Well this is it! I made it back from almost 6 weeks overseas…some headaches, but other than that no fever, no virus, no H1N1, etc. I am healthy!
This time of the year also means it’s time to get into camp mode…Matt Unger will be moving to camp in about 5 weeks and me shortly thereafter. I typically have moved to camp in mid-April, but it’s time for me to pass the torch to Unger. He will do an incredible job at getting things ready to welcome our first precamp group on Friday, April 30th. I will of course travel back and forth between Philly and camp throughout April and early May until I move up, but it’s now Unger’s turn to give it a go! It may sound awesome to be at camp in mid-April, and trust me it is great. Of course most of us would prefer to be at camp than at home. But, let me tell you from experience there is so much more than you can imagine that goes into preparing for summer. The most obvious is turning the water on, which is not an easy task. Throughout Matt’s first few weeks at camp, he will squeeze in time to be a guest blogger and update all of us on what is going on up at camp!
Back here in Philly, Jaycal and I are putting the finishing touches on the Where in the World is Eric Forti recap, some quick facts about the trip, and of course…announcement of the WINNERS! We had more participation this year than ever and it seems like many people enjoyed the twitter. I have a feeling there will be a Round 4 next winter, so don’t despair. I promise though to Robin, who has been so amazing at accepting my crazy schedule, that I won’t twitter/blog while we are on our honeymoon. (Well if you promise not tell on me, maybe I will a little bit!) Speaking of honeymoon, we haven’t figured out where that will be yet. I have traveled to all continents except Antarctica, so what do you think Robin of an Arctic honeymoon?
Getting back to the office has been CRAZY after being out so many weeks. Payroll to run, bills to pay, year-end tax returns to finalize and file with the lovely US government, on top of finalizing the staff for the summer, camper visits, new prospective families to visits, etc. Again, all the best parts of working for a camp year-round:)
Next week, the office will be closed on Wed and Thurs as we all travel down to Atlantic City for the American Camp Association Tri-State Camp Conference. It’s always a blast, but I will admit I am ready to sleep in my own bed for more than a few nights in a row! We are staying at the Borgata though this year (comped rooms), so I guess I can’t really complain. Someone to make the bed, cook the meals for us, etc!
Well that’s all for tonight. A short blog because I am exhausted. Am I allowed to use jetlag as an excuse still? Have a wonderful evening and I will be back in a few days to announce the winners of Where in the World:)
Editors Note: The results of “Where in the World is Eric Forti” are currently being tailed and will be posted on the blog shortly along with a recap video of Eric’s travels.
Everyone loves canteen at camp! And, with camp still a few months away, we thought it would be a great idea to bring a little bit of camp to you! Introducing…CANTEEN ON THE FLY!
THIS SUNDAY!
This weekend our winter staff will be making their way to a number of locations (details below) to see you (and eat ice cream)! We are encouraging our camp families to bring along one friend that might be interested in camp for this summer or a future summer. All campers and friends that attend will get FREE ICE CREAM!
If you are a family that is interested in Canadensis for a future summer, we encourage you to stop by as well and meet our directors and staff and meet other Canadensis families.
We will also be raffling off LIMITED EDITION CANTEEN ON THE FLY T-SHIRTS.
We hope to see you there!
TIMES and LOCATIONS
CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY from 12:00 – 1:00 pm
TCBY at 230 North Maple Avenue, Marlton, NJ
(in the Crispin Square Shopping Center)
Store Phone #: 856.983.8229
MAIN LINE, PENNSYLVANIA from 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Carvel Ice Cream at 339 E. Lancaster Ave, Wynnewood, PA
(in Whole Foods Parking Lot)
Store Phone #: 610.642.3665
BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA from 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Goodnoe Farm at 4 South Sycamore Street, Newtown, PA
(next to Lukoil Gas Station)
Store Phone #: 215.968.3544
Good Morning All from the beautiful city in Europe known as Prague, the Mother of Cities, located in the Czech Republic. Some of the loyal followers will remember that I have been here before and it truly is a stunning city. There is an “old town” which is filled with cobblestone streets, a few beautiful churches, tons of local shops with handmade crafts, and cafes. We flew here yesterday from Budapest and arrived here in the late morning. After checking in to the hotel, we immediately went to a pizza place which has become a tradition for us camp directors. They have some of the best pizza I have ever had. In the afternoon, we took the metro right into the heart of the city and did a little bit of shopping. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby in the coming weeks (so I will be an uncle for the first-time) and so I found something cute for the babies room. If my brother is reading this, he is probably going to be so embarrassed that I am telling you all this!
Last night, we went to dinner at a local Czech restaurant, which included a show and dancing. A family of 3 sibling musicians entertained us for hours and shared videos of what the Czech Republic was like 80 years ago. It was a very nice cultural dinner and ended with tons and tons of folk dancing and singing. I must admit I went up and did my fair share of dancing and if you are lucky, Jcal will post a few video clips in the coming weeks.
Well today is the staff hiring fair here in Prague and then tomorrow…that is it. The end of Year 3 of Where in the World is Eric Forti! I will put some statistics together for all of you about miles flown, nights sleeping in hotels (and nights sleeping on airplanes), etc. I have had an absolute blast sharing my travels and experiences with all of you over the past 5 weeks or so. I am so honored and privileged that I am able to have a job at the best camp in the world, which allows me to spend my summers at camp with all of you, and continue my passion for traveling and experiencing new places. I thank you for joining in to the fun and of course we will announce the winners of Where in the World within the coming weeks. So, stay tuned!
I will blog again soon, but probably from the US. So, from my last international destination until after the summer, I say goodbye and have a wonderful day!
Got a question for Eric? Send your questions to JCal@Canadensis.com and we’ll get them to Eric for answers. Thanks again for everyone that has been participating. All questions are worth 1 point. Good Luck!
