The First Issue
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AFET I
AFET II
“Do you have a pet?”, “How many siblings do you have?” Some of you might remember asking questions like these during teambuilding, page 1
One particularly interesting bunch of people was the committee on Foreign Affairs II...page 2
AFCO II
Agri
I mean the Map of Europe, that we The people of AGRI seemed to rewere going to be the best com- alise with stunning clarity the underlying reasons of the games they mittee..page 4 were playing. page 5
18th May 2011
AFco I
The teambuilding day of AFCO I started with making acquaintances and discussion moments. page 3
itre I
But what one definitely feels is that ITRE I is a team that likes to joke around with each other. page 6
Eurovillage & Country Presentations
Last night after an exciting day of Teambuilding, participants enjoyed national dishes at Eurovillage. That was followed by a number of exciting Country presentations.
ITre II
Their chair, Eoin Rogers, showcased it well when initiating a sprinting game with his delegate Rickard during a short break.page 7
LIBE II
Here are some fun facts about the LIBE 2 people. page 10
Econ
LIBE I
They started off with games to get Yesterday, ten people, mostly unto know all the names, which were known to each other, gathered a good laugh as well as truly use- around their two chairs to begin their EYP journeys. page 9 full. page 8
DEVE
When everyone was a bit familiar with the names, they started to throw tennisballs whilst shouting the name of the person receiving the ball. page 11
EMPL
Whıle dryıng up, the delegates dıscussed about the thıngs that went well and the bad thıngs, about new methods of solvıng puzzles and workıng as a team ...page12
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c o m m i t t e e O N f O R E I G N a F FA I R S I by Boaz Manger “Do you have a pet?”, “How many siblings do you have?” Some of you might remember asking questions like these during teambuilding, some of you, but most definitely not the delegates of AFET I. With AFET I questions like ‘would you kill someone you hate?’ or ‘are you an alcoholic’ dominated the scene. Asking these questions is one thing, answering them is something completely different. I was honestly surprised that the people of AFET I did this without hesitation; they were talking about their insecurities, peculiar facts of their past, their fears and their view of life within hours of meeting each other. For instance one of the delegates felt insecure about wearing a bikini this summer as she thought she had gained some weight. I have no idea where she got the idea from as she looked perfectly fine to me, but the fact that she had the guts to talk about her insecurities to a group she had only met an hour before shows great courage and I can only respect that. It is clear that the open atmosphere in the committee on foreign affairs I greatly stimulated the bonding in the committee. Not often does it happen that you know rather intimate details about someone within hours of meeting them. The open atmosphere in
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the committee could be very useful during the next days of committee work; I believe you will find ideas and visions that you would never have found had you been a more introvert group. However, in order for this to work, you have to be sure that the atmosphere in your committee stays as open during committee work as it was during teambuilding. You will have to make sure that every person in the group has the opportunity to express themselves, and more importantly that every individual in the group wants to express themselves. I believe that the main way to accomplish this is by making sure that every person in the group realises that their opinion is appreciated and welcomed. If you listen to every person and their views and actively take them in account in your own thought process you can come to a consensus that is a true product of the entire group, a feat that is not very often accomplished. I believe AFET I has the material necessary to achieve something special and I am looking forward to seeing them in Committee Work. I want to leave you with this quote as I believe you fulfil the first criteria in it: “With great potential comes great responsibility”■
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c o m m i t t e e O N f O R E I G N a F FA I R S I I
by Teresa Stadler As commonly held, also this sessions first day was entirely dedicated to teambuilding. One particularly interesting bunch of people was the committee on Foreign Affairs II, who I encountered talking in the shade. Judging by the mostly northern origin and thus pale skin of the majority of the members, the spot was clearly as carefully chosen as the participants themselves. A few rounds of name games sufficed fully to be familiar with everyone and it was time to dig deeper. In Andreas personal dating agency, delegates were sent on nine refreshingly honest dates. Next to the stunning beauty of the female team members, we found that local Ipek has ambitions to be a famous film director. Furthermore, we heard about the healing powers of Croatian Rakia and the challenges of living on the 7th floor when you are not too fond of elevators. The guys outed themselves as fearless and cultivated. Whoever feels that enjoying the French cuisine and browsing through a Harper Lee novel sounds too
good to be true should know that they are similarly fond of action films and Friday night clubbing. Talking about everyone’s findings in the group made their chair’s newly established business seem like an immediate success. We will surely keep you posted on further developments of the agency. As soon as the initial shyness was overcome, the nine members could be found chatting during coffee break, never seizing to take that extra step to find out a tat more about their opposite. The lively conversations continued during lunch while filling their stomachs with Turkish specialties and by the time AFET II had reached the plateau, everyone was well acquainted with each other. Even though it was rather difficult to make them calm down and get their attention at some points, similarly talkative Andrea managed to properly instruct all activities and since the team was generally quick at understanding the tasks at hand, they progressed smoothly. Once fooling around
