Today was the first day of class. I woke up and took a bath in my jacuzzi, which is perhaps the best way EVER to wake up in the morning. It was a gorgeous day outside, and I had a pretty awesome view from my room. Breakfast was at 8:30, and there was a nice spread of hot breakfast food laid out, including the best bacon I’ve ever had.

I talked to a few more people in the group over breakfast. We were introducing ourselves, having the typical “where are you from, what do you do” conversation. I mentioned that I worked in motion graphics in addition to programming. One of the guys at the table, Michael, said, “So are you an After Effects user?” I told him I was, and he replied, “I’m the Product Manager for After Effects at Adobe.” He handed me his card and said if I ever had any questions, to give him a call. “If I can’t help you, I’ll find somebody who can.” Talk about a fantastic start to my morning!

Class started just after 9:00 AM, and we started with the core basics of the C language and syntax: data types, method calls, loops and decisions, and a little bit on memory management. The class is done in short lecture/lab segments; Mark talks for 15-30 minutes on a topic and then gives us an exercise to do. It keeps the pace and energy up, and immediately reinforces what we’ve just learned.

Lunch was at 12:30—it was sandwiches, salad, potato salad, chips, and chocolate chip cookies that were fresh from the oven. We had one more lecture/lab segment after lunch, and then went for a walk. It was optional, but the whole group went. In the shade, it was nice… but in the sun, we all got pretty warm. Most of us looked like we had gotten rained on by the time we were done with the walk.

The walk was perfect, though, for getting some energy back and staving off the afternoon lunch coma. We went back to class and started learning about Objective-C and its differences from C. Mark had a good metaphor to explain what we’re learning this weekend: “Joe [the iPhone instructor, starting Monday] likes to say that after this week, you guys will be rock stars. Today and tomorrow, we’re the roadies.” We’re doing the heavy lifting that will make the rest of the week easier, even though nothing we’re learning is very exciting yet. The “fun stuff” starts with getting further into Objective-C, which we will do tomorrow, and the iPhone SDK, which will be Monday–Friday.

Dinner was utterly fantastic. It was rich roast beef over garlic mashed potatoes, with a light cheese sauce drizzled over the top, and sprinkled with green onions. Even the side of steamed vegetables tasted delicious (I think they were covered in garlic butter). We were sitting at the dinner table for two hours having more great conversation, and then we moved down to the classroom for open lab time, where we stayed until almost 11:00.

It was a great day, and I think tomorrow will be even better. After the wood tick I pulled off of my arm at dinner, however, I’m not sure if I’ll be partaking in the nature hike tomorrow afternoon…