Welcome to the 2010 Camp Director Fair in Kiev, Ukraine! As some of you may recall, the past 5 years I have traveled to Moscow and some years also St. Petersburg , Russia in addition to many other Eastern European countries. (I can’t reveal the itinerary just yet so you can keep playing along!)
Anyway, this is my first time in Kiev, Ukraine and the first time our wonderful agency, CCUSA, has taken us to Ukraine. It is a wonderful city with lots to offer. In my limited time here so far, it seems that Ukraine is a bit more modernized and the people seem friendly so far. Last night, I had the unique opportunity to go a Jewish synagogue and participate in Friday night Shabbat services. Upon walking in, it was almost like going to a temple in the US! This one was orthodox, so it’s definitely more Hebrew than I am used to, but once I found the page (which admittedly took about 3-4 minutes!) I participated in the services. Because this weekend is also the Jewish holiday of Purim, the services were extra festive and after one prayer the men marched around the synagogue about 20 times singing and clapping. I of course stood to the side, but for one rotation around I got dragged out there! Trust me, when I walked back past my seat after that, I hid the rest of the time!
Otherwise, today is the Ukraine hiring fair. Over 200 applicants will be walking through the door hoping to secure a job at a summer camp this summer. There are about 25 camp directors here representing their camps. Of course anyone who doesn’t get hired here in person, can still get placed at any of the over 1,000 camps our CCUSA Agency works with who haven’t flown over here.
One final note: I often get asked why do I bother flying all the way around the world to hire our staff? Besides the fun and vacation (haha, j/k), there is a tremendous value (in my opinion) to meeting our staff in person. From our counselors in Australia to our kitchen/laundry/maintenance staff in Eastern Europe, meeting our staff in person means we will get the BEST staff for the BEST SUMMER EVER! All of our staff are extremely important to running such a successful camp and by flying over here and meeting them in person, it shows our staff that we value them and want them to succeed at Canadensis.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the snow. Ironically, we have less snow in Ukraine than you have in NY/NJ/PA!
I hope everyone is enjoying their SNOW DAYS. We are happy to again be receiving all the great Canadensis Snowmen pictures! If you make a snowman or have some winter fun pictures to share email them to jcal@canadensis.com and we’ll post them on the blog! Have a great weekend and remember to continue to check my twitter, www.twitter.com/whereisforti. Also, for every snowman picture we receive it’s an additional 2 points in the Where in the World is Eric Forti Contest.
No, I haven’t had a hot chocolate from the world’s best chocolate shop here in Poland yet, but hopefully in a few hours!
Good morning from Warsaw, Poland! Right now we are having our staff hiring fair and I have hired 4 wonderful staff members! Maryla and Mateusz will be working in our kitchen and Sandra and Ageta in our laundry/housekeeping department! All 4 are so excited to travel to the US and Maryla promised that she will make Russian pierogies (potato and onion- no meat for Robin) and Wedel hot chocolate. Wedel is the chocolate shop I blog about every year here in Warsaw. They have the world’s best chocolate hands down and the hot chocolate (also called “drinking chocolate”) is literally a chocolate bar melted into a glass. Hopefully I will leave this fair in the next hour and run to the mall next store for a hot chocolate! Tonight we are doing an evening tour of “old Warsaw” pre-communism times. Should be interesting.
It's always good to follow up a hot chocolate with the WW, Wedel's version of a KitKat (like 10x better than a kit kat!)
The flights over were fairly uneventful. We were delayed a bit leaving Newark, which worked in our favor because Randy from another camp coming in from Boston was quite delayed, but she made it in the nick of time. Flight was about 8 hours and I slept about 3.5-4 hours of the flight. We arrived for a 5-hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany where we walked around a bit, checked some email, and played Spit (cards). 2 hours later we arrived in Warsaw.
If you haven’t yet checked out the twitter (www.twitter.com/whereisforti), we flew with a double silver medalist in Ski Jumping from Poland. He was returning from Vancouver with his coaches, trainers, and the rest of his team. It was real exciting when we landed and there was a large reception waiting for him. Of course, I naturally thought the tv news cameras/photographers were for the Camp Directors who flew all the way to Poland to hire wonderful Polish students, but I was wrong.
Otherwise, back tracking to last weekend, special thanks to all of the families who came to our first annual (can I tell people that we will be doing this annually??!!) Canteen on the Fly. It was a HUGE success, seeing tons of families in Long Island and North Jersey. Our Syosset location at the Carvel turned into a block party with families inside and outside. Everyone was talking camp- stories of camp, catching up on what they do to pass the time between summers, and everything else. There were alot of camper reunions there. Also, a bunch of future Canadensis campers (hopefully!) stopped by to learn more about Canadensis. What better way than seeing other kids their age interacting with all of their camp friends. So, thank you to everyone who went out of the way and rearranged their schedule to stop by. Special mention of Ilene Calabretta (jaycal’s mom who doesn’t get enough shoutouts) as well as Matt Unger’s parents who all stopped by Carvel. It was great to see all of you!
If all this talk about canteen on the fly excites you, but you missed out on it, don’t despair because Canteen on the Fly is making it’s way to the Philly area on Sunday, March 7! We will be in Cherry Hill late morning, the mainline in the early afternoon, and Newtown in the late afternoon. So, we hope to see you at ones of those locations!
Well that’s all from here in Warsaw, Poland. Time for a hot chocolate- my mouth is watering, but weight watchers is telling me no!!!! Keep checking the twitter for tons of updates and clues for my next destination soon!
I am flying out tomorrow to our next location- destination UNKNOWN:)
UPDATE: Eric got his Hot Chocolate and chocolate bar!
