Bye bye Sweden

After leaving Stockholm today at 08.00 in the morning, I just arrived in Hamburg, Germany and it's almost midnight. It was a long but brilliant road trip with more sun and less snow as I drove further south. The adventure part was taken care of by my bank who blocked my debit card half way to 'prevent fraud' – which resulted in me being a stowaway on the second ferry without a ticket. Above is the last glance of Sweden as seen from the first ferry from Helsingborg – Hej då.

Now, there's only one more week left to take care of thousands of things before leaving for my internship.

HyperCastle

People told me that it's rather tough to find a place to live in Stockholm. They seemed to be correct. All international students referred to the flat hunt as the first challenge of Hyper Island. So after countless long days without a home I joined a group of Hyper students and we found a great house that will serve us as a headquarter to retreat from the screens. It's in the outskirts of Stockholm and it's an awesome place with a lake nearby. Quite a contrast to living in the hectic city if London.

We call it the HyperCastle, and I'm looking forward to the cold winter in this cozy place.

Starting in Stockholm

All was packed and my room was empty by Monday. I took the plane to Arlanda in Stockholm and left my London life behind for now. I still don't realize that I went to a rather random place, Sweden that is. Stockholm is treating me well so far. The summer that didn't really kick in in England is warm and sunny over here. I got a cheap motel to stay the first few days and to fulfill the unofficial first Hyper Island module – finding a flat in Stockholm. And it's a huge mission. Everyone seems to be after a home here, and there are hardly any offers, so I'm still looking for a place to settle for the next 10 months.

I had the pleasure to meet quite a few Hyper students already and they couldn't be more diversified. It seems people came from all corners of the earth to learn the trade of interactive art direction here at Hyper Island. Norway, Lebanon, the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Denmark you name it, they have it.

Up to now it's been super exciting and I cannot wait as tomorrow, finally, is the first day of the course at Hyper Island.

The city is very beautiful with a lot of water surrounding it

Most of the time we're checking the websites for new flat offers, refresh, refresh, refresh

A bunch of students are renting a house near the city called the 'Hyper Mansion', a great place for parties

Hyper Island Admission Days

Last week I attended the Admission days at Hyper Island in Stockholm for the Interactive Art Director course 2010. It was pretty neat. I booked a hyper cheap hotel quite next to the school which is a bit outside the city center of Stockholm. The whole thing started at 9.oo o'clock in the morning, after we were greeted and divided into groups the first thing to do was a creative test. Two and a half hours to identify ten common needs people have, pick one of them, explain it and create an interactive idea around it that would fulfill that need and make people happier. Great start for the first day in Sweden. My concept was based around the need of people wantng to experience new things – like trying new food. A service called 'Eat the Frog' that helped people with accquiring a new taste. It was good fun to work on.

The next step was a presentations by students who are doing the course at the moment, telling us what the school is all about. I was surprised by their methods, there are no teachers, no classes and no books. It' all about active participation and learning by experiences. It looks like there will be no spec briefs, all or most of the work done for the course will be created for real clients and have real value. After this session with a lot of questions and answers the next part was the interview process. Mine was with a current student (they always seem to involve students in everything) and an external consultant. 20 minutes with them in a room, I tried my best. The second day started with the easiest part of the process, a written English exam. Afterwards was the way more exciting part, the outside bit. Which was all about team work and self reflection. Very demanding but the best example of what the school will be like.

I think they had around 90 people there, and this was already the third round of admission days. Of all who applied only a third will be taken on. I got my result earlier this week, I got admitted to Hyper Island.