Day 1: "We all win when we recycle"

Today was the first official day of class! We began the day by meeting at the Butterfly Cafe in Cedar Rapids for breakfast and to go over a few last minutes trip details.  After stuffing ourselves (especially those of us who ordered omelets), we departed for our very first baseball game where we watched the Cedar Rapids Kernels take on the Beloit Snappers.  It was a slow start for the Kernels who were losing 4-0 until the 7th inning when Harris, Cruz, Alvarez, and Ramirez all scored to tie the game.  Unfortunately, the game was finished in the 10th inning when Leer scored for the Snappers and the Kernels failed to score in the bottom of the inning.

Despite the disappointing finish, it was a solid start to the trip! We all got to know each other a little better and we got TWO foul balls (one that may or may not have involved Danny almost taking out a small child...whoops) and a towel (it would've been two but Danny was classy and gave the towel to the kid).  A few students and Dr. Bob were also interviewed at the Kernels game by Fox News.  Maybe our trip is just that exciting...or maybe they were desperate for a story, but either way, we're famous now. Kind of.

Before the game!

One of the joys of minor league games. You get to watch ridiculous things like gigantic eyeball races, kids catching water balloons on their heads, and recycling races (hence the title of this post).

See? Famous!