Chapter 1 - First Sight
The first chapter starts with an elegant paragraph - sunny day, driving to the airport with the window down, with a parka as a carry-on item. We see that this change in setting is a sacrifice on Bella’s part - she’ll move from somewhere sunny to somewhere dark and rainy not because she wants to, but because she feels unneeded by her mother. The suburban setting described in this chapter resonates as vampire territory, extremely cloudcast, rainy, cold, and misty. And, unlike many vampire novels, we meet the vampires (or get a good glimpse of them) in the first chapter: first, across the hall at lunch, and then, sitting next to you in Biology class.
Both personal and environmental conflicts are introduced in this opening chapter. Bella loves the sun and anonymity, and Forks is a small town where everyone knows everyone and it’s always cloudcast and rainy. While she doesn’t want to receive attention, she also doesn’t want people to hate her - and that’s my interpretation for why she’s so hurt by Edward’s initial apparently repulsive reaction to her.
Other than the drastic change in environment, it’s a very normal almost everyday-account of things that happen (which gets you ready for the rest of the novel’s prose - which goes through similar everyday details). Bella seems very normal, if not for her self-conscious belief of her albino-like paleness and her feeling of isolation, “I didn’t relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn’t relate well to people, period… Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain. (1.10-11)” The only jarring abnormality would be the Cullens in the cafeteria–and from that, we gain Bella’s first personal conflict, which is to get over (or solve) Edward’s apparent hatred of her.
Good that there’s no flamboyant “love-at-first-sight” happening in this first chapter, though. It feels more real, the normality. 
Today’s discussion transcript is here!
Here are Chapter 1’s Contributions to the Twilight Settings database.
the feeling I got out of Chapter 1 was that it was a very “packed” chapter. Things go on very fast: Bella arrives, she settles in the new home, gets the pick-up, faces the first days of school and we get introduced to the Cullens. I remember wondering, after reading it, if I had read just one chapter. Much appeared to have happend. Especially in contrast with chapters to come, during the long dialogues between Bella and Edwars, where the actions runs very slowly. But this is for other discussions
Good that you don’t find Chapter 1 too slow ;-D. Unlike your typical fantasy, yes, she pretty much just jumps into the world, and you see the supernatural in the first chapter!