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got overly ridiculous, they were presented with some serious problems, one of them involving a long piece of silk and several blind folds. Forming an even square with an uneven number of people is surely not the simplest task to fulfill. Indeed it took a while for them to trust in the correct form of their quad and AFET II’s members seemed to feel strangely uneasy about it. When Stela exclaimed that it was time to look at the outcome of their work, they found that the square was close to equilateral, showing that they could have been more confident about their achievement from the start. In the slowly setting sun, the nine now slightly tanned (or sun-burned) delegates made their way back to the Forum, this time to get a literal taste of the often very diverse cultures they originate from. After a whole day of mingling out in the fresh air, tonight will probably be spent relaxing at the hotel, gathering energy for the challenges that committee work is sure to present them with.■
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c o m m i t t e e O N c o n s t i t u t i o n a l a f fa i r s I by Deniz Ertan
T
he teambuilding day of AFCO I started with making acquaintances and discussion moments. Ciara, Eileen, Vakhtang, Tsanava, Tanguy, Dominik, Elisabeth, Sebastian, Ӧzgür Cem, Zeynep Ece and Berk explained to each other the stories of their first names, what they expect of EYP and their many aspirations. Their chair, Henna, then stressed the importance of communication and the exchange of ideas through a series of games such as the human knot or the origami game. In the later, the committee of AFCO I was divided into pairs, each one sitting down down back to back to make sure that they couldn’t see each others. One of them made an origami with a sheet of paper and had to explain how it was made so that the second person could reproduce a similar origami. This was no easy task, and they quickly understood that clear communication was of vital importance. To finish the morning better, they enjoyed themselves with a fun game of chicken pilot. For the afternoon, their wonderful chair had prepared a few challenges and problem solving games. They began with a blindfolding game in which they had to cooperate, and work as a team, to describe objects distributed by Henna and collect them by sets of different forms. As their chair had expected, it actually took the committee some time to figure it out. Following the game,
the committee was challenged to a game of “pass the ball,” in which the ball has to touch all the members of the group in the shortest possible time span. The clever delegates of AFCO I, accepted the challenge, and after some time speculating on possible solutions to the problem succeeded in completing the task quite quickly. Similarly, the admittedly creative delegates had no problems with resolving problems provided to them by their lovely and satisfied chair. After a debriefing, in which the delegates could share their feelings about their activities during the course of the day, Henna could show them the importance of listening to each other and how to communicate effectively. Although the enthusiasm was not always on top, and the difficult challenges caused several group members to loose their motivation, the committee’s great team spirit helped them move forward with renewed passion to ensure positive outcomes to the ensuing challenges. At the end of the day, after many name games, sunburns and challenging tasks, Henna told the delegates that their hard work and enthusiasm payed off and that she looked forward to the two days of upcoming discussions on the topic at hand. Congratulation AFCO I, you can be satisfied with yourself, you’re officially ready for committee work!■
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c o m m i t t e e O N c o n s t i t u t i o n a l a f fa i r s I i
by Ceren Hazar
I
t was obvious from the beginning, I mean the Map of Europe, that we were going to be the best committee since our chair sang the song; “We are the Champions.” We as AFCO II might be the fastest committee on DDD telling our names while we are passing a ball thanks to creative Pablo and his dinosaur. All I could see that in order not to get wet you all were so quick and to be honest afraid. I would like to invite all of you to a water fight however I know that your agendas are full. I wonder how you’d feel while you were trying to arrange your day and meet all other delegates in the committee when the communication game turned into a problem solving one in the time you barely know each other. In case you haven’t heard and missed that here is what happened during the agenda game; when Pablo asked who you would take with you if you were alone in an isolated island Jake said that he would take Justin Bieber. Don’t be shocked! He has a plan which is a quiet well-planned one. He explained that he would sell Justin Bieber
somehow and with that money he would get of that “lovely” island. I’m sure that afterwards his huge photos would be published in the VOGUE magazine right next to James Bond after the royal weddings. He would be lying on the sea floor watching a horror movie with Romeo & Juliet taking lessons in a kindergarten. We should not forget about the pirates having a football match in the circus during a rock concert just before the explosion. By the way, I would feel so much regret if I don’t mention your interest and coherence about singing. It is almost like impossible that you all sing songs all together whenever you have free time, like “Hit the Road Jack”. I’d really love to hear all of you as a committee singing in the Euroconcert. It is really impressive to see how musical you all are, actually what I mean is your harmony and compatibility have impressed me. The only moment you weren’t united was when you were trying to decide whether the human knot, so technically you were united, is solvable or not. You couldn’t decide whether to con-
