First day in Ireland, well, where to start? Well first we landed, and waited for Maddie Watkins to arrive from Bahrain. We stretched our legs, and personally, I got a nice big cup of coffee. When Maddie had landed, we loaded on the bus and went to meet her at the proper terminal. We got on the bus and after turtling a backpack, watching a (hot) teen Rugby team load onto the bus next to us, and listening to a bagpiper, we all were finally ready to head to the hotel. Once we had settled in, we embarked on what we thought would be a scenic, not so strenuous, walking tour of Dublin. The first fifteen minutes or so were beautiful and full of awesome architecture and then… down pour. After being thoroughly soaked, we found an indoor plaza and waited for the rain to pass, and as is typical to expect in Ireland, it passed quickly. However the rest of the walking tour was covered by a grey sky that would periodically open up onto to the jet lagged teenagers below. After a quick reading of James Joyce by Henry and Gaela, we headed to Merrion Square to see the memorial to Oscar Wilde before walking around Trinity College. Although we were losing energy and were cold, we linked arm and arm and had animated discussions as we darted through the Dublin streets. We sat down for an afternoon snack and coffee and talked about what we had seen so far. Afterwards, we took the DART (the train) back to the hotel. Later that night we went to dinner and met the directors of the Irish group we would be working with. We went back to the hotel, well fed and slightly delirious from exhaustion, and headed to our rooms. The day in itself was possibly the longest I have ever experienced, but there was never a dull moment. We have been so excited for this trip that actually being here has been surreal. Whether it was reading James Joyce in the very pharmacy the pharmacy in Ulysses is based, or walking through a vibrantly green Trinity campus, we were in the end, just happy to finally be in Ireland.