If I could give you one piece of advice...

suckslikeafox · 20-08-2008 06:58PM #1

...well it would be to wear sunscreen anyways, it always rains in nooth.

Thought we could have a thread for anyone starting in Maynooth soon, some general advice and chit-chat from us who've been/are there.

My main piece of advice would be talk to as many people as possible at the start, its the easiest way to meet people and settle in.

Anyone else?

Rozabeez · 20-08-2008 07:14PM

Don't get f*cking hammered the night before orientation week starts with some random guy you've met on boards, its a long day the next day and the hangover doesn't help.

allandanyways · 20-08-2008 07:31PM

Take advantage of 3euro drinks in the SU on Mondays... best nites of yur life! (Wish the LA was still open, it was the best "nightclub" in the world after drinkskies in the SU! Remains to be seen if Roost Mondays will take off...) AND dont get so wasted the first day of RAG week that you weaken your body and you end up not being able to hack drink for the rest of the week but DO go crazy on Xmas day in the SU- there's only one day!

Chat to everyone, if youre coming to college with a group of friends dont just stick to that group! Be open to everyone, you never know what kind of weird and wonderful people you may meet....Especially in Smoking areas... even if you dont smoke just hang out there the odd time, best craic to be had on them flowerbeds outside the SU!

eamoss · 20-08-2008 11:30PM

allandanyways wrote: »

Take advantage of 3euro drinks in the SU on Mondays... best nites of yur life! (Wish the LA was still open, it was the best "nightclub" in the world after drinkskies in the SU! Remains to be seen if Roost Mondays will take off...) AND dont get so wasted the first day of RAG week that you weaken your body and you end up not being able to hack drink for the rest of the week but DO go crazy on Xmas day in the SU- there's only one day!

Some people love the SU others (like me) hate the place, best places to head out are the clubs. When I was in 1st year I lived in the LA they had 2.50€ a drink and 5€ in, it was great then it shut down last year and now is closed for renovations :rolleyes:

allandanyways wrote: »

Chat to everyone, if youre coming to college with a group of friends dont just stick to that group! Be open to everyone, you never know what kind of weird and wonderful people you may meet....Especially in Smoking areas... even if you dont smoke just hang out there the odd time, best craic to be had on them flowerbeds outside the SU!

Ditto, seen too many people doing this. I was lucky enough not to know anyone when I went down to college in Maynooth and met loads of people. I love the Smoking areas, best craic to be had there and I dont even smoke.

The way it was last year was

O'Niells - Monday night and has promotions
Bradys - Nothing better then the smell of the dance floor on a Wednesday night.
Roost - Thursday night - place is massive one place has dance area with pop music being played then another where there is a live band then down stairs has a big bar and a good place to talk. Also the smokin area is massive as well. Oh and dont forget to get stamped or you wont be able to get back up stairs.

allandanyways · 21-08-2008 12:22AM

eamoss wrote: »

When I was in 1st year I lived in the LA they had 2.50€ a drink and 5€ in, it was great then it shut down last year and now is closed for renovations :rolleyes:

Do you reckon they'll ever open the LA up again? I actually loved the place...

Clare Bear · 21-08-2008 10:37AM

Just enjoy it. There might not be the selection or bars and things to do like you would in Dublin or Cork etc but it's far easier to make friends in such a small place. Ah I miss it

Oh, and don't live on Parson Street, the rats will eat you

suckslikeafox · 21-08-2008 01:26PM

allandanyways wrote: »

Do you reckon they'll ever open the LA up again? I actually loved the place...

Rumour going around was that they didnt have a late licence anymore

eamoss · 21-08-2008 04:21PM

allandanyways wrote: »

Do you reckon they'll ever open the LA up again? I actually loved the place...

Heard they are reopening in the next few weeks but then I dont really know.

suckslikeafox wrote: »

Rumour going around was that they didnt have a late licence anymore

Heard that too but did they not reopen near the end of the year?

It really was a kip of a place but I still loved it none the less. Didnt go that much (when it was open) last year.

JBoyle4eva · 21-08-2008 08:53PM

If you're gonna live above the rail bridge near the Newtown Inn....make sure you buy an umbrella. Got caught in rain so much this year.

castie · 22-08-2008 01:43AM

Yeah its crazy. Compared to Cork it rains soooo much more. And it was nearly always freezing. the snow around xmas was cool though.

Eric Cartman · 22-08-2008 01:46AM

Dont listen to anybody else, the roost is the ONLY place any NUIM student should be on a thursday.