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tinue trying or not but after all at least you again had the unity and you ended up by giving up. AFCO, you are impressive. Even when I asked you what do you think about your own committee you all responded “AWESOME” and when I told you that it, the word awesome, is forbidden to use you were as creative as journalists to find out new words and this time you were describing yourselves for me; fabulous, terrifying, amazing, breathtaking, fascinating, striking... That is how incredible you are. However what basically I remember about the committee is that you as a committee are so creative. How common is using a phone to make the ball heavier and throwing it or a shoe? Who else would claim that Turkish football players do not play football but prefer to kill the football player? Last but not least who would call for Damla’s wife? You are so open-minded! Now all of you, AFCO II sheeps, ra, ra, ra, ra, la, la, la, la, then fra, fra, fra and ba, ba, ba to the Eurovillage, Country Presentations and Committee Work!■
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c o m m i t t e e O N a g r i c u lt u r a n d r u r a l development
by Boaz Manger&Emma Nita
A
ll of us spent the day playing team building games, funky chicken, street fighter, ninja, you name it and you have probably played it. The committee on AGRI was no exception in this, but they were exceptional in the way they handled the aftermath of their games. The people of AGRI seemed to realise with stunning clarity the underlying reasons of the games they were playing. Within EYP we play seemingly random games for days on end; we scream, we sing, we run and we dance. These games are far from random however; every team building game has an effect on its participants. AGRI started realising this when they were playing traffic jam. While the game itself was described as a ‘minor disaster’ by one of the delegates, they found the debriefing afterwards very valuable. The debriefing fostered a better understanding
of the game, and the role of the individuals involved became clear. However, more active delegates were by no means reaching a solution on their own but only with everyone’s participation was it possible to succeed. Furthermore, AGRI learned that they needed to establish certain rules for discussing to make their debates fruitful and lively at the same time. Luckily AGRI wasn’t all about work and no fun, quite the contrary. They demonstrated this when playing sticky toffee. The committee got so tangled up in the moment that it was rather difficult to get them out of the toffee. At some point shoes were flying around and one of the delegates had a hard time keeping her trousers on. AGRI didn’t keep their fun side for themselves though, in an epic battle between committees the energetic group held up their own and was, at least in our eyes,
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clearly the best of them all. I bet the rural background of AGRI helped them skin the snake in a rather efficient manner. Another game that the Committee on Agriculture mastered extremely efficiently was Mafia. By terminating an innocent player’s life in the first round and arresting the doctor one round later, they presented with exceptionally convincing talks and confidence in each other’s judgement. Moreover, they displayed a relaxation and down to earth manner that, especially for newcomers, was second to nothing we got to see at this session. Throughout the day one could note accelerated progress in this team. They came the long way from shy individuals to an inseparable committee who will surely keep on impressing us with it’s diverse yet harmonious constellation, never failing to come up with innovative ideas.■
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c o m m i t t e e O N i n d u s t r y, r e s e a r c h a n d e n e r g y i
by Lara Bideya&Veronica Moitus
O
ne thing to say about ITRE I is that they sure are full of snappy comments. When their dear chair Lavrentia talked about meeting challenges George comment was “yeah, pass the cigarettes in 10 seconds”, in all fairness it would be a horrible direction for EYP to take. But what one definitely feels is that ITRE I is a team that likes to joke around with each other. ITRE I played a game where you put two facts about yourself and two questions to the group in a balloon and then play around with the balloons so that you read the facts and questions from someone else’s. While some delegates shared interesting stories some facts turned out to be ironic like Tamara’s. Having just witnessed her tantrum after her pink balloon was ripped to pieces, we all read her fact “I like pink” and bursted out in laughter. On a more serious note it proved that they all had excellent listening capabilities because there was not a moment of inappropriate interruption when someone talked. Lavrentia introduced games with her special twists. The delegates were unaware of
the challenge when they saw a hula-hoop around Lavrentia’s belly. The usual belly-shaking wasn’t enough for their task. They had to put their heads through the hula-hoop, use gravity to bring it down and jump out of it as fast as possible. This game revealed the prospective belly dancers and the less talented ones among them. With the time pressure, Tamara created her own way by moving the hula-hoop against gravitation and with her elasticity, it moved quite fast. Furthermore, Lavrentia hid one pair of their shoes in the wide plateau and the delegates with a blindfolded partner searched around. The pairs were quite successful and even put the shoes on their partners’ feet, except for one pair. When they were holding a dark blue shoe, they were contemplating whether they have the right one; yet, in fact they were looking for a simple white converse shoe. At the end, it turned out that Lavrentia actually forgot to hide that pair and the shoes were in front of them from the start. To test the developing trust among team members, they put their blindfolds on and our
