NEW Update from Evren! written: 12/14/11
Evren departs for France and Luxembourg today to bring the ELC Leadership Academy to 150 students at the Collège & Lycée Vauban! During his two weeks abroad, Evren will be documenting his experience and adventures on the bottom of this news page. Check this page each day for his latest news, updates, thoughts and emotions as the ELC Leadership Academy works hard to cultivate and inspire a whole new class of Enjoy Life Club Members. The ELC is excited and honored for this incredible opportunity! Collège & Lycée Vauban students, get ready for an awesome life experience!
Evren, tell us all about it… 
*If you would like to leave a reply or comment, please click on the orange “reply” link at the bottom of each of Evren’s personal posts rather than leave a comment at the way bottom to this master post
Wow. You really did it! It appears the ELC message is universal, no matter the language.
The Duplantier family must be exceptional people. Their generosity can only be rewarded by knowing how much it is appreciated. Merci beaucoup.
Bonsior a tous! (good evening everyone) < -- French lesson of the day
Update on life overseas:
Another highlight was the school’s Parent Association (equivalent to the “school committees” we have in the states) and the host family taking me out for a traditional Luxembourgian meal. It…Rocked…my…palette!!! roast pork, different kinds of beans, potatoes -roasted and fried, sauerkraut, different types of pickled cabbages, sausages, salad, wine, crème brûlée, and the list goes on! I was that strange foreigner taking pictures of every plate that was put down in front of me. All in all, the most incredible aspect of this experience is the people, particular my host family and the parents association. Their generosity, caring, graciousness, support, and sacrifice to make my stay comfortable and positively life changing has been humbling to say the least. So many people here have altered their lifestyle and schedules to help me succeed and I have experienced a new level of “how to support a person” that is a standard I can only hope to achieve for others back in the states. All in all, I will return to the states a better person after having been impacted by these most selfless and caring people. That being said, as much as this portion of Europe is a must visit for everyone I know, I am excited to return home 
Someone recently asked me how long I’ve been here and I responded with “it feels like 3 months!” After thinking it over, these 3 weeks have felt like 3 months because in these 3 weeks I have learned and grown what would have taken me 3 months back in the states to experience. Wow, that made no sense…in more simple terms, I’ve grown emotionally 3 months worth in just 3 weeks…Anyways! I will never forget this experience and am so thankful for it. Shout out to my Hopkinton homies on the Noble Team and if any of you want to do a few week study abroad while you are in high school, this is the place to do it! Keep reading for an ELC update… Ciao!
The sun has set here in Luxembourg and it really does not stay up very long. In terms of latitude, I was surprised to learn that here in eastern France and Luxembourg, it is the equivalent of Nova Scotia. At this time of year, the sun barely gets much higher than the horizon and it is only bright full daylight from about 9:00am - 4:00pm. This trip has been fabulous, educational and a huge growing experience! Since the last update of visiting the Christmas Markets in a city called Trier in Germany, I've visited Reims, a city in France (champagne capital of the world), Metz (a city in France), Maastricht (a city in Holland where they signed the famous treaty that now allows all European borders to be free and open for people and products), Luxembourg city in Luxembourg, Thionville (the town I am staying in France), and this weekend, I head to Paris for my final three days! In total, I've been to 5 different countries in 13 days...France, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and Holland. I am soaking in LOADS of history and culture, eating the best chocolate croissants every morning for breakfast and learning all about the French Education System which is quite different from how things work in the United States. It is most comforting and appreciated that everyone here is working hard to accommodate my lack of languages and I am amazed at how advanced everyone in Europe is at speaking multiple languages (even the kids)! The weather has been very consistent - 40's, rain and wind 11 out of the 13 days I've been here, but it makes for some cozy nights of sleep. One of the highlights thus far was waking up on December 6th to find my shoes under the Christmas tree filled with chocolates and...tickets to a Champions League Soccer match in Dortmund Germany! (http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52758/index.html). Gifts in the shoes is a tradition to celebrate St. Nicholas Day (http://chuck.hubpages.com/hub/St_Nicholas_Day). Seeing a European Soccer Match was once-in-a-lifetime! NO professional sport in America comes close to cultivating the team pride and match atmosphere…it is so loud with singing, chants and cheers for the entire 90 minutes that you can’t speak with the person next to you. The big question is: how do we get that at the Hopkinton Girls Soccer matches???