Rozabeez · 22-08-2008 12:42PM

Oh oh don't forget O'Briens sandwich bar, they tend to cock up, *bites* nyom, chicken bones.

suckslikeafox · 22-08-2008 03:59PM

And during exams, dont try to live entirely on coffee and jaffa cakes...it leads to some pretty funky headaches after 3 days

allandanyways · 22-08-2008 05:21PM

And dont be that person in the exam hall who has a packet of strepsils that they're opening every five minutes... someone sitting two up and one across from me during the summer exams for EN114 and 113 was recking my and everyone elses head... sore throat fair enough but still.. the noise...

PrivateEye · 22-08-2008 06:11PM

Off to Maynooth, I live in the 'burbs (Palmerstown) and there's a whack of us heading to NUIM. Anyone from these parts out there who'd have a decent idea what a taxi back would cost after a night out?

Anyone I ask says 'get the bus back home'. Do they know what time the bus leaves at? Part timers the lot of them.

My plan is basically to go out on the first day with two or three mates, go to the S.U and have a drink, see if anyone is brave enough to come over and say 'hello' and if they're not we might dive in and do it ourselves....

1)Is there Guinness?
2)Is it decent?

suckslikeafox · 23-08-2008 12:05AM

PrivateEye wrote: »

1)Is there Guinness?
2)Is it decent?

There be Guinness in the SU but it be bad. Best place is Caulfields but thats not exactly a happening spot apart from the weekly trad night. Decent compromise is downstairs in the Roost.

More advice (im full of the stuff) drink snakebite in the SU, its bloody excellent

pookie82 · 23-08-2008 12:30AM

Don't eat in the Rye. At first it's comforting, like being in your granny's kitchen while she's cooking you a fry - but you'll get very greasy food and eggshells in your sandwich. Not to mention the hairs in the lasagne....ugh!!!

Use the SU to its full advantage. Drink there a lot. Best days of my life were first and second year propping up the bar in that place. it's a dive but great craic.

Get your rag week tickets early. Try to make at least one bar ex a semester. Unless it's the Vengaboys or East 17. Don't kid yourself that you're being ironic, it's just sad.

Don't go to tutorials without your readings done. I tutored in Maynooth for three years and there is nothing more frustrating than staring at a class who haven't even heard of the author you're talking about that day. Go to your lectures. You'll be glad of it at the end of the semester.

Drink in the Roost. The best place is not, contrary to popular belief, upstairs in the new fangeldy disco bar. It's downstairs, at the back, over by the fireplace, on a rainy Tuesday evening, when there's nothing to be done but have a drink.

Talk to other people, especially those in your lectures. befriend your tutorial classmates. it's good to have friends who share the same subjects, and not just for their notes!

If you don't like where you live or the people you live with, this will dampen the entire college experience. I've seen too many people leave college due to being dissatisfied with their living arrangements and house mates and thinking that college is sh*t due to this. Move. Don't leave the best years of your life because you happened to find a crap room-mate.

i second the advice on getting outside of your circle of mates from home if you go with any. When I came to may from the other side of the country I did it completely alone. Nerve wracking, but great. I met people I'd never have had the guts to talk to if I'd been in a comfort zone of old friends.

keep the friends from home close to you. You may not get to see them that often but don;t forget about them.

Budget. Fresher's week is great fun and it is tempting to blow your entire savings fund on the Monday of rag week (in the afternoon) but you'll need to make it stretch. Accept defeat when it comes to things like rag week and it's Thursday afternoon and you've drank yourself sober and don't know which way is home.

If you have a problem with a course, talk to a lecturer or tutor before it gets too big to sort out. Lots leave it til exam time to admit they have big problems. If you feel isolated or bullied for any reason there's lots of support in place. There's an academic advisory office and a counselling service and mentors.

Be yourself. it's the best chance you'll ever have to start afresh while having a hint of an idea about who you actually are. So throw off the secondary school pretences and shackles and look/dress/listen to how and what you want. Remember the big shot kids from school often drown in the annonymity of college and the quiet kids get their chance to shine!

I think that's it! Ah, I loved Maynooth. it really was the best time of my life. Good luck to all going this year!!!

lordgoat · 23-08-2008 11:23AM

Talk to people, be friendly and nice.

To everyone beginning i hope you all make a wonderful time of it.

PrivateEye · 23-08-2008 05:24PM

There be Guinness in the SU but it be bad.

O' Briens sambos and bad pints, what was I thinking :rolleyes:

little nervous truthfully, never liked being new kidz on the block in anything in life. Will take me a while probably to get into the swing of things. If you're literally just in the door is the SU the place to go? Just get to familiarised with the place.

