Hi All,

Jaycal is HOME! Jaycal arrived home last night from Israel and he had a great time! He will be posting shortly a recap of his trip to Poland and Israel.

But, now that he is home, it’s time to sit down and work hard on our new project- the Canadensis Today Show! We have so much to finalize including the logo, intro theme music, segments we will feature, the guest anchors, production scheduling, etc.

Here at camp we are quite busy. The first group of precamp staff arrived- Justin Winch, Steven Scott, and Peter Tarnoff. Precamp special guest Martha Archer arrived to our aid so that tomorrow we can open the climbing wall for our group that is arriving as I type this!

The past few days have been spent preparing the boys cabin for the arrival of this group.  This included cleaning the cabins (we have an outside service do this), putting the cleaning supplies in the cabins, counting the number of beds, getting the kitchen ready to serve meals, fill the soda machines, and I could go on and on.

We also had tons of outside companies coming in. Our wall/high ropes was inspected and of course passed the other day, we had 3 tractor trailers of food deliveries arrive that needed to be unloaded, etc.

Today in response to the “Swine Flu” outbreaks we have installed hand sanitizer stations outside all of the doors into the dining halls. Of course, the best prevention of any disease is washing your hands thoroughly in the dedicted hand wash stations, but we wanted to also provide hand sanitizer as well. We also continually retrain all of our kitchen staff on proper handwashing and food handling procedures as well as inspect the cleanliness of the dining hall after each meal. This is something we always do, but I thought I should highlight some of these things as I know many people are wondering about this flu. So far, so good up here in our own little world of Canadensis and we don’t expect that to change!

It’s 9:30PM and we just got done serving a pizza snack to the group of 200 that is still arriving. I am looking forward to welcoming the 2009 CIT’S up at camp tomorrow, so until then I leave you with a sneak peek at the recycling program signage we will be posting in each cabin!

Hey Canadensis,

This message comes to you from seat 43a. I’m about to take off and return to the United States after my two weeks away! I had the most incredible trip and have so many stories to share. Speak to you all soon!

-JCal

Shalom Everyone!

Its now Thursday morning here in Israel. I meant to write the other day but I fell asleep in the middle of typing up the email. Its been busy final few days in Israel.

Yesterday we started the day by touring an old prison in Jerusalem. After our tour of the prison we walked over to a huge open square here in Jerusalem where a stage was set up for the beginning of our second march. Last week we marched from Auchwitz to Berkinow, today we marched to the Western Wall. All 7,500 of us together! It was another incredible experience.

After our march we arrived at the Western Wall. This was my last visit to the wall on this trip so I went down the wall and prayed for the last time. We then had time to walk around the Old City and do some more shopping. I met some really nice people from all over the world.

Last night was the mega event for all the marchers. We all gathered on a military base for a huge concert. I was even chosen to go on stage in front of the 8,000 people to represent our region.

This morning we returned a torah to Yad Vashem(a holocaust memorial site) that was rescued a few years ago. It was a highlight of the trip because it was such a powerful moment. More on this later!

We are now traveling to Tel-Avi to get a few more sights in before we board our flight to return back to New York! The past two week have been incredible. I’ve seen so many things, some happy and some sad. What I’ve seen, the stories I heard will forever be with me.

Leheatraoat!
-Jason

Well you really know it’s that time of the year, when Silas and the crew arrive to open up the camp kitchen! Today our first food delivery truck will arrive, followed by a few on Wednesday and Thursday as well. We need to bring in lots of food to feed all of our precamp groups.

Speaking of food, we go through alot of it during the summer time! It’s not uncommon to go through about 200 pounds of french fries in one meal! We get our eggs in cases of 30 dozen at a time and use about 8 of them a week. Throughout precamp, I will try to update you on food consumption, because I bet alot of people would be surprised at how much food we actually use!

What a lovely transition from food into garbage. We are really excited this year to announce that we will be recycling. More details to follow…but I worked on the recycling signage that will be hung around camp, so maybe just maybe I will let you bloggers preview the new signs soon!

I have to get going now as I have a bit of a cold, but tons of work to do. Enjoy the beautiful weather back at home and remember that camp is about 2 months away. I am really excited!

Hey Canadensis,

Had another long day here in Israel. We woke up early this morning had a quick breakfast and then headed out to see some great sites on our hike. We are currently up north in the mountains so the views are incredible.

After our hike we headed over to Tzfat where we hiked a little more and then had lunch. I had pizza which was really good! For those of you that know me pretty well, know that I’m a very picky eater and surprisingly the food has been very good! Then we walked around town for a little while before heading to a few different Shuls in the area. We also went to a candle factory and the highlight of the afternoon was the artist colony. It was filled with all different types of art. There was jewelry, art work, statues…you name it they had it! I did some shopping and picked up a few gifts for some people. We then boarded the bus and headed back to our Hostel.

We got back and changed for dinner and then we headed up to a ceremony for Yom Ha Zikarom. Yom Ha Zikarom is the Israeli Memorial Day. The ceremony was very somber and moving.

Tomorrow we will attend another ceremony at a local high school and then have time to interact with the kids. I’m really looking forward to talking to kids my age and seeing what school is like for them.

Till next time!
-JayCal

PS: If anyone has any questions for me please email me at editor@canadensis.com

Hey Everyone!

We have had a very jammed packed schedule the past few days here in Israel. Yesterday we traveled around Jerusalem and saw many of the great sites. The really interesting thing was that because it was shabbat the roads were basically empty. I’ve never seen streets so empty. It was really fascinating to see a street that was packed just a day before now be completely empty. The whole town was basically shut down until sunset.