Update on the Leadership Academy:
The 17 hour Leadership Academy was packed into three days last week! I sensed on day 1 (Dec 5th) that the students here in the French Education System were a bit unaccustomed to this group-focused, collaborative and active style of learning. But, they rocked it! By day 3, they were definitely firing on all cylinders and we experienced some incredible leadership and life realizations and “Ah-HA!” moments. I even decided that this group was good enough to throw down a brand new leadership activity that I have been designing in my head for some time. I can’t give away how it works because it is a keeper and the next Academy which is for the Hopkinton 8th graders will definitely be experiencing it. These students worked extremely hard at making sense of our deep, abstract lessons taught to them in their second and, for some, third language! They had take-aways from the activities that I had never thought of before and they have changed how I will present some of these activities forever. When the Academy was complete, the students were so appreciative and on an ELC high! In the end I think I learned just as much from them as they learned from the ELC 
on Thursday night (Dec. 8th) I presented at the Leadership Education Conference and got to meet some cool people including the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg – very awesome man and someone I think I could learn a lot from about leadership. The week of leadership education ended with a bang when I was walking through the school visiting teachers and students and was corralled in the hallway in front of a large group of students. They were up to something and then the music teacher began playing the piano! About two bars in, I knew exactly what they had done…The school’s music teacher went on youtube, found one of our science songs and taught it to his 100 students! I stood in the hallway listening to “You’re Just the Force I’m Looking for” sung by a massive and VERY talented choir. Here is the original for those that don’t know what a “Science Song” is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfF5zDQ-Gc).
First I would like to thank the ELC Admin Team for putting together the great news update on our homepage, you nailed it! Also to our ELC twitter master – keep up the good work and go Minutemen!
In sum, this was a very awesome and humbling experience. Every time a tad of homesickness crept into my mind, it was easily beaten back by the natural beauty of France and Luxembourg and the wonderful and comforting nature of the people, food and culture. Shout out to the Duplantier’s, my host family. You guys rock! Thanks for everything and there is no way to ever repay what you truly deserve.
Back home in 5 days…
ELC baby
Cher Evren,
I will write in french: it will be your last french lesson before you live us. And becaus we share already thoses ideas you will understand…..
Merci pour cette ELC session. merci pour les eleves de Vauban. Merci d’avoir tenter cette experience en Europe avec nous;
Merci à Marc Duplantier de nous avoir fait decouvrir le Enjoy life Club et Evren Gunduz.
Merci à tous les membres de l’APE d’avoir jouer le jeu.
merci à tous les membres du Lycee d’avoir contribuer à l’organisation ( la liste est longue et j’espere qu’ils se reconnaitront)
L’energie positive que cela a apporté à notre communauté est AMAZING.
Nous allons essaye d’entretenir le feu jusqu’à la prochaine fois.Car il faut qu’il y est une prochaine fois pour que le ELC s’agrandisse.
vous allez nous manquer.
bon voyage .
valerie
You are absolutely right Valérie!
Merci Evren!!
As each one of your students becomes positively influenced to make good choices in life, the world becomes a better place. Drop by drop the lake is filled. (a wise old Turkish proverb)
Happy Sunday! Today, the weather has not let up though the rain and chilly air made for an incredible night of sleep. We went out for dinner last night and had savory crepes known in French as “galettes”. Mine was filled with meat, spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella, and topped with a fried egg. We had sweet crepes for desert known as “crêpes sucrées” (I had “coco banane” – nutella and banana). When we got home, I showed the family videos of what American high school and college Marching Band is all about and they were amazed! Of course, I showcased the UMass Marching Band and they loved the Madonna show
. I played some video games on PS3 with Tim and Yann – they crushed me in the new Call of Duty. Today, we are headed to Germany to hang around at a huge Christmas fair! We are going to indulge in some classic German food and do some shopping. Tomorrow marks the start of the 3-day ELC Leadership Academy…let the fun begin! I will start taking pictures and posting them on our ELC flickr page. Check out the current pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62789039@N05. You can easily access our youtube, facebook, flickr, and twitter accounts on the left sidebar of our website. I bet Christmas trees and lights are going up like crazy back in the states! Any snow yet??? 
Be awesome,
-Evren
Good luck today! Thinking of you as your embark on this incredible progam overseas! Unfortunately, the weather hit 60 degrees today and the skiing plans we had for this weekend are not looking so good…please bring lots of snow home with you!!!