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easy-going delegate, Karen took the lead to take them through a rough road back to the their station. Although they formed a straight line at the beginning, when they were involved in their own opinions, the line broke. Karen had some scared moments, when her team members were wandering around without a clue of their surroundings. It was harder to motivate people to cooperate, but eventually the line was straight again. ITRE has showcased a lot of good qualities as a committee but there are a few that we mainly observed. The first being that each time they were given a task involving planning they were very time effective and good at considering different aspects. Secondly, we noticed that they respected the rules of the game by for example closing their eyes so that they could not see through the blind fold. Lastly, we noticed their enthusiasm both for the session program and the free time in pool. Appreciating all aspects of the EYP, the academics and the socialising, is really what it is all about.■
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co m m i t t e e O N i n d u s t ry, r e s e a r c h a n d e n e r g y i i by Veronica Moitus
M
eeting the committee of ITRE II after lunch was like walking into an energy field of positivity. As more of a spectator rather than a participator, visiting ITRE, was like taking a roller coaster ride on a sugar high. Their chair, Eoin Rogers, showcased it well when initiating a sprinting game with his delegate Rickard during a short break. Firstly, their enthusiasm was proved to be a great asset during problem solving games where everyone was encouraged to contribute. Throughout the game they also analyzed if they were working towards the aim or not. When it comes to group roles there were leaders who took charge but the decisions were still made democratically. This attitude towards the game proved to be highly efficient and they managed to finish well within their goal of 20 minutes. Secondly, to sometimes tame the unruliness of ITRE II, the ball of energy, their chair implemented the silence rule which was obeyed whenever used. Nevertheless, in love and war all is fair or as Tzotne put it, “this is not a game, this is a bloody war” when playing cat and mouse with another committee. Safe to say, ITRE II did exceptionally well at that game. Thirdly, a possible downfall with a highly energetic group is that they are not always fo-
cused and might set themselves up for failure because they don’t regard every aspect of a decision. This occurred while playing the human knot. When they were asked to set a goal for untying the knot they wanted to be ambitious and set it to 40 seconds but it actually took more than 9 minutes. Their decision was based on their previous success but they did not take in to consideration that those knots had been very simple to solve. Their chair encouraged them to discuss their goal again and think of realistic aspects and deadlines which to some degree were effective because they did democratically agree on 90 seconds. Nonetheless, the real epiphany was reached when Eoin asked them if they thought their achievement would have been worth less had they had a more reachable goal and the group came to the conclusion that in fact it did not. Moreover, taking the time to discuss the implements of their decisions and improving their co-operation they also played the human knot in silence which then led them to discuss the role of silence and speaking, their chair pointed out that sometimes speaking can be destructive however useful it is. Being very repetitive with a game might seem tiresome and unfruitful but it might just be what this group needed to perfect their previous success in teambuilding games.
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Finally, ITRE II could have made the unfortunate decision to not look at their mistakes because of their fair amount of success. But as the day went on they seemed to be well equipped to critically look at their teamwork thanks to themselves and their Irish chair. Furthermore, ITRE II seems to have a good communication amongst themselves and also with their chair, regarding him both as a friend and a leader. Their good energy also comes from the fact that they have established some key team roles which enables them to make decisions efficiently and fair.■
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c o m m i t t e e O N e co n o m i c a n d m o n e ta ry a f fa i r s by Laurens Kraima
E
venthough there had been a bit of socializing during the barbeque, the first contact with the own committee was still a bit awkward, luckely there was barely any time for the unpleasant feeling of not even knowing eachothers names because of the effective approach by the cheerful chairscouple; Asia and Anil They started off with games to get to know all the names, which were a good laugh as well as truly usefull. When everyone was a bit familiar with the names, they started to throw tennisballs whilst shouting the name of the person receiving the ball. They did not just stick to balls though, even a dinosaur was thrown around in order for these delegates to get to know eachother. After they all got to know a bit more about everyone it was time for something more challenging for them to get familiar with eachother as a team. They weren’t quite up for the waterpipe challenge though, as they first destroyed it and then tried to grab the object out of the pipe as if they were trying to get the last pringles out of the tube, rather than solving the challenge with covering all the holes and fill it with water. It was around lunchtime that ECON was already a well bonded group instead of randomly assembled individuals.
