Trinity University Creative Writing Term 1 2012--what a mouthful!--was pretty awesome. In addition, they had the classroom that everyone was jealous of, complete with automatically raising window blinds.

The Amazing Members

• Andrea's RC Group
  • Abbie
  • Katie
  • Mia the Socialist Dictator of the Universe
  • Emily
  • me, Madi
• Hiromi's RC Group
  • Grace
  • Melina
  • Savannah the Otaku
• Jagger's RC Group
  • Gus
  • Joon the Weasel King
• Hannah's RC Group
  • Mary
  • Paige
  • Emma
  • Abby Dubs
  • Ash the Cat
• TMoore (teacher)
• Thomas (TA)

Inside Jokes

We had many jokes, including the weasels, rocks and stones, the dead bird, the wolf with a breadstick, and the almost-flash mob.

The Infamous Weasels

We did this activity a few times where Thomas drew a random picture on the board and we had to make up a story for it. The first one was a wedding cake in the middle of the road. Joon made up a story about how a group of weasels stole the cake from the back of a truck. That became a hilariously controversial thing in our class. Some of the other board activities included a bowling ball at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a cup of tea floating down a river on a large STONE, and a soft-serve ice cream machine on top of a Himalayan mountain.

Rocks and stones

In one of our textbooks, there was a rock/stone analogy. We learned that there is a difference between rocks and stones, mainly because of the sound of the words. Rock has a hard k sound, so it has harder, more jagged edges. Stone has smoother sounds, so it's smoother. This sparked a large debate and became a fixture during the rest of the term.

The Dead Bird

One day, a bird hit the glass windows of the Engineering and Problem Solving classroom (our neighbors). We all rushed onto the balcony. The Engineering class watched from the windows (it was the beginning of the second week, and they hadn't figured out how to open their balcony door :D). The bird had landed in a pile of wood by the edge of the balcony. Grace, Melina, and I went to check on it (we didn't touch it, of course). It got up, shook itself off, slipped under the balcony, and flew away. Too bad it nose-dived straight into the wall of the storage area below. Its wings were bent, and it looked dead. We were all looking down on it sadly when it raised its head. It seemed to be saying, "Haha, gravity! I survived!" Suddenly, two white fluffy paws snatched out from the storage area, grabbed the bird, and dragged it away. It was like something out of a horror movie. Cats are now evil in my mind.

The Wolf With a Breadstick

One day, as the creative writing class started their first class session, TMoore drew something on the board. Then he asked the class what it was. Everyone called out, "An airplane!" That is, everyone except a member of Hannah's RAG who, thinking that this was a creative exercise, yelled, "A WOLF WITH A BREADSTICK!" Everyone was convinced that she was insane, until by adding teeth and eyes to the 'airplane' she convinced the class that an airplane could, in fact, be mistaken for a wolf with a breadstick. This led to the catchphrase/trick question, "A bird? A plane? No, a wolf with a breadstick!"

The "Hypothetical" Flash Mob

The Creative Writing TiPsters had been planning a flash mob in the middle of class, the idea coming from a few of the girls in the class and ultimately orchestrated by Gus. For a week or two, the members of the class discussed a "hypothetical" flash mob that would "hypothetically" happen some time "hypothetically" soon. The flash mob would "hypothetically" happen at a "hypothetically" pre-determined time. The excessive use of the word hypothetical was used to confuse Thomas and TMoore, by making it obvious that it wasn't hypothetical, but could also be a random, over-excessive use. The word hypothetical became a class-wide running joke that brought joy to some, and irritated others. The flash mob itself was long-awaited and much anticipated...but mysteriously never happened! Well, except for a single-person flash mob, carried out by the mastermind himself. In the middle of class, Gus stood up and began singing: "Is this the real life?/Or is this just fantasy?" He soon realized, while singing Queen's iconic rock ballad, that nobody else was standing up, and instead were all shaking their heads with second hand embarrassment, and began crying "abort, abort!" Before Gus sat down in shame and defeat. Will there be a sequal to this flash mob next year at one of the TiP campuses?...

I miss everyone. A lot.

Madi Winfield