A year of exchange should mould a student's independence, confidence, and wit, and allow her to kick off her shoes and let her hair down and do what the hell she wants without anyone judging her or tell her what she should be doing instead. Or so I thought. Until I stepped foot into my new residence in September 2011.
There is annoyingly little information (and misleading impressions based on the little there is) on the Internet about Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence, so I will be doing someone a favour by explaining everything about it here.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence is a residence in Stillorgan, south of Dublin, and is run by nuns. If you are a devout Catholic, dislike drinking, in bed by 11pm, retired, and relatively asexual, this is the perfect place for you. However, for a young adult anticipating freedom and adventure for a year, it is hard to accept the many rules and restrictions that come with living in a place like Guadalupe Residence. But as the saying goes (is it a saying? I may have made it up), where there are rules, there are ways. And learn these ways, you will.
For those intending to come to Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence, be sure that you are ok with living with a curfew. Every night at 11.30pm (there are some exceptions, such as 3am on Fridays and midnight on weekends with prior notice) the outer-most door for the female building is locked up with a special key by one of the nuns. (The guys who live here are not subject to curfews, stupid ancient sexist old fashioned rule I wish I could punch with green hulk gloves with.) Perhaps one good thing about being appraoched by a locked door every now and then is, with a bit of patience, you get to learn the art of lock picking. Lock picking kits can be found quite easily in hardware shops and there are many methods to show you how on Youtube. A fellow resident is now a pro at it. This is important - if there is a fire in the house and there are no sisters around to open the door, we would burn to the ground with the ignited building if we didn't have our trusty picklock by our side. See, a life skill.
Also, if you do stay out past curfew and you made good friends with one of the guys in the residence, it is also possible to stay over at the guy's place, where they will be happy to put you in the kitchen for the night. "But it's really comfy there, there's a sofa and everything!" they'd say. Pssh. If you want your womanly dignity intact, learn how to pick locks.
Alcohol is strictly prohibited in the residence. That, combined with a 11.30pm curfew, means that drinking nights are scarce. Even if you do go out to town, the bus ride is half an hour long and you'd want to get the bus at 11pm latest to be back in time for curfew. Even you say screw the curfew imma gonna drink myself silly and take the taxi at 4am, you'll obviously be greeted with the cold, apathetic, unyielding door and find yourself heavily intoxicated in the garden playing with the squirrels (and occasionally the odd fox!) until the doors open at 6am. You could argue that you can keep a few bottles of the ol' good stuff in your wardrobe but twice a week the sisters come into your room to vacuume and change your bedsheets. This means they can have a little peek into your wardrobe and ensure everything is ok, so if a vodka bottle is staring at her face when she opens the wardrobe it will be removed (and she probably won't tell you and you'll be all sad and confused about misplacing the darn thing).
However, drinking is not impossible. 'Tis Ireland after all.
The Guadalupe garden after 9pm is big, and dark, with a big dark corner, and if you make sure you are wearing black from head to toe, there is no chance of being seen outside a two metre radius. So you start drinking around 9pm-ish in your sneakiest black leotards and balaklava. This gives you about two and a half hours to skull down all your alcohol and crack a few silly jokes before heading back to the residence. This gets a little old after a while but it is fun while it lasts.
Also, I was away in Galway when this happened - but fellow residents tell me it is also possible to drink in the residence common room by filling a water bottle with alcohol. It's a bit teenage-prom and a little risky with the nuns walking around but if you have a board game spread amongst it all then it just looks like you are having the time of your life with monopoly and the sisters won't think much of it.
If you are one of the luckier people blessed with dashing good looks receiving admiration in bounty from the opposite sex, don't let your blessing go to waste in this residence. Although there are plenty of the young and sexy living here, there are strict geographical boundaries each gender must stick to. But as I said, where there are rules, there are ways. Not having been involved in a romantic relationship during my stay here, I am not sure how things exactly work, but I have witnessed the progression of some relationships and there seem to be ways to spend some private time together within the residence. I think it involves climbing though.
The residence is not all negative. There are some amazing people living here in Guadalupe residence. There are a handful of college students, who are all extrememly smart and rank among the highest in their classes (I guess such quiet places like Stillorgan attracts the more studious type) but also who are willing to play some serious vodka monopoly and trash the place as much as you can possibly trash a nunnery (which isn't that much but still). There are also other people of all age and culture, which sometimes leads to sophisticated political debates or historical discussions over dinner. You do learn things that way. I found out where Andorra was located on the world map.
Dinner is served and can get repetitive but when you're hungry you'll end up eating everything anyway and enjoying it too. Bring your own special sauce (mine was chili) to add a bit of kick to your usual bland, potato-based dinner and be the centre of attention during each meal. I think I made friends doing that.
All in all, Our Lady Guadalupe residence isn't too bad, even for someone without any Catholic belief or background. If you have some black clothing and can build a secret alcohol compartment in your wardrobe and know how to climb walls and windows and can act like a sir when you're drunk and can pick locks and are good at removing traces of evidence, then you will live a fairly happy life without getting booted out by the sisters. If you don't know any of the aforementioned skills, not to worry, this place will train you, if it's the only thing it does.
