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 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!

DATES, TIMES and LOCATIONS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21

SOUTH SHORE, LONG ISLAND from 12:00 – 1:00 pm
TCBY at 2203 Merrick Road, Merrick, NY
(next to La Piazza)
Store Phone #:  516.868-8471

NORTH SHORE, LONG ISLAND from 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Carvel Ice Cream at 403 Jericho Turnpike, Syosset, NY
(next to Patsy’s Pizza)
Store Phone #: 516.921.9895

NORTHERN NEW JERSEY from 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Colaco’s Creamery at 273 S. Livingston Avenue, Livingston, NJ
(in King’s Shopping Center)
Store Phone #: 973.758.0152

Hello Canadensis!

Now, I know most of you are used to seeing Eric Forti post on the blog, but today I (JCal) figured I’d take some time to share about my exciting trip to the West Coast I took over the weekend. On Thursday night I left snowy Washington DC, which has been basically shut down since last Friday. I hadn’t had school since last Friday. I flew from Washington to Seattle, Washington where group leader, MARSHALL WEINSTEIN, met me. Marshall than took me to his house where we spend the night before our long road trip to Eugene, Oregon the next day. On our car ride down to Eugene we spoke camp. What else would we talk about? Even Matt Unger wanted in on our road trip and called us to talk camp for a portion of the ride. Finally after about 5 hours in the car we pulled in to Eugene and the University of Oregon where several of our Canadensis Staff, past and present attend. We went over to group leader, MIKE LINDQUISTS house where we were spending the weekend. Mike was so excited to see us, we hadn’t seen him since the last day of camp. Mike was wearing his Big Apple Blue shirt so I knew he was excited for our reunion. Me, Mike and Marshall sat around talking about camp for a little while before the next batch of Canadensis staff members arrived. 2009 Lower Inter Boys Counselor ROB MCRAE And 2008 Staff member, JUSTIN BOWDEN. It was really exciting to see all theses Canadensis staff members who just wanted to talk camp! A few minutes later, group leader KENZIE GAUTHIER showed up, Kenzie happens to live directly across the street from Mike. We were all again, really excited to see Kenzie. I hadn’t seen Kenzie since a few days after camp when she visited Long Island before going home to Oregon. After Kenzie showed up, group leader and Mike’s fiancé ALYSSA THIBODEAU came running inside. Alyssa and me have been good friends for the past few years ever since our Color War Win in 2007, SHOUT OUT TO MYSTICAL GOLD! Kenzie and Alyssa than gave Marshall and I a tour of the University of Oregon. It was really cool to see a school that has a campus, as GW is in the middle of a city and doesn’t have much of a campus. Kenzie brought us to see a group of singers who were singing at the schools amphitheater. They were really talented and it was really cool to see them sing their takes on some of the latest hits. After walking around the university and talking CAMP we returned to Mike’s house where we got ready for dinner with MORE CANADENSIS STAFF! At dinner we met up with 2009 Counselors KELLY PRICE and NORA DRUTZ. Again, Marshall and I were excited to see them since we haven’t seen them since camp.

The next day, Mike took us to his favorite restaurant, Hawaiian Time. Now, for those of you that know me well, you know I’m a really picky eater so I wasn’t sure what I’d eat, but Mike and Alyssa kept telling me about how good their chicken was! We’ll, the chicken was really good, and all weekend, all I wanted was chicken. That afternoon the girls went to go see Valentines Day, which they said wasn’t very good while the guys sat around watching the Olympics. I really enjoy watching the Olympics because it reminds me of Color War which happens at CAMP! That night, we went our to dinner to Red Robin. I have never been to red robin and has no idea that the French Fries were free! Kenzie had to explain to meet that they just keep bringing them to you if you ask, and again if you know me well, you’d know I love french fries.