Anyone I've spoken to whos in Maynooth loves it. That in itself is a massive selling point. I'll go out with two or three mates like I said and we'll quickly find our feet.

Bringeron.

Holsten · 23-08-2008 09:37PM

PrivateEye wrote: »

Anyone I ask says 'get the bus back home'. Do they know what time the bus leaves at? Part timers the lot of them.

The last bus from Kilcock to town which will go through maynooth pretty much right beside all the bars is at 00:00 but it takes a while to get from Kilcock so around 00:15 maybe.

suckslikeafox · 24-08-2008 12:11PM

PrivateEye wrote: »

f you're literally just in the door is the SU the place to go? Just get to familiarised with the place.

Absolutely, have a few pints and chat to a few randomers, they'll all be in the same boat as yourself

scott.s · 25-08-2008 03:58PM

Join some clubs and/or societies and get to know more people that you otherwise wouldn't have encountered.

Norrdeth · 25-08-2008 07:51PM

Join the Composers society, i'm sure the Vice President would be very happy if you did! *cough* thats me *cough*
No it isn't, who said that? Darn mentally unstable students!
etc etc

funky penguin · 28-08-2008 01:49AM

suckslikeafox wrote: »

There be Guinness in the SU but it be bad. Best place is Caulfields but thats not exactly a happening spot apart from the weekly trad night. Decent compromise is downstairs in the Roost.

More advice (im full of the stuff) drink snakebite in the SU, its bloody excellent

And monday night jazz!

If I had to choose though....hmmm.... I'd pick the pint in the Roost.

No! Wait!

Downstairs in Brady's.

Shlurp shlurp.

Clare Bear · 28-08-2008 06:10PM

Hope you have nice housemates. That was the big thing for me. Been gone from college a few years now and we're still all good friends. Makes the real world a lot easier when you have your old college housemates to talk about the good old days and complain about the real world with

LeixlipRed · 28-08-2008 06:26PM

If you ever rip your jeans in the crotch while on campus in broad daylight make sure your mother can come pick you up quickly. That's all I'm saying on the matter

Rozabeez · 29-08-2008 10:53AM

LeixlipRed wrote: »

If you ever rip your jeans in the crotch while on campus in broad daylight make sure your mother can come pick you up quickly. That's all I'm saying on the matter

Hahaha, do tell!

LeixlipRed · 29-08-2008 01:00PM

I was in the res block. Jumped of a chair messing and my jeans ripped massively. So I had to ring my mother to come pick me up cause it was quite noticeable. Had to leg it from the res block to the moyglare entrance hoping no one would see. 23 years old and still need my mother to save my blushes

whiteandlight · 29-08-2008 10:32PM

Maynooths the best college ever! I should know-I'm starting my fifth year here!! Its been said already but talk to people, go on your campus tours, sign up to anything and go to fairs day!!
From personal experience some of my greatest friends were made in the drama soc. If you are into it then get involved-you tend to eat sleep and breathe the play the week before it and spend a ridiculous amount of time with each other hence making really damn good friends!! Also the wrap parties are something else.... tequila, chocolate and taking down lighting rigs-those were the days!! I got an extracurricular award out of it at the end of my degree too!
I'll be floating about starting the PGDE and so will many others who know where everything is so ask away, everyones always really friendly and willing to help!

pookie82 · 30-08-2008 08:37PM

Clare Bear wrote: »

Hope you have nice housemates. That was the big thing for me. Been gone from college a few years now and we're still all good friends. Makes the real world a lot easier when you have your old college housemates to talk about the good old days and complain about the real world with

Ya but it does make you feel very old when you have to seek out some old college mates to remember "the good old days" when the old mill stank so bad you had to hold your nose going by it, and there was no John Hume building - just a little windy path lined with trees you could walk out to moyglare on! My current BF and I started there in the same year and love to talk about the people in our year and what it was like back then but it does make you feel old!:( Really loved Maynooth. Might be why I'm still here! Sucks you in and all that...

golden gal · 08-09-2008 10:56PM

I would say pretty much all of the above and also LEARN PLACES THAT GIVE STUDENT DISCOUNT and save the money for the important things like cheap drinks nights!!!! Like if you are in Liffey Valley, the cinema topshop, miss selfridge, topman, burton, warehouse, new look, envy, dorothy perkins, barratts, zavvi, schuh, and game all give a minimum of 10%! Also be check out all the free stuff that gets given out throughout the year like by banks and stuff!

If I could give you one piece of advice...

Comments