Hello All! I hope you are ready for Round 2 of Where in the World is Eric Forti?! My bags are (almost) packed and tomorrow I head out on another adventure. While I won’t be on nearly as many flights as last time, I will be visiting 6 different cities, so stay tuned to the blog for updates along the way. Thanks for being a loyal blog reader and for playing along. Remember, email your guesses to editor@canadensis.com.

Click here to view the first clue!

Good Morning Canadensis!

I’m finally back from my two week hiring road-trip! It was a crazy few days, and lots of fun, but I’m really glad to be back home and back in the office! Now I’m going to rewind and share with you some highlights from my trip!

First off, Brian and I drove a BRIGHT BLUE PT Cruiser from Detroit to Philadelphia. As you can see below, we found another car at our first hotel that seemed to be a good match…

Our first dinner stop was one of Brian’s favorite Kalamazoo restaurants, The Olde Peninsula:

We tried one of the most interesting appetizers I’ve ever seen, Pretzel mozzarella sticks! They were just like normal mozzarella sticks, but instead of breading around the cheese, it’s bits of pretzel! I’d never had anything like that before so it was exciting to try something new, and they were really delicious!

The next day we interviewed at Western Michigan University, and I had my first experience at BiggBy coffee, a new midwest coffee franchise that’s on it’s way to sweeping the nation! All their marketing was colorful and animated:

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture below, but all the menus and signs are cute and adorable, even the drink names are precious: Nutty Buddy, Caramel Marvel, and White Lightning, to name a few…

So enough of that. After happy coffee and a day of interviews we had dinner at a restaurant that had been renovated from an old train station:

The next night we spent some time in Ann Arbor. We tried a restaurant named “Red Hawk”, which had the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had in my whole life:

…and after that, we made a pit stop at the Alpha Delta Pi house, and I stopped to say hello and take a picture:

After a fun day at EMU we were finally off to Ohio! In Ohio we had dinner at a little restaurant across the street from our hotel, comically named “Frickers”

Brian was disappointed in the intensity of his hot wings, but overall it was a fun time! The next day we got to see fun camp friends, and Bridgett Haley took us to Campus Pollyeyes, where she works as a waitress, for their famous breadsticks:

Look how big they are next to the menu!

After that we headed off to Athens, Ohio, and had an amazing time with Martha Archer. She took us out in downtown Athens for some delicious Mexican cuisine!

Casa Nueva was Martha’s recommendation, and she was definitely right on! I’m not usually very experimental with what I order, but since this trip was all about new experiences I thought I’d go out on a limb and try my first Chimichanga, and it was awesome! We had delicious desserts as well, and there were so many vegan friendly options, I couldn’t help but think about one of our best friends, counselor Erica Carey.

The next day we woke up early and Martha gave us a lovely tour of the campus, which was absolutely stellar! If I had seen Ohio U when I was looking at colleges it would’ve posed UVM a serious threat!

That’s a picture of the student center, where we held interviews, and which boasts a beautiful campus view, and a glorious interior. I was honestly in love.  We stopped for coffee at “Donkey” which made me feel as though I’d stepped into a coffee shop in Burlington again; I think that’s why I liked Athens so much, it was just like Vermont.  The coffee was honestly the best I’ve had in a long time, way better than any Starbucks cup, and it was a much needed morning pick-me-up.

…and of course I had to stop and take a picture with the Alpha Delta Pi house…

After lunch at a cute 1950’s style diner, where I tried my first frittata, we drove off to Pittsburgh.

When we arrived in Pittsburgh Friday evening we met up with Elana Sharir and Ethan Cohen for a delicious dinner at Six Penn Kitchen.

Elana and I indulged our veggie loving selves and ordered an amazing cauliflower appetizer, followed by a super delectable buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese. We were loving it!

For dessert we all shared “The Six Penn Circus”, which was a plate piled high with carnival inspired goodies (cotton candy, caramel corn, whoopee pies, and so on…). You’ll hear all about it in a video coming soon…

So now it’s week two of this journey and Brian has hopped a flight back to New Jersey, leaving me armed with my PT Cruiser and Forti’s Navigon. I spent Saturday in the city with Chris Anderson-Spallone and he took me for an infamous Pittsburgh treat:
At Primanti Brothers, they top your sandwich with Fries and Coleslaw, and while at first I was hesitant, Chris assured me that this was a Pittsburgh favorite, even Karen Sharir loves it here, and so sticking with my promise to try new things, I ordered.