Now we get to Sunday and our final full day in Eugene, we all slept in late and enjoyed a late breakfast at The Original Pancake House! Again, it was really good and I love pancakes. In the afternoon we sat around talking camp and there was just so much camp to talk about. We were telling funny stories and even got a call from Eric Forti who was jealous of our little reunion. After talking to Forti we went to TCBY. Now, for those of you that don’t know, TCBY is very special to Mike, Alyssa and Kenzie. They try and go once a week together and hang out and just talk about CAMP! So we went to TCBY and we all got the Sunday Special, SUNDAYS. We sat around and spoke about schools, just kidding, MORE CAMP TALK! When we got back to Mike’s we sat around watching the Olympics and ordered in pizzas. We filmed a special West Coast Edition of Canadensis Today and just were reminiscing about the summer. Kenzie then decided she wanted to bake some cookies so she made special Valentines Day cookies for us! They were very delicious, thanks Kenzie! We then headed to bed so we could get up early for our long drive back to Seattle in the morning.

We woke up supper early, said our goodbyes and Marshall and I, headed to Seattle where he dropped me off at the airport and now I’m aboard my flight back to snowy Washington DC. We were all texting this afternoon saying how much we missed each other and can’t wait to see it all over again next year!

NBC News (oops, Eric’s blog) just received confirmation that Sara Sommers from Sewing (Summer 2009) who is celebrating her birthday and….

She also got ENGAGED!!

Congratulations Sara from one fiance to another and from your entire camp family!

Hey Canadensis,

It’s JCal coming to you from the WEST COAST where i’m visiting Marshall Weinstein, Mike Lindquist, Alyssa Thibodeau, Kenzie Gauthier and several other Canadensis counselors. We will be posting updates all weekend long including a special WEST COAST EDITION OF CANADENSIS TODAY! Check back on the blog for updates. Also a quick Eric Forti update, he is en-route back to the states right now after spending the past week over seas. Remember to check his twitter at www.twitter.com/whereisforti for updates.

-JCal

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ALL OUR CANADENSIS SNOWMAN SUBMISSIONS! THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT SENT IN A SNOWMAN AND IF YOU HAVNE’T ALREADY YOU CAN STILL SEND THEM TO EDITOR@CANADENSIS.COM AND WE WILL POST THEM ON THE BLOG!

Eric Forti Surfing with special guest JIM PRICE!

Eric Forti and Robin Hasson in Paris!

Thanks to everyone who is sending in their Canadensis Snowman pictures! Keep them coming! Send them to Editor@Canadensis.com!

Note: With the East Coast getting another BIG snow storm and lots of school closing tomorrow we want to see whatyour doing in the snow! Send us pictures of YOU having fun in the snow. Anybody that makes a Canadensis Themed SnowMan gets 2+ Bonus points in the Where in the World Contest.

Sorry we have been slow with blog posts, but the internet was very expensive in France. Robin is at her gate for her flight home and I am at mine (different terminals unfortunately) headed to DESTINATION UNKNOWN for 2 more days of work. We had an amazing time in Paris. We took it fairly easy by the Forti runaround standard when on touristy vacations (I was still wiped from Australia), but we ended up seeing some great sights and working fairly hard! We went up the Eiffel Tower (that’s what Robin really wanted to do), did a river barge cruise of the Seine (it was freezing, even on the inside), did a bit of walking (actually a lot), and yesterday went to the Jewish section of Paris. It was so neat- falafel stands, borekas, kosher restaurants/bakeries, etc. We loved it. We also went to the Shoah Museum (Holocaust museum) of the French jews and we found it to be fascinating. Aot of material and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. Eating wise, I (Eric) was being a pain and didn’t want to eat long drawn out dinners, plus alot of French restaurants serve frog legs and steak tartare, so we ate at more casual places, except one nice Italian restaurant. We shared the Sole and a pasta, it was great. Believe it or not, I ate meat only once and that was chicken out of 5 days! Maybe that’s why I was tired?