If they had to go to a different spot more suitable for the next game, they’d march there alltogether while singing their committee song. Also, I have to say I’ve barely ever seen a committee (also credits for EMPL because they played together) so good in depicting things such as the monster of loch ness or fish at the bottom of the ocean, when they were playing “vogue”. However, the funpart sometimes did get the better part of them as they did not take all the games as serious as they perhaps should have done. This was clearly visible when they were playing the spiders web. As they started off trying serious completely with tucking in their shirts and rolling up their pants, it didn’t take long before they just randomly tried different holes with acrobatics I secretly admired. This was not the point of the game though. Rather than saving the people that always got through without touching the rope for the harder holes and the very end, everyone just tried whenever they felt like it. This was brought up during the debriefing they had after they did not succeed, where they openly admitted they gave up because they thought it was impossible. They kept on trying with creative attempts but the serious goal of actually succeeding was brought to the background. Afterwards, while on their way to their next
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game, they made AFCO II the victims of their spare energy in a serious battle between their committee chants. All in all this committee has done a great job during the first day of the session, considering that the goal of the day was to creat a team out of people who didn’t know eachother at first and now have a really good time together and trust eachother in situations where they perhaps wouldn’t even trust one of their best friends back at home, a recipe for great achievements. Here’s for hoping that today they won’t see their topic as an impossible challenge and just write a funny resolution, as I’m sure they can come up with some great solutions in a relaxed athmosphere.■
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EUROVILLAGE Eurovillage is usually considered to be the chirpy center of cultural diffusion and mouthwatering taste experiences.With an aim of displaying the many cultures represented at the session, giving the delegates a better understanding of these through giving them a taste of what each country has to give, and promoting mutual understanding and tolerance through a sharing process, the Eurovillage has been around since the inception of EYP in the late 1980’s.
by Felix Makarowski
T
he Eurovillage of this years IYF did not fail to provide the session participants with colorful and valuable experiences, good food, and the usual sugar rushes provided by the considerable amounts of candy presented on the many tables. With all corners of the continent, and Georgia, represented, the event provided the necessary cultural diversity, and food variety, to make it appreciated by officials and delegates. Session president Mr. Jonas Dreger and his lovely vice president Ms. Joana (Asia) Kulpa, described the event as “excelitious,” due to its combination of excellence and tasty deliciousness, speaking highly of the many dishes served, among them the Swiss riculan tea and Finnish ice cream with jam. Having been to a large amount of sessions during the course of the years, they have previously attended many similar events and could relate them to the stereotypical food and behavior of each country, such as the Irish and the Dutch face painting all the session participants with their national colors. “The Eurovillage is awesome,” some Finnish delegates told me when asked what they think about the event. The Swedes, who are generally better at ice-hockey, complemented the Finns and further explained most delegates’ feelings by saying:
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“The event is a great deal of fun, and it provides an opportunity to express your own culture as well as get a glimpse of what other cultures are like. It’s interesting to see, and learn, what other people eat and what kind of image they want the other participants to receive.” Even though the underlying thought behind the Eurovillage is exploring and finding out about different cultures through receiving a taste of them, the food is still the focal point. Therefore, we tried to find which country’s Eurovillage was most appreciated by the general masses. Although French cheeses, Italian olive oil bread, and Finnish ice cream were greatly cherished, the prize for the best Eurovillage goes to Turkey for their combination of food quality and quantity. Putting the disappointment of the missing Swedish meatballs behind me, I would like to conclude by saying that the brief glimpses of the Eurovillage I received between journo meetings and handing out the first session magazine, were of a great enthusiasm, light food and candy, and a large diversity of colors, in combination with an interest in learning and understanding different cultures encouraged, and enforced, my belief that the EYP is the future of Europe due to its great tolerance, networking possibilities, and academic value with its many lessons in diplomacy..■
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Country Presentations? The country presentations. A part of the session that usually doesn’t get a lot of attention before the session, if its not completely forgotten about. Sadly, this sometimes shows in the quality of the presentations.