That’s an actual shot of my sandwich! It wasn’t easy to eat, and I may have used my fork a little, but we managed and it was really good!

So after some great shopping in Shadyside Chris returned me to my hotel near the airport and I watched The Princess Diaries and packed my bags to leave in the morning.

Sunday morning I headed off to Slippery Rock Pennsylvania and I found my hotel was conveniently placed across the street (literally less than 500 feet) from the Grove City Outlets. I guess I HAD to go shopping…

…and had some success. I met one of my friends from Freshman year of college for a little while that evening, and we drove to Sheets to get coffee. Sheets is probably the closest thing to Wawa I saw throughout my trip, so I was very excited!

The next day I interviewed at Slippery Rock, and then made my way off to West Virginia University. I got to see Jess Marinaro and she took me on a tour of the WVU campus, including a cool ride on their little personal monorail cars!

The PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) runs on it’s own! You press a button, tell it where you want to go, and you’re off! It’s not like a monorail, where the cars are all linked together, these are little individual cars! It was so much fun! The next day I did a camp fair and met some great people, and then hopped in my car and drove off to Shippensburg PA.

Shippensburg wasn’t too eventful. I was tired from the long drives, so I went to bed early. The next day I woke up and everything was covered in snow! I pulled up to the University to get my parking pass, and by the time I got back to my parked car, the windows were covered again! The Student Union was beautiful! I met some really great applicants and had some great interviews. After a long snowy day I got back in the Cruiser and drove off to the University of Maryland.

UMD was great! I got to visit with one of my best camp friends and we spent the evening watching our favorite episodes of South Park and playing guitar and singing camp favorites. The next day I woke up and held interviews in the UMD career center, and got to meet up with CIT ’06 Dani Stein for a delicious sushi lunch! She took me to their Greek store, taught me all about their cool school mascot (The Terp), and then I held my last interview for the day!

After Maryland I hopped in the car and made my way back to Philadelphia! It was so good to see the “Welcome to Pennsylvania” sign on the highway. My dad met me at the Philadelphia Airport and I said goodbye to the Electric Blue PT Cruiser. We somehow managed to get all my bags in the car and headed home.

All in all it was a great two weeks. I saw some beautiful campuses, met some great people, and most importantly got to talk about camp constantly! I had a great time with everyone, and I’m more excited than ever for June to arrive!

Alright friends, more blogging later!

We will be announcing our winners of the Where in the World competition later this week! Check back soon to find out if you were a winner.

Remember to check out Cara’s blog at www.canadensis.com/blog/cara for updates on her trip.

Click to view Eric’s video form London

Hi All,

Just a quick blog update to let you all know I made it home! After my journey from Hong Kong – Seoul – London – Atlanta – Philadelphia, I am finally home and on American soil! My TV system didn’t work from London to Atlanta, so it was 9 hours of boredom, but I made a friend with my seatmate, a 12-year old whose dad is a pilot for Delta and is an avation lover, as am I. We talked about all of the different airplane models, etc. I guess I am just craving summer and being back at camp! Someone else on my flight noticed my Camp Canadensis shirt and told me many of her friends children went to Canadensis in the 70s/80s. You truly never know who you will meet!

It is now 9:40PM and I will be landing in philly in about 15 minutes. Actually, they are announcing to turn off laptops, so off I go. Hope everyone enjoyed where in the world part 1 and stay tuned to part 2 coming next week. I also have a video from London that will be posted tomorrow.

Goodnight from my OWN BED IN PHILADELPHIA!

Eric has arrived in London! He will be heading back to the United States tomorrow morning. This is the end of his Where in the World Trip: Part 1. This is not the end of Where in the World though, he will be leaving for his next trip next week! We will announce our winners in the upcoming days. We hope you enjoyed playing. Check back again soon for winners and details on Where in the World: Part 2.

Just when I thought I would have nothing else to blog about, OY VEY!