The croissants, pain du chocolate (chocolate croissants), the apple tarts (pomme de tarte), and baguettes are all amazing. Despite all that, we ate relatively healthy and well, with a few sweet tooth items here and there. Oh, let’s not forget the crepes- but we only had them ONCE the whole time! Chocolate/Banana for me, coconut/banana for robin.

We really had a wonderful time together (no cell phones except a few texts from Jaycal/Unger) so we had some time to be together without lots of interruptions.

AuRevoir for now…I will check in from my next destination and stay tuned for Clue 2 (Video) of Where in the World to guess where I am headed next (without Robin).

Hey Canadensis,

Me and Robin have been really busy the past few days in Paris. We have gotten to see some old staff members and enjoy the sites of Paris. We met up with Mariam from last summer and Pierre from 2 Summers ago. (Pierre and JayCal are twins). We took a trip to the Paris Holocaust Museum. It was very interesting seeing the stories of the French Jews. On Sunday, Me and Robin went over to the Eiffel Tower which was alot of fun. We were able to go inside and see a great view of Paris. JayCal was even able order our tickets and have them sent directly to my phone so we could avoid a 1 hour line! We have been busy doing some recruiting for camp as well! More later! Remember to keep checking my twitter for updates and pictures from Paris. I’m heading to my next destination later in the week and we’ll have another video clue for you from there!

Also, some of you have been asking for the Surfing Video from Australia. JayCal has told me he will be posting it sometime this week after it’s edited!

Here are some pictures that we’ve taken over the past few days!

Hello Canadensis!

I don’t think I mentioned on my last blog, but last week was a travel week to Michigan and Ohio for the beginning of our Staff Recruitment tour to a number of college campuses around the United States.  Also, I’m sure all of you have followed Eric Forti on his travels in an attempt to find some great international staff as well.  The staffing process is always an interesting and fun one as we know that it will be our staff that is going to play a huge role in making the summer such a success.  Meeting all of the applicants in person sure does make the search process all that more effective!

I think this was my tenth or eleventh year doing this trip to the Midwest.  I know it doesn’t sound like Eric’s blog where he gets to go to places like Australia, but I have always enjoyed this annual voyage to Michigan and Ohio.  This year, I took along our Assistant Director Pam on the trip as well.  Pam has been instrumental in our staffing this year and it only made sense to have her accompany me and meet as many applicants as possible.  In our week, we met close to 60 applicants!  Of course, one of the highlights is also getting to see many of our current staff who are in the areas we visit.

At Western Michigan University, we saw Nora Tkac, who will be returning for her second summer and once again working in Ceramics.  Nora said her sophomore year at WMU is going well.  Things are busy with her, but she had time to pop in between our interviews to tell us that she has really been thinking about the upcoming summer and how she wants to continue to expand the Ceramics program.  She wants to see as many campers as possible work on the pottery wheels this summer.  I thought that was a terrific idea! Here is a pic of me and Nora…

Me with Counselor Nora Tkac at Western Michigan University. Nora will be back in 2010 for Summer #2! She will also be in Ceramics again.

At Central Michigan, we met up with a slew of counselors and even got a chance to have dinner at a place called “The Cabin,” which Pam and I thought was so appropriate for a camp dinner.  There, we saw Chris Poag, Tony Davis, Sarah Smalley, Andi Riemersma, Jacob Fedewa and Rachel Kauffman.  Throughout the dinner, so many wonderful camp stories came up and all were happy to report that things are good with them.  Most of this bunch is excited for their return to camp in 2010!  The Cabin, by the way, was a great choice as we had some delicious pizzas.  My particular favorite was the sausage and pepperoni, but the Hawaiian pizza was also surprisingly good.  Good suggestion, Andi.  Here is a pic…

Me and Pam with the Central Michigan University Gang! We had an awesome dinner at The Cabin in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

