Lesson 1

June 24, 2013:
"CHARACTER IS ACTION" - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I was, embarrassingly, nervous before the first day of class. After leaping out of bed (literally - it's about three feet high, I assume to leave room for a suitcase underneath in addition to a dead body), my roommate and I got ready for the day and the whole House went to breakfast together. After breakfast the group split up into Antho and CW, and we all went straight to class.
The Creative Writing instructor is a smooth-talking blue-eyed poet in his late twenties or early thirties, and after a round of introductions, we set into the reading and lecture. The days are structured like this: first the instructor gives the day's lecture/lesson, with one or two breaks interspersed between, then it's lunch, followed by study hall led by our two counselors for individual writing exercises and other varying activities.
Today's topics were Introduction to fiction and Characters. We got a bunch of handouts that I still need to read, and discussed in depth "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. I'd actually read Chopin's short story in English class just last month, but this was different; the instructor pointed out the range of techniques Chopin uses and the perfectly formed character arc condensed in those brief two pages, and then the group talked about the effects and reasons behind the techniques. After this, the genius of the story became so much more apparent. In school we just kind of skimmed over it and said, "Yeah this is about women's rights." Needless to say, I much prefer this type of reading.
In the afternoon is Activities. Today was the great grand Scavenger Hunt that all incoming EPGY students must go through, as a kind of induction to the Stanford campus. The House split up into groups of six and walked and walked and walked for over an hour, going through a list with 30 tasks that included "Make friends with the librarian and take a picture with him/her (note: no photography is allowed in the library)", "Stop by the on-campus Starbucks and buy coffee", and "Build a human pyramid in the Oval". My personal favorite was "Take a picture with an Asian tourist." It's funny because it was one of the easiest tasks to accomplish, there are so many Asian tourists. It started raining halfway through the Hunt, though, so by the time it was dinner I was soaked through and starving. I wolfed down five more pieces of chicken than usual.
Stanford meals are surprisingly delicious. It took a little to get my bearings at first - the cafeteria is large, and when the crowds set in it's near impossible to navigate - but once I found the right places I knew I wouldn't go hungry here.
CW class provides a Coursebook containing all the short stories, poems, essays and handouts we'll need, but we are expected to provide out own notebooks and stencils. I only brought my little journalism notebook because I thought all materials were supposed to be provided (it said so online); I'll have to buy it tomorrow when we go to the Bookstore.