by Laurens Kraima
W
hereas at country presentations delegations are supposed to “present” their country, it sometimes comes down to delegations using advertising videos for their countries or simply reading out Wikipedia pages while displaying slideshows filled with pictures of landscapes. These are obviously informing, though hardly entertaining. The night began with the German delegation, which wanted to prove the usual stereotypes wrong in a play. Unfortunately they didn’t succeed to make proper use of the microphones, causing a blurred message highlighted by the irony of them taking longer than their given 5 minutes and therefore not being punctual, something Germans are well known for. Afterwards Georgia opened with telling us some facts about their country, followed by a song and dance combination of a guitar duet, and traditional dance, in the back performed by a group of three delegates. France made fun of everyone’s fear of them speaking French at the session, simply because it’s an official EYP language. Luckily, they continued to give us some snack facts about France and afterwards they sang a few French songs. Sweden made quite an impressive entrance; all dressed up in white, coming from the back whilst
singing. However, they lost their momentum when they weren’t able to finish their song because of laughter when the pointy hats kept falling off. Ireland showed us that along with a good atmosphere, all you need are drums and a little dance. They also showed a clear message throughout the whole evening; everyone is welcome to be a part of the Irish community, whether by dancing with them on stage during the country presentation or by wearing the colours of the Irish flag on your face during Eurovillage. Sweden’s biggest rival, Finland, had a video in which they had a lot of landscape pictures and video footage of daily routines during the different seasons. They also added homemade winter sports shots, which made the video more personal and entertaining. Croatia however was a clear example of reading out a fact sheet along with a slideshow where the pictures all entered with fancy animations. Italy could have also done better showing a video that could be seen as a promotional one, showing daily situations and ending the video with “welcome in Italy”. The Netherlands had a completely different approach, as they didn’t overwhelm us with information, but were generally loved by the audience because they made a short, personal and entertaining video.
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Next up was Romania, showing an odd music clip, which was way too loud, making it almost impossible to hear the presentation that was given while the video was playing. This could have easily been solved during the presentation if the sound was turned down a bit more, because the presentation was interesting. Moving on to the middle of Europe Austria started off really well with a video where they showed the location of everything mentioned in their presentation, the only setback was that the video was a bit too fast. Another example of good entertainment was Switzerland, going for the Irish approach, interacting with the audience and singing a song together. Finally, there was the 25 man strong delegation of the hosting country, Turkey. They sang a song while performing some kind of play, an impressive sight since there were so many people on stage. All in all it was an informative and entertaining night, well presented by the lovely Lydia and Didrik. Just keep in mind for future country presentations that you’ll be sitting there for a long time listening to all of the presentations, so a long power point presentation citing Wikipedia is not always warmly welcomed by the audience.■
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co m m i t t e e O N c i v i l l i b e r t i e s , j u s t i c e a n d h o m e a f fa i r s I
by Felix Makarowski
F
or those not fortunate enough to be in the committee of LIBE I, chaired by Mr. Tiago Marchado and Ms. Paula Kjellén, it might be hard to fathom how such a group of distinct and intriguing personalities work together and how they’ve united their spirits and energy to produce a functioning yet dynamic team. I will therefore give you a glimpse into what teambuilding with LIBE I is like. Yesterday, ten people, mostly unknown to each other, gathered around their two chairs to begin their EYP journeys. Mostly shy, insecure and slightly hesitant, they greeted each other with a tingle of curiosity that progressively developed into a genuine interest, and excitement, towards the opportunity of acquainting, and working with, the other members of the committee through a series of name games which led to an impressively quick name memorizing and face association followed by informative, and exciting, couples presentations. Following the initiating ice breaking process began the true
molding of the committee into a functioning team with a surprisingly early game of human knot which saw the delegates’ further opening up to the other group member and putting their problem solving and communicating abilities to the test. Although they were at the beginning of getting to know each other, the delegates did very well, solving the two knots they faced with a combination of twisting, turning and twirling to produce a couple of intertwined circles. The occasion was celebrated with a unique insight into the mind of the delegates, who, under the supervision of Ms. Kjellén, improvised an extraordinary tale about unicorn riding leprechauns, rainbows and mushrooms knit carefully with amiable vampires, zombies and Edward Cullen, through taking turns at building the story on the sentences of the previous people. After lunch, which was preceded by a test of the delegates time perception, the delegates of the LIBE I committee displayed their
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awesomeness through beating the rivaling LIBE II committee at a game of water balloon volleyball, taking the occasion to splash them with, and being splashed by, the refreshingly cool water. The remainder of the day, before the customary evening activities of Eurovillage and country presentations, was well spent building on the previously improved abilities of communication, listening and problem solving. To sum-up, a group of ten people gathered in the morning, evolving from a scattered collection of strong personalities into a functioning committee with the one aim of solving the problems surrounding cloud computing and intellectual property rights on the internet, through a series of interactive team building games involving shouting, drunken bottles and various problem solving games. Quote of the day: “First we drink, then we fly”.■
