pres.umptuo.us

The Mayflower dormitories I’m staying at are out in the middle of nowhere. I kept waiting for the cities and then downtown to appear, but instead the Shuttle made a random U-Turn, and sure enough I was at the dorms. I looked in both directions down the road when I got out…nothing.

Another passenger on the shuttle who came to the festival last year told me campus and downtown was just a 15 minute walk down the road. We also shared the shuttle ride with a New Zealand post-graduate neuroscientist going to the University of Iowa for a conference. She has never been to America before, so wonderful Iowa City will be her first experience of America. “It’s so weird to be driving on the wrong side of the road,” she said.

As I said earlier, they wouldn’t allow us to check-in until 4:00 pm, and it was only 10:30 am. Locked our luggage up, didn’t take the digital camera because of the lousy weather and I didn’t wanna have to lug it around with me, and we set off for downtown Iowa City.

The weather blows. It’s ridiculous hot and muggy and everything gets all sticky and bleh. According to everyone I’ve met, it isn’t usually like this at this time of year. Nonetheless that’s how it shall be for the rest of this week. I rather would have enjoyed the nice stroll to campus, but I’m taking the free shuttle service whenever I can.

I made it into “downtown” after a short trek and found it to be…empty? Sure, 11:00 am on a Sunday everyone is either in church or still sleeping, but the town was just totally empty. I even saw someone park their car in the middle dividing lane of the street, go to the ATM, and get back in without anyone honking or caring. How do people live in a city like this?

I visited Prairie Lights, a very famous local bookstore that holds readings all throughout the week. I may find myself bringing back some books just cause the atmosphere is driving me to make some purchases.

And then I visited the uhh…uh…yeah, that’s all that was open. Bars, restaurants, a public library, a little public movie theater, and that was the entire downtown.

I’m not gonna go into the other details, but I ended up resting back at the dormitories with a couple of new friends while we waited for 4 o’clock to roll around so we could finally get our rooms.

My room and another share an adjoining kitchen and bathroom. When I left at 6 to head to the orientation the other person hadn’t shown up yet, but as of now there’s a toothbrush and other bathroom stuff in there, so I know he’s shown up but I’ve yet to meet him.

The orientation consisted of a check-in, name tag, folder of info, and the option of either a t-shirt or a bag (I got the t-shirt, which incidentally I’ve left with my folder of info in the classroom). Then there was a buffet of food, after which you seat yourself at a table of choice.

I’m not kidding when I say about 95% of the attendees here are older. By older I mean they have children that are my age. And as a wonderful lady who gave me some great advice about the whole writing dealie told me, “Stay away from people who just talk about their husbands and how much they make and their credentials. We’re here to talk about writing.” Advice well taken as I’ve noticed that way too many people bring up just totally random facts like they’re dying to tell people about their lives.

A lot of people here are repeat attendees, and I’ve come to the conclusion that networking with the right people is just as important as the class itself.

The workshop I am in is entitled, “I Never Saw That Coming: Ways Of Probing For The Unexpected In Fiction”, being taught by David Michael Kaplan. The class will consist mostly of just reading short stories on our own time and then discussing in class, and then reading another short story in class, stopping right at the pivotal moment where we then write our own dramatic gesture. Sounds good so far.

So ends day 0 here at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

I forgot to mention that I’m a super minority here. I saw an Asian at the Cedar Rapids airport, another one inside an SUV, and I think maybe two are part of the Writing Festival. I also saw a really olive-skinned guy with a semi-fro. I’m gonna count him in too cause I don’t think anybody’s going to argue.