In East Lansing, MI, home of Michigan State University, we had dinner with Amanda Dixon, who will be back for her second summer and once again working in our Dance program.  Also with Amanda was her sister Amber Dixon, who will be joining our Canadensis staff in 2010 and working in our Soccer program.  Amber, who has her Bachelor’s degree in Education, mentioned to me that when she came at summer’s end to pick up her sister Amanda, who continually raved about the experience, she said to herself that she wanted to work at Canadensis the following summer.  She applied immediately for the position.  We are happy to have her on board.  Amanda can’t wait to get back to the 18325 as well and has some really good ideas in store for the dances this summer.  Amanda is really enjoying her second year at MSU as well and says hello to all of her girls from Summer 2009’s Bunk 8!  Here is a shot…

Me and Pam with Amanda and Amber Dixon at the Michigan State Hall of Fame Cafe.

At Bowling Green University, we saw Bridget Haley, returning for her third summer and will also be part of Swimming program in 2010.  Bridget, who loves talking about camp, was also instrumental in helping us out while we were on campus.  At this college visit, we also had a table in the Student Union to help promote positions at camp even better.  Bridget took out a large part of her day to help us out.  Since the end of camp, Bridget mentioned that she has remained in touch with many people from camp and can’t wait to be back in Canadensis, PA this summer.  On top of her education classes at BGSU which keeps her awful busy, Bridget also still works at a one of the coolest record / CD stores in the country called “Finders.”  A music person like myself could spend all day in there looking through all the CDs!  While on campus, we also met up with 2008 Staff member Shawn Bally, who says hello to everyone at camp.  Here is a picture of me with Bridget…

Me with Bridget Haley. Bridget returns for her 3rd summer at camp and will be part of our Swimming program!

At Ohio University in Athens, OH, we saw and had lunch with Martha Archer.  As always, Martha just wanted to know if it was June yet and if camp was ready to begin.  I think the counter on our home page, which tells you how many days until camp, was created for people like Martha as she always has camp on her mind.  In fact, she greeted us wearing her 2009 Big Apple Blue Color War T-Shirt!  So Martha, right?!?!  In addition to all of her classes (I think she has taken on a third major or something like that…ha ha!), Martha goes on many of the outdoor adventure trips that her school provides.  At the same time, she has been active in working for a charity that helps with poorly treated animals in the area of Athens.  This summer will be Martha’s third at Canadensis, where she will also be working in the Archery program.  Here is a photo…

Me and Pam with Martha Archer, coming back for her third summer at camp. Notice the Big Apple Blue T-Shirt!

Five schools in five days was a lot of fun!  Seeing the returning staff and meeting so many wonderful new people got things off to a terrific start to our adventures in staffing.  We are going to have a tough task on our hands in a few weeks when we review all of our applicants once again to make job offers to the people we thought will make amazing camp counselors.  This week, Pam and Cara will be in the Northeast part of the country, visiting campuses like University of Vermont and Lyndon College.

Both before I left on my travels and when I returned, I got to meet more of our camp families.  Before my trip, I was in Wayne, NJ to see two families.  First, it was off to see Josh Halpern, returning for his second summer at Canadensis where he will be an Upper Inter in 2010.  Since camp ended, he has been busy playing his saxophone in the school band and playing indoor soccer.  This summer, he is really looking forward to mountain biking and hondas, including the SSR.  He has also been introducing the game of zoogle to his home friends, which also allows him to practice his zoogling skills.  He told me to say, “Look out Will Armon this summer when it comes to zoogle!”  Here is a photo…

Me with Upper Inter Boy Josh Halpern, who had his zoogle in hand.

Also in Wayne were the Schwed brothers, Alex and Matthew.  Both will be back at Canadensis for their summers at Canadensis as Upper Inter Boys.  Matthew was ecstatic to tell me that he got one of the leads as the Sultan in the local Y’s production of “Aladdin,” which will be performed on March 13 and 14.  He is also testing for his high green belt in martial arts.  Brother Alex is also testing for his high green belt while also busy with basketball and indoor and outdoor soccer.  While there, I also got crushed in Madden 2010 by Matthew, although Alex helped me out by getting my team’s only score in the game.  Here is a picture…

Me with Alex and Matthew Schwed, who will be Upper Inters in 2010, and younger brother Ben, a future Canadensis camper.

