark to Tel-aviv contained a mixture of ultra orthodox families, payos and all, with christian pilgrims. I ended up sitting with a nice Christian couple from Te

Once I got to the airport I bought a cell phone, and in the process missed the train that hour to Bimyamina. I ended up waiting at an airport cafe for about 45 minutes and sat with a French-Israeli women. Anyways, I caught the train to Bimyamina, then took a taxi to the Kibbutz.

After getting all the official stuff done in the office with the program's director, Yaron, I moved into my room.

The room is pretty small for three people, but when this picture was taken my roommates had yet to arrive. In fact, they didn't arrive until 8 PM. After I got my clothes labeled (for laundry) and unpacked, I went exploring around the kibbutz with a girl named Amber. Though technically from Vienna, Amber grew up in India at an English school, so communication was not a problem. (Actually, what I have found in general is that even though there are only about 10 Americans at the Kibbutz so far, almost everyone speaks English. Hopefully I will learn a little Hebrew though :) ) Amber and I found the Kibbutz's beautiful beach.

We walked around the beach for a little then went in search of the petting farm on the Kibbutz. We didn't find it, though we did end up going through a gate that locked us out of the kibbutz. We had to climb the fence back over.

My roommates arrived around 7 PM. They both were from the USA. I think the program directors did this on purpose so no one would feel too lonely. One of my roommates Alex is also taking a gap year next fall will be attending MIT. My other roommate, Noah, goes to a commuter college in Denver, but is taking a break from his degree. He is 22. Alex is 19 like me.

Last night everyone hung out at the pub. Although I am technically legal I didn't order any drinks. The ulpan is very worldly. So far the people that are at the Kibbutz are from: USA, England, Canada, Italy, France, Austria, Holland, South Africa, Australia, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Brasil, Mexico, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Sweden. But altogether there should be 26 countries represented here. Everyone has been so friendly and outgoing so far.

One Day Prior To Leaving

It has been almost a week since my last post, so I guess I should probably recap the rest of my nationals. Let me first say I had the best steak of my life in Omaha.

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)

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.