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co m m i t t e e O N c i v i l l i b e r t i e s , j u s t i c e a n d h o m e a f fa i r s I i by Deniz Ertan
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IBE 2 started off the teambulding with name games and got familiar with each other. Then they played a game in which they talked to each other and found the people with the 9 qualities on their papers. Here are some fun facts about the LIBE 2 people: - The lovely chair Evelin Jürisson, from Estonia, is a vegeterian, - Gilles Hagen, from the Netherlands, has met the Queen of the Netherlands and revealed a secret of hers; she was wasted in each of their meetings! - Stefan Maier, from Austria, can do card tricks, so beware! - Derin Çelik is the only one in the committee who can’t roll his tongue, - There are two people who can’t swim in LIBE 2, while there aren’t any left-handed people, - Out of eight delegates and two officials, five people can speak four or more languages! Later on, we wanted to work on our tan and moved to a sunny grassland. Then came fun with the game “Rock-Paper-Scissors”, but with a different version; this time the losing one gets behind the winner and cheers for her until she loses, finally they all cheer for “the master”. Evelin, chairperson, adores putting the delegates through embarrassing and funny situations so she made them play “Find your pair”, in which you imitate the “thing” written on the pa-
per like a grass eating cow and find the other person imitating the same “thing”, and “People to people”, in which you do the pose you are told with your pair like “hand to back” or “neck to neck”. Gilles and Stefan got so carried away with their “King Kong” role during the “Find your pair” game that towards the end Gilles was picking the flea on Stefans head! “People to people” created an intimate atmosphere when Evelin said “cheek to cheek” and the whole committee enjoyed the enthralling Bosphorus view romantically; cheek to cheek with a person they love. Intimate moments became quite cheesy so they wanted to add some violence to it and made up a short game: “carry the journalist up and throw as much as her age!” It gave me hard times, but I should admit that being carried on shoulders was so much fun! After all the fun, it was time to face challenges as a commity and they were given the task to form a monster with 1 stomach, 10 hands and 6 legs. Surprisingly, they got the task finished within two minutes (this can be a world record!) and came up with unusual tricks like turning Aino Karja, from Finland, upside down! Half an hour was left to lunch and LIBE 2 played “Love Train” and “the Kebab Game”. Right before lunch, Evelin let the delegates pick a victim and throw three water balloons. Our
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innocent sub-editor Didrik was passing and was selected as the victim. Poor sub-editor got hit by the wild & hungry delegates and got all his back wet. Finally, lunch time arrived and they devoured the delicious “lahmacun” like King Kongs! The second round of the teambuilding was at the Plato which is the best place to play games with huge groups so LIBE 2 dared LIBE 1 in a game of Volleyball with water balloons. LIBE 1 was unexpectedly athletic and gave LIBE 2 a hard time. Even Gilles’ super-reflexes could not save LIBE 2 so he got quite aggressive and hit an innocent girl from LIBE 1 with a water balloon, which warranted LIBE 1 an extra point. Sadly, the game ended with the score 8 to 5. Every fall has its rise somehow and this defeat did not demoralize them, but it pushed them to become more connected and even mould a choreography for LIBE 2. They both have a special dance with the song that goes: “LIBE, still prettier than you!” and “LIBE2 will beat you!”.■
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co m m i t t e e O N d e v e l o p m e n t by Lara Bideyan
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nstead of running around and shouting their lungs out, DEVE was talking and talking. Each delegate had so many interesting experiences to tell that speed dating wasn ft fast anymore and questions did not limit them. Every story offered a glimpse to their characters. There were cute ones like Laura being able to sing before she could talk but some stories were dangerous. For example, Eric freely admitted that he learned how to drive by giving it a try. He had no instruction or a legal permit but that didn ft bother him. Theresa didn ft look any less dangerous with the scar on her ankle. She explained that she is a football victim and her injury was so critical that she had to go through an operation to fix it. Our Irish delegate was one of its kind. First of all, everybody had a go with his giant, of course green, hat and like that wasn ft enough to cover him, he had brought an extra hat. Secondly, just when they were enjoying the little daisies around and Eric was telling the committee about the one time he found a four-leaf clover and he kept it ever since, our Irish guy had to interrupt. He found another shamrook at that instant. Since it killed the proud atmosphere Eric created, he gave the shamrook to Eric for more luck. Lastly, he told us the legend of the leprechauns. These creatures are
similar to midgets but they are evil. He also warned us that killing one of they may bring your end too. Beaware! Their chair, Wim, hoped to bring some academic edge to their games and created a new concept for the interview game. They were all from an Italian island and they are applying for immigration to Europe. Since one got the role of the officer, the other delegate had to do their best to impress the officer with their answers. When there is challenge involved, there comes the creativity. When one delegate shared her dream about running a hotel inspired from her grandmother, another one displayed her enthusiasm quiet sarcastically, ‘No, we can’t!’ instead of the trite propaganda ‘Yes, we can!’ In my opinion, everyone, not just the officer was impressed when someone said, ‘There is no place like home but you have to travel.’ Moreover, along with building a team, Wim is aiding the evolution of EYP games. When introducing the ninja game, he shared that he always assumed Ninjas are Japanese and he added a sound to his move that we have only heard from Japanese people. A delegate also contributed to the evolution. He suggested that he can hide his hands by sticking it between his legs. That didn ft turn out to be popular though. DEVE was in the progress
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of becoming a team but not done yet. They had some cute but shy members that needed to learn speaking up more for the next couple of days. Although I am positive that they were able to work through it, during the rest of the teambuilding, building trust with the coming days will help a lot to the discussions.
