dracula first chapter

to be honest at present i am not terribly happy with the way in which i am learning about Gothic writing. using the computer to write about my opinion of a book seems a very long winded approach to learning, where not so long ago i would put pen to paper and write notes on a book and talk to my teacher about any problems. unfortunately this is had i have been given so here is how I'm feeling about the novel right now.
At first confusion set in to my feelings about the man present in the diary entries, not quite knowing his motive or position in life added to my confusion. All his opinions or adventures seem to revolve around "The Count" or "Mina", The Count being a mysterious figure and Mina being equally as mysterious but not as intimidating as a name such as The Count.
I found the descriptive writing to be detailed and astonishingly interesting. Throughout the stories i have read, everyone seems to skip ahead to a bit where someone says something but during this part of the novel i found myself reading the descriptive writing very intently with great interest. only two things confused me about the novel so far and that is:
1) what does it mean when people cross themselves? is it some sort of religious thing done to prevent supernatural attacks?
2) who got rid of the wolves near the end of the chapter? was it The Count or the man driving the carriage?
except all this i did in fact find the chapter to be very descriptive if not overly descriptive but interesting all the same. The chapter left me thinking about what will happen next and if the man will ever reach his destination because he seems to be switching carriages, hanging around with peasants or have strange and slightly intimidating drivers all the time. Right now I'm hooked and am looking forward to digging deeper into the Gothic nature of the book which has already been hinted at with witching hours, wolves howling and of course the main Gothic feeling of darkness.
i feel that once The Count has been introduced and the man comes to the castle then Gothic description will be emphasised more and in greater detail. i feel that darkness will play a huge key in this novel along with superstitious inputs to hint at problems that are about to happen. My prediction is that he will enter the castle and meet The Count to which his fears will become a huge reality with a slow build up of tension to create a massive interest in the book to the reader leaving them fully hooked on Dracula until the end of the book.