Hey All,

Well tonight is my last night in Poland and tomorrow night we head to ISRAEL! I’m so excited to go to Israel, a lot of my friends on this trip have already been and say how incredible it is. I don’t really have much to write about tonight but I just wanted to give a quick hello!

Tomorrow we are traveling to one of the oldest Jewish Cemeteries in Poland and helping to clean it up. Some of us are even going to visit a Polish school. Ill have lots to write about tomorrow and my flight to Israel!

-JayCal

So you know how I keep saying there is SO much to do up at camp right now to prepare for the Summer. Well today, Matt and I took one for the team and the really challenging, difficult, and most unpleasant of tasks- TASTING BREAD, PASTRIES, DOUGHNUTS, AND OTHER BAKERY TREATS!

The very famous Rockland Bakery now delivers up in the camp area and so look out this summer for some great breads and rolls, amongst other treats. We are really excited about our new vendor!

Good Morning All from Canadensis! I have “made the move” and am now up here permanently along with Matt Unger making our final preparations for our first precamp group/CIT weekend on May 2.

I wanted to share with you what I did last Thursday. I had the unique opportunity of organizing a local camp tour with 5 camps who are all within the vicinity of Canadensis. About 10 of us met at Canadensis first (of course because Canadensis is the best, right?? hehe) and spent about an hour at each camp. I absolutely love spending a day with other camp directors for a number of reasons. We “talk camp” the WHOLE DAY and they don’t even roll their eyes at me because they understand and share the same passion for their camps! I have to be honest and say that the other camps were also beautiful. Each camp has their own unique special place, like we have our dining hall deck, amphitheatre, (now the new canteen!!), and lake front which is absolutely stunning, while other camps have a lookout where you can see mountains in the distance, etc. The benefit of seeing other camps is that you get ideas. From simple things like trash can placement (I know- exciting, right??) all the way to large scale buildings and how they are designed. We also talk about programming, safety procedures, etc.

In any event, walking around 5 camps all day is just energizing and exciting. Did I mention WALKING?? We WALKED 5 camps- no golf carts, no mules, just 24 inches (2 feet, haha) and yes I was tired when I returned home at 9PM that night. Saturday morning I went to visit one more camp in a different area of PA, which was also exciting and fun. But now, I am back “home” where I belong at Canadensis ready for an exciting upcoming season!

Below is a posting from one of the camp professionals on this tour with me (David Minkoff) who also happens to be an alumni! Enjoy.

“I had the opportunity to go up to Canadensis on that beautiful day last Thursday with a few other camp directors. I hadn’t been there since maybe 1990; definitely 1988, which was the dedication of the Alumni Pavilion. I couldn’t believe how much has changed, yet how much has stayed the same. What really floored me was the all the bunk pictures from 1980 on are still in the dining hall (some of the people I was with weren’t even born in the early ’80s). I hope to get back this summer for lunch if I can get a Saturday or Sunday off from Pinemere. I’ll definitely be there for the 2010 reunion!”

I can’t wait to see all of you real soon. If you have any questions or requests of pictures you would like to see specifically, email me at eric@canadensis.com. Thanks to Jaycal for providing great updates on his trip overseas!

Stay tuned to more posts from both me and Jaycal!

Hey All!

What a day today! Today was the march, it was incredible! The amount of people from all over the world that gathered to walk together. I met people from literally every part of the world. I met people from Mexico, Germany, Hungry, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and so many more countries. This was an incredible day. The march took about 3 hours and concluded with a huge Holocaust remembrance Ceremony.

After the Ceremony we boarded the buses for a 5 hour ride to our hotel. The bus ride was a lot of fun because it gave us time to bond even more. We have a kid on our bus that plays guitar so we were singing different songs throughout the ride. I even told my new friends about my performance in 2007 at camp of High School Musical. They can’t believe that I was in HSM. I told them I will send them footage after the trip.

That’s basically it for tonight, its very late…2AM and I have to be up at 7am!

Goodnight from Poland!

Jaycal

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to give a quick hello from Poland. We are on our second night here in Poland. We arrived in Poland yesterday afternoon and toured Warsaw. This morning we made the four hour trip to Krakow. We then traveled to Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was a really sad experience.

Tomorrow we are participating in the actual March of the Living with more than 7,000 Jewish teens and adults from all over the work coming from 50 different countries. We are marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

My group that I’m with is filled with more than 100 kids from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Ohio. I have made a ton of new friends already from all over the country! At dinner tonight the March of the Living group from Brazil and Canada were at the same restaurant as us. It was exciting to meet people from different countries.

Jaycal

Hey Canadensis,

I have arrived in Poland! We left JFK late last night and arrived in Poland around 2PM (8AM EST) today. The flight was very good, I slept for most of it though.

Once we got to Poland this afternoon we toured several sites include the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Memorial and the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Tomorrow we are visiting some of the concentration camps from World War II.

I will have much more tomorrow when I’m not so tired! Check back soon for more updates.

Jason Calabretta (Jaycal)