Teambuilding

The final bit of preparation for the Hyper Island course was a trip to Barnens Ö to unite the team and make an efficient group out of us. After a long bus journey we arrived and mixed into rooms before the first exercise which we called Desert Storm. Everyone was blindfolded and dispersed on a large meadow. The first goal was to search the field for a rope and get everyone to hold it. Without speaking to each other, and obviously without seeing anything at all. The next step, after everyone was holding onto the rope, was to form a square with the rope on the floor. A great experience it was, we made it and learned a lot in the process. The rest of the day was about the course and expectations. The expectations our co-workers have, our expectations of each other, the course, the Hyper Island brand and the expectations on ourselves. By the time we were done with half of this it was rather late and everyones brain seemed to sharing one thought: we need dinner! But nothing's easy with Hyper. Dinner was turned into a task, 55 people need food, we have a kitchen, and products. Mission: Feed everyone, and consider special requirements like vegetarians, people who can't eat eggs, fructose and a dislike of red meat & pork.

Driven by primal instinct and immense hunger leadership was taken and stuff was decided on. I took the role of one of six kitchen chefs. Cooking for 55 people sounded like a fun challenge. With the contents of the kitchen we created a menu for 'Chez Hyper': Thyme marinated Pork fillet, with a peppery onion gravy, together with salty oven baked potatoes and a zingy Ratatouille variation. The vegetarian counterpart was all about Catalan Tortillas de Patatas. All was rounded with olives, cheese and fresh bread and followed by fresh fruits baked with white chocolate and topped with vanilla ice cream for desert. The teamwork was amazing and everyone seemed very happy about the food. For me it was one of the best tasks at Hyper Island so far.

Reflections and more defined expectations filled the second day. It felt overwhelming to gasp everyones expectations and it was rewarding to find and define common goals for the work ahead. Every single Hyper student is now itching, not because of mosquito bites that go hand in hand with outdoor trips but rather because of the great anticipation that we built up. We want to start the next module and gets hand on within interactive media. We are greatly prepared and we won't have to wait long to start. Maybe 9 more hours.