Upon returning from my trip, I went up on Saturday to Redding, CT to meet with Alexis and Justin Schachter and welcome them to Canadensis!  Alexis and Justin are twins currently in the 6th grade and they will be in the Freshman division in 2010.  Both have been at sleep away camp before and both are excited to be at Canadensis for their first summer this year.  In the winter, Alexis is busy with jazz, tap and hip hop dance classes, practicing for her spring recital.  She also loves art and even showed me a Knock Hockey table she made custom for her dad.  Lastly, she loves skiing and cooking.  Justin was excited to tell me about his Siburtek Hockey Team in Ridgefield, CT where he plays defense.  He is also into mountain biking, baseball, roller blading, woodworking and skiing.  Here is a photo…

Me with first time campers Alexis and Justin Schachter, both who are in the 6th grade.

On Sunday, I was in Albertson, NY to visit with the Liebermans.  Older sister Carly, currently in 7th grade and back for her fourth summer at camp as a Lower Senior Girl, is happy to welcome her younger brother Eli Lieberman, who is in the third grade and will be a Junior in 2010.  Eli filled me in on the activity he does the most in the winter time and something he has started to become really good at…fencing!  Because I don’t know much about this unique sport, Eli filled me in on some of the techniques he’s learned as well as how his bouts get scored.  It was really interesting.  Eli has also been busy with skiing in the winter.  This summer, he can’t wait to try activities like woodworking, especially since he even does some of it at home with his dad.  Eli showed me a cool sword he made out of wood.  Eli will also continue with his little league baseball clinics in the spring.  As for Carly, she just had her Bat Mitzvah last weekend, in which her fellow bunkmates from Girls Bunk 11 in 2009 was in full attendance!  Mazel Tov!  She is also active with soccer, basketball and skiing.  Both Carly and Eli have birthdays in upcoming weeks!  Here is a pic…

Me with Carly and Eli Lieberman.

I can’t wait until tomorrow when I get to see more camp families, campers and even alumni when we have our second basketball game get-together at the Knicks game at 7:30 pm on Tuesday.  As we mentioned to those going, for those that can get there at 6:30 pm, meet us at the 8 Penn Plaza entrance to Madison Square Garden (33^rd Street & 8^th Avenue) so that your camper can participate in the Fan Tunnel for the team warm-ups.  How cool is that?!  Some of our campers will be on the court at MSG!

Over the past few weeks, I got some great e-mails from campers and staff that I wanted to share with you.  First off is Carly Fleischer.  Here is Carly’s e-mail to me…

Just wanted to say hi and thought I’d send you a couple pictures because last week at my school was spirit week.  One of the days was “Indian Day,” so I decided to go all out and dress in camp clothes (since it is, of course, my favorite kind of clothing). I have been really busy with school (I have an accelerated earth science midterm this week) ,soccer (we haven’t stopped since the end of the summer) and riding horses. In 2 weeks, for February break, my dad and I are going to surf camp in Costa Rica for 7 days. We will also be using ATVs, horseback riding on the beach, zip lining and scuba diving. Kinda reminds you of camp, huh? Well I’m really excited and feel free to use my pictures and/or this little update on me for your blog. I can’t wait for camp!!! 150 DAYS!!!

Here are the pics from Carly’s Spirit Day…

Carly in her Indian Get Up, using last Summer's Senior T-Shirt. Great stuff!

Peace!

Counselor Lauren “L-Mac” McGuire, who will be back at camp for her second summer and also shooting and editing our Video Yearbook again, e-mailed me a great photo from her weightlifting competition.  Here is the e-mail…

Lauren McGuire power lifts 310 lbs! She was modest about the record thing. That looks like a record to me! Way to go, L-Mac!

Chris Parno teaches Rak Dan Line Dancing to his fellow classmates at University of Minnesota-Duluth.