So I am in South Korea (again!) on a 6 hour layover. Last night, I left Hong Kong at 12:40AM and arrived here around 5 AM. With the time difference taken into account, I only slept 2 hours. So I am bored as could be sitting in the lounge. Actually, I am doing work on a Sunday at 5:30AM, but that’s irrelevant. I have to go to the bathroom, should be an easy task.

Walk into the bathroom stall (I will keep this clean, no worries) and the first toilet has a super fancy electronic remote attached to it. So I look at it closer and the first one says wash, then dry, then warm. So, I am thinking OK it will clean the toilet seat for me, then dry it, then warm it up. Cool. So I press wash and all of the sudden a jet SHOOTS WATER AT ME! It doesn’t just sprinkle a little. Nope, a jet pops out from the bowl and a STREAM OF WATER starts attacking me. Actually it had so much force, I think it was stronger than the white water rafting current we go to with camp! I am actually laughing out loud right now as I type this.

So I guess the purpose of these features is not to clean the seat, but to clean YOU. Luckily there were 2 other toilets to choose from, and they were normal, without these settings. Thanks for the offer to clean me, but no thanks. And I will leave that at that!

I am sitting here soaking wet and decided I MUST take a pic for all of you to see. So, there is a pic of the fancy toilet seat and then one of me in the mirror. See if you can tell my shirt is SOAKING WET. I am walking around the airport lounge with a wet stripe up and down my shirt and pants. How embarrassing.

P.S.- The toilet’s name is LooLoo. If I ever meet a Lulu again, I may look at her different from now on! Wish me better luck at my next destination…

Hey hey hey! The last few days have been so busy, I’ve hardly had time to breathe, let alone blog! I’m currently sitting in my hotel room in Pittsburgh and I plan on making my way into the city for the day, so I figure I’ll blog about the last few days now, and then post a grand pittsburgh entry later!

We started interviews at Central Michigan University bright and early Tuesday morning, and met so many great people! After CMU we headed out of town and off to Ann Arbor to meet with one of the counselors who will be working at the lake this summer. She met Brian and I for dinner at a great little restaurant near the University of Michigan and we got to talk about camp and color war and all the exciting things she can expect this summer! After the most delicious macaroni and cheese we’ve ever had, Brian and I made a quick stop at the Alpha Delta Pi house at U Mich, that’s a chapter of my sorority, and I got to say hi and take a picture outside. I was really excited!

So the next morning we held interviews at Eastern Michigan University and met some more great applicants. We even got a visit from Nikki Campbell! After EMU we headed off to Ohio to interview at Bowling Green and Ohio University. At BGSU we got to spend time with Shawn Bally and Bridget Haley, and Bridget’s friend Allison who will be a new counselor this year! We had the coolest breadsticks for lunch (we explain in an upcoming video…) and when we arrived at Ohio U we were greeted by a very enthusiastic Martha Archer!

Martha took us to the coolest mexican restaurant, Casa Nueva, and I tried my very first Chimichanga! We enjoyed some delicious desserts, and decided to meet up the next morning, Friday morning, for Martha to show us the campus and downtown sights! Martha took us to try the best coffee, showed us the most beautiful buildings, and even took me to a Greek Shop that sold sorority clothes and accessories. I was pretty much in heaven and bought tons of cool ADPi stuff.

After lunch at a sweet diner, we said goodbye to Martha (she tried to hide in the trunk!) and headed out to Pittsburgh! Last night we went into the city and picked up Elana Sharir and Ethan Cohen along the way! We had dinner at Six Penn, which was so delicious! Elana and I were huge fans of the cauliflower appetizer, and we both had the buffalo chicken mac ‘n cheese for dinner, which was oh-so-spicy but oh-so-good!

So now I’m in my hotel in Pittsburgh and hopefully I’ll be seeing some more camp friends later today! I hope you’re all keeping up with the blog, and I plan to have some cool videos and pictures uploaded as soon as possible!

Where in the World is Eric going next? Click here to find out. Remember to send you guesses to Editor@canadensis.com!

Eric is busy exploring Hong Kong right now, here are some pictures from his travels so far.

Where in the World is Eric Forti going next? Click here to view the next clue!

Remember to send in your guesses to editor@canadensis.com

Eric answers your questions! Click here to view