Sunday, May 07, 2006

EJC!!!

It looks like I'll be going to my first ever EJC. I'm so excited!!!

So far I know there will be a lot of Israelis going. I've heard so far about: Ori Roth, Assaf Shneider and his dad, Bar Mualem, Dekel Azulai, Yaakov and Leah Goodman, Ofek and Segev and Robert Shilton, Tom Eilon, Yaron Milgram, Daniel Baraket, Dror Friedman. Hopefully I'll hear about more in the next couple months until EJC.

One thing I'm going to have to do is pace myself. At IJC I worked out hard for the first couple days and was worn out for the rest of the convention. Also, I got really sore in a few weird places. I'm used to the fact that the bottoms of my feet always ache since I'm not used to being on my feet all day. The unusual pain I had this year was under my arms from all the rubbing as I juggled. Another annoying thing was that the skin on my fingertips got dry and cracked from moving through the air so much. And the cracks bled a lot when bumped by clubs. Oh, the bumps! I got lots of bangs with my new heavy one-piece clubs: on my fingers and bones in my hand, on the head and face, and on the toes. Ouch! Lastly, I my calves got sore for jumping when playing frisbee so much.

I also have to learn to travel light. I'm not good at that. I can't bring less than 5 clubs, 9 balls, a tent and sleeping bag, and clothes. Hopefully it'll mostly fit into one large backpack. And what about the return? Will I be able to resist buying new toys? I don't really need much but I'm sure I'll come home with some new toys.

I'm really looking foward to meeting people at EJC. There are many rec.juggling personalities that I've been reading for many years whom I'd love to meet. Then there are names I've read about online and in juggling magazines and seen on video - the main one being Jay Gilligan. And lastly, there are several jugglers who I have been chatting with for years and it'll be really fun to meet them in person, notably Tarmo and Norbi.