Hope you had a terrific first day, Ev. I’m sure it was a great success. Eat a chocolate croissant for me!!
Bonjour! The weekend is in full swing here in France and most of you are still fast asleep back in the states or just stirring as the sun rises. It is a chilly, rainy Saturday here in the northeast of France and this morning we walked down the street to the local bakery and picked up breakfast – freshly baked baguettes and croissants. When we got back to the house, this was combined with hard boiled eggs, Italian cold-cuts, fruit salad, tea, juice, milk, cereal (corn flakes) and by the end of this meal, we all decided that we will not eat again until dinner; it was all delicious! Last night was my first night here and Marc (the host father and the educator here who set everything up) took me to the sauna at the local gym! We went into a 115 degree room and then into a cold shower, back and forth twice. This is a way of settling the body. It is like hitting the reset button on my mind and body and supposedly eliminates jet lag. Well, it worked! I slept a solid 9 hours last night and woke up feeling great! When I return home, I will have to find a sauna in Cambridge to do the same. We ate Italian style pizza for dinner and watched Tim, one of the host family’s sons, play in his handball game. The two biggest sports for students here are soccer (futbol) and handball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_handball). The rest of the weekend will be spent making final preparations for the Leadership Academy and the Education Conference on Thursday night at which I will be presenting: How the ELC got started, it’s impact on students, how parents can support student leadership at home and lastly, a short presentation on the American university system (social life, academics, sports, admissions etc.). I am learning little bits of French here and there and hope to learn as much as possible by the time I leave in two weeks! Here is your French lesson of the day: “Je m’appelle” means “my name is____” and “Comment ca va?” means “how are you?”
Last night before bed, I read through all my Hopkinton Student’s letters, practiced Veronica’s French lessons, hung out with Meg’s squirrel, and fell asleep with a smile on my face
Gosh I miss you all and can’t wait to see you soon! I got emails from Austin, Juliette and a few others and they really inspired me so keep the emails and comments here coming in! Tell me all about what is happening in Hoptown, USA. I am like Mike Mulligan; the more support I get, the better I dig! 
I am getting called to play some ping pong with Tim and Yann (the Duplantier brothers). Let’s see if they are as competitive as the Gunduz bros…
au revoir!
-Evren
Have an awesome time! Can’t wait to follow your journey!
Dear Evren,
Welcome to Europe! We hope you had a good flight and that the jet lag fitness program of Marc will be efficient! We are all very happy of your coming to the Vauban Lycée. Thank you so much to have accepted the invitation of Marc! We do are very honored!
All our dream team is looking forward to meeting you. So enjoy your week-end with the Duplantier great family and see you on Monday morning.
Take care!
The APE (Parents’ association) team
Camilla, Catherine, Delphine, Florence, Ilham, Laetitia, Laurence, Maguelonne, Nathalie, Valérie, Etienne and Evangelos
Glad to hear all is going well. Miss you already in the halls of HMS but Maryfrancis is great and the kids love her.
Holding off on the HMS Christmas party til you get back!!!!!
Glad to hear all is going well. Miss you already in the halls of HMS but Maryfrancis is great and the kids love her.
Holding off on the HMS Christmas party til you get back!!!!!
You’ll be great! ENJOY every experience!
Have a great trip and enjoy every moment! Dreams are made of these.
Hey everyone! I am in the airport waiting for my first flight from Boston to NYC, then I get on a plane at 11:30pm to head across the ocean to Paris. This is certainly a “comfort-zone-stretching” experience and my thoughts are dominated by what to expect with the students, my host family, the school and living overseas for a couple of weeks. I am really excited and anxious to get there and meet up with my host family at the Paris airport! I will be reunited with Tim, who was our 8th grade exchange student in Hopkinton last year and his Dad, Marc, who set this whole adventure up. My Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport and were there to send me off with hugs and good wishes; they are simply the best people in the world!
As excited as I am for this life experience, a small part of me is sitting here in the Boston airport looking forward to my return to this very spot in 18 days. A large part of me is missing my students…I hope you all had a great day at HMS and I can’t wait to see you when I get back! The send-off the students gave me was simply amazing and I brought all their letters with me as inspiration. I am now going to read Veronica Lee’s “Guide to Learning French for Mr. Gunduz” 
My next update will be from Paris! Be awesome, ~Evren 
Have an AMAZING time!
good luck!!!! have fun!!