There is annoyingly little information (and misleading impressions based on the little there is) on the Internet about Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence, so I will be doing someone a favour by explaining everything about it here.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence is a residence in Stillorgan, south of Dublin, and is run by nuns. If you are a devout Catholic, dislike drinking, in bed by 11pm, retired, and relatively asexual, this is the perfect place for you. However, for a young adult anticipating freedom and adventure for a year, it is hard to accept the many rules and restrictions that come with living in a place like Guadalupe Residence. But as the saying goes (is it a saying? I may have made it up), where there are rules, there are ways. And learn these ways, you will.
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| Welcome to my crib. |
For those intending to come to Our Lady of Guadalupe Residence, be sure that you are ok with living with a curfew. Every night at 11.30pm (there are some exceptions, such as 3am on Fridays and midnight on weekends with prior notice) the outer-most door for the female building is locked up with a special key by one of the nuns. (The guys who live here are not subject to curfews, stupid ancient sexist old fashioned rule I wish I could punch with green hulk gloves with.) Perhaps one good thing about being appraoched by a locked door every now and then is, with a bit of patience, you get to learn the art of lock picking. Lock picking kits can be found quite easily in hardware shops and there are many methods to show you how on Youtube. A fellow resident is now a pro at it. This is important - if there is a fire in the house and there are no sisters around to open the door, we would burn to the ground with the ignited building if we didn't have our trusty picklock by our side. See, a life skill.
Also, if you do stay out past curfew and you made good friends with one of the guys in the residence, it is also possible to stay over at the guy's place, where they will be happy to put you in the kitchen for the night. "But it's really comfy there, there's a sofa and everything!" they'd say. Pssh. If you want your womanly dignity intact, learn how to pick locks.
Alcohol is strictly prohibited in the residence. That, combined with a 11.30pm curfew, means that drinking nights are scarce. Even if you do go out to town, the bus ride is half an hour long and you'd want to get the bus at 11pm latest to be back in time for curfew. Even you say screw the curfew imma gonna drink myself silly and take the taxi at 4am, you'll obviously be greeted with the cold, apathetic, unyielding door and find yourself heavily intoxicated in the garden playing with the squirrels (and occasionally the odd fox!) until the doors open at 6am. You could argue that you can keep a few bottles of the ol' good stuff in your wardrobe but twice a week the sisters come into your room to vacuume and change your bedsheets. This means they can have a little peek into your wardrobe and ensure everything is ok, so if a vodka bottle is staring at her face when she opens the wardrobe it will be removed (and she probably won't tell you and you'll be all sad and confused about misplacing the darn thing).
However, drinking is not impossible. 'Tis Ireland after all.
The Guadalupe garden after 9pm is big, and dark, with a big dark corner, and if you make sure you are wearing black from head to toe, there is no chance of being seen outside a two metre radius. So you start drinking around 9pm-ish in your sneakiest black leotards and balaklava. This gives you about two and a half hours to skull down all your alcohol and crack a few silly jokes before heading back to the residence. This gets a little old after a while but it is fun while it lasts.
Also, I was away in Galway when this happened - but fellow residents tell me it is also possible to drink in the residence common room by filling a water bottle with alcohol. It's a bit teenage-prom and a little risky with the nuns walking around but if you have a board game spread amongst it all then it just looks like you are having the time of your life with monopoly and the sisters won't think much of it.
If you are one of the luckier people blessed with dashing good looks receiving admiration in bounty from the opposite sex, don't let your blessing go to waste in this residence. Although there are plenty of the young and sexy living here, there are strict geographical boundaries each gender must stick to. But as I said, where there are rules, there are ways. Not having been involved in a romantic relationship during my stay here, I am not sure how things exactly work, but I have witnessed the progression of some relationships and there seem to be ways to spend some private time together within the residence. I think it involves climbing though.
The residence is not all negative. There are some amazing people living here in Guadalupe residence. There are a handful of college students, who are all extrememly smart and rank among the highest in their classes (I guess such quiet places like Stillorgan attracts the more studious type) but also who are willing to play some serious vodka monopoly and trash the place as much as you can possibly trash a nunnery (which isn't that much but still). There are also other people of all age and culture, which sometimes leads to sophisticated political debates or historical discussions over dinner. You do learn things that way. I found out where Andorra was located on the world map.
Dinner is served and can get repetitive but when you're hungry you'll end up eating everything anyway and enjoying it too. Bring your own special sauce (mine was chili) to add a bit of kick to your usual bland, potato-based dinner and be the centre of attention during each meal. I think I made friends doing that.
All in all, Our Lady Guadalupe residence isn't too bad, even for someone without any Catholic belief or background. If you have some black clothing and can build a secret alcohol compartment in your wardrobe and know how to climb walls and windows and can act like a sir when you're drunk and can pick locks and are good at removing traces of evidence, then you will live a fairly happy life without getting booted out by the sisters. If you don't know any of the aforementioned skills, not to worry, this place will train you, if it's the only thing it does.
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| Just little angels? Think again... |
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| ... Don't Blink. :P |
Love it how the guys are free to do pretty much anything. NO CURFEWWWWW!
ReplyDeletewho are willing to play some serious vodka monopoly .. is this person can be me ? :)Lol ooh ! and Do you remember that night we three went out and drank soju in the garden ?
ReplyDeleteLol soju in the garden is that "big dark corner" I was talking about haha ;)
Delete아! 그리고 누가 문 여는거 방법 알아낸거여요 ? ㅋㅋ 마리 ?
ReplyDelete응 완전 똑똑해 ㅋㅋ
Delete