After Shabbat we had our first opportunity to shop in Israel. They took us to Benhihooda street which was filled with different stores and food! I stopped by McDonald’s and ordered a hamburger. They have 2 different sizes here! They have the normal size we have in America but also a burger similar to the size you can get at a diner. We did a lot of shopping and then headed back to our hostel.

This morning we traveled back to the kotel for morning prayer and then boarded the bus for Hiafa. We had lunch in Hiafa and looked at the incredible view. You could see the entire city from the observation deck we were on. After lunch we traveled to Rosh Hanikra and hiked down the coast there as well as exploring the caves. We then traveled to our hostel and got ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight was very interesting. We had dinner in Druze home. We had dinner in a persons house, shared stories from the trip and danced to different music. It was an interesting meal and it was VERY GOOD! I really enjoyed it!

Right now we are back the hostel preparing for tomorrow. We have another busy day ahead of us.

Speak to you soon,
Jason

Hey Canadensis,

Day 2 in Israel and I’m all ready to move here! I’m having the most incredible time here. There is so much to see and do here! This morning we got up had a great breakfast and then all headed off to different types of services. My service was held at the Hebrew Union College. The campus was beautiful! So many plants and trees.

After services we headed back to the hostel for a huge lunch! There was so much food to choose from. I had snitzel which is chicken. After lunch we took walking tours of Jerusalem. I saw a lot of really interesting sights and took a lot of great pictures. I will try and send a bunch in after my trip.

After dinner we held services at the hostels amphitheater (not as great as ours!) After services we went to the huge market place next to the hostel. I did A LOT of shopping!!

(I fell asleep in the middle of writing this post so I will continue now…)

Right now I’m standing at the Kotel (Western Wal). We are traveling to Haifa this afternoon a few other places.

Speak to you later!

-Jason

Gorgeous Saturday! Finally a break in the weather and these next few days should be absolutely beautiful. I think its close to 80 degrees out today (Saturday) so we are taking full advantage of the nice weather and doing as many outside jobs as possible. The term “we” right now include myself, Matt Unger, Tom (our caretaker), Val (she worked in woodshop), and Jimmy (our builder).

Yesterday Tom dug up a cracked water pipe coming out of the lake going into some of the lower boys cabins. You will be happy to know if you are a Lower Inter/Upper Inter boy, your water this summer will be coming through brand-new 2″ water piping as we dug up the entire old pipe near the kayak shed, past the gaga court, to the cabin closest to the gaga court. It was a big project, but all went well and now it’s all done and the water pressure is incredible! We also drained the girls pool entirely (all the water from the winter) in preparation for Saturday’s work!

Today we started bright and early as we had a full day ahead of us. Matt and I (see video below) entered the girls pool (it was dry now!) to completely clean it up. This meant scooping out all of the leaves, pine needles, and pine cones that accumulated at the base all last fall/winter to get it ready. We spent a few hours doing that, while Tom powerwashed it clean!

Tomorrow the pool company will be in as we need to be in compliance with a new safety regulation that was recently enacted involving the suction from the pool drains. Unfortunately, nationwide there had been many deaths over the years of kids arms or legs getting stuck in these drains. Of course we had been aware of this and had done whatever we could to make sure we kept our drains well covered so this wouldn’t happen at camp. Well now there is a new federal law called the Virginia Graham Baker Pool Safety Act which ensures this would never happen again. It’s a great act so that we can make sure we are as safe as could be. Our pool company will be in to install a new drainage system.

On Monday, the girls pool will be painted and if all goes well after a few days of drying, we will fill the pool!

Enjoy the video as Matt and I head out to dinner in the Poconos!

Cleaning out the girls pool video

Forti

Hey Everyone,

Last night I finally arrived in Israel after flying in from Poland. The flight we took was the most interesting flight I’ve ever taken. For starters, it was filled with only teenagers participating in the March. It was kids from the US, Canada and Brazil. The Brazilian kids were very LOUD from the second we took off until we landed at 4am in Israel. They were dancing and singing in the isles while we all tried to get some sleep, which none of us did. We all tried to get them to sit down, they just didn’t listen. The flight attendants even threatened not giving us dinner because of how chaos the plane was. Finally about 20 mins before we were about to land and they started to be quiet. BUT, the second we landed the noise started up again and we were on the move.

We left the airport around 5am and headed to our first destination which was a tree reserve. We each planted our own trees in the forest. The view from where we were was incredible. You looked out onto open farm land across the mountains. It was really something incredible. After we planted our trees we headed to Jerusalem where our hostel is located. We checked in and had a hot breakfast! (This being the first good breakfast in a week) After breakfast we had most of the afternoon free to relax because we were so tired. My trip leader though decided it would be nice to take a few of us out of the hostel and go visit the local market where we’d be spending Saturday night. There were so many shops and food stands. We then went back to the hostel and had lunch. After lunch we changed into our Shabbat clothes and headed to the Western Wall.

The Western Wall was incredible. There were so many people there for Friday Night services. The wall was massive, much bigger than I thought it was. I prayed with my group and then we returned back to our hostel for Shabbat Dinner. Our first day in Israel was incredible, and there’s still so much more to see in the upcoming days!

-Jaycal

Hey Canadensis,

This post comes to you from seat 12C on board my flight to Israel. I can’t begin to tell you all how excited I am for my first trip to Israel! You’ll know soon enough because I’m sure ill have a lot to write about in the coming days!

-JayCal