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Wow! A totally humbling experience. I first opened the game the night before our workshop with Thomas, and I truly had no idea what I was doing. I felt as if I were in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language (i mean, in some ways, I was ..) I didn't even know how to walk or move around at first! I just pressed every key on the keyboard until I figured out the basic forward/back and jump commands. With that though, I still had no idea what I was 'supposed' to do. I walked around and tried to karate chop a pig and some grass blocks but quickly became frustrated because I couldn't figure anything else out on my own. I'm amazed that all players literally drop in to the game like this, with no tutorial, no rule book, etc. That makes me even more excited to explore this online community with the wiki and instructional videos that people have created together, that really astonishes me. I didn't understand at first how truly imaginative and creative the game is because there really is no aim, which is hard to wrap my head around as so much of what we do (in school, play, other kinds of games, life, etc) has some sort of a path and direction. (well, i guess the game does, too - you have to collect dirt, wood, etc and then make things, but much more broadly). Anyways, this proved to be an obstacle  in our class today because I found myself quickly losing interest - gathering sticks and dirt wasn't that exciting, but I understand that like learning most new skills, the 'basics' can be tedious but act as a gatekeeper to the more 'fun' higher skills. So I hope my interest increases as I become more competent. An accomplishment, too, was successfully gathering wood and starting to convert my resouces into other products, like sticks and the beginning of a crafting table. (baby steps!) Excited to move forward: My first two experiences with MC remind me of when I started learning Spanish by teaching myself .. I had a grammar book that didn't make any sense to me and a bunch of songs I was listening to. Just like my first night with MC when I had no Thomas, no wiki, and no plan, I began by grasping at any random words in the new language, trying to make sense of any pattern I could. I see a really strong parallel between my experiences starting out with both Spanish and MC - I'd like to use my/our experience as novices to minecraft as an extended metaphor for/way to abstract the learning process in general - what other parallels can I draw?