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co m m i t t e e O N e m p l oy m e n t a n d s o c a l i s t a f fa i r s by Emma Nita
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fırst step ın any Teambuıldıng ıs memorızıng the names – ın EYP we use dıfferent types of games that guarantee perfect memorızıng of all the delegates’ names after just a few games – thıs theory was prooven by the Employment Commıttee after ıt’s chaır, Anastasyıa applıed them a sessıon of thıs kınd of games. They started wıth just sayıng theır names out loud and fınıshed wıth hıtıng eachother wıth paper rolls ıf they weren’t quıck enough ın sayıng out loud the name of the other delegates. They were wrong sometımes, they put letters where they shouldn’t suppose to and laught about ıt but ın the end, thıs teambuıldıng step was a succes. After solvıng the name problem, EMPL moved on to actıve games ın whıch they had to hug eachother and ınteract both physıcally and mentally (FACT – Physıcal ınteractıons added to the verbal ones brıng people together more faster than just chatıng). A very useful game ın whıch delegates got to know eacthother better was the one ın whcıh they had to draw a clock and make appoıntments wıth every sıngle delegate. Thıs way the delegates managed to chat wıth all the members of the commıttee ın couples and socıalıze by dıscussıng dıfferent topıcs that Anastasıa prepared for them. Thıs game also promotes team work by puttıng
the delegates to fınd the perfect solutıon ın makıng all the combınatıons ın whıch they manage to speak wıth everyone. The fun part ıs that they trıed so many tımes to book meetıngs and faıled because they were not workıng as a team, ınstead, they wanted to fınısh the bookıng as soon as possıble so they can move on to chatıng. From name games and chatıng to actualy buıldıng a team, ■the group moved on to another ınteractıve and, ın the end, very funny game – there was Anastasıa’s beloved tulıp onıon, a tube wıth holes ın ıt and water – so what’s so funny about that? Well, the maın purpose of the game ıs team work – the delegates had to take the tulıp onıon from the tube wıthout usıng ordınary methods, just stuff they found around (lıke water). Thıs shortly became a wet T-shırt contest where everyone cooled off and got away from the heat for a few mınutes. Whıle dryıng up, the delegates dıscussed about the pulse of the team, the thıngs that went well and the bad thıngs, about new methods of solvıng puzzles and workıng as a team. The commıttee seemed to became popular sınce Andrea S... joıned EMPL ın a sexy but sılly dance ın whıch they mocked personalıtıes lıke Madonna. “Magıc stıck” has a new record set by the EMPL dele-
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gates – 2 SECONDS!!! Try to beat that, non-EMPL members! After the delegates started to feel as makıng part of a real team, they chalenged other commıttees and turned 2nd ın “skın the snake” (whıch they traıned for) whıle playıng ıt wıth ITRE 1, AGRI, ECON. They also chalenged AFET 1 ın “vırgın & pervert” and became creatıve wıth the same commıttee ın passıng sentences ın dıfferent languages by suggestıng “mıme” ınstead of verbal transmısıon. Is ıt just me or ıs thıs a real team? ■
Editor: Sandra Stojanovic, Sub-editor: Didrik Helsing;
Journalists: Boaz Manger, Veronica Moitus, Lara Bideyan, Laurens Kraima, Teresa Stadler, Deniz Ertan, Emma Nita, Felix Makarowski, Ceren Hazar, Malvina Richer.