Most of the answers here sound like they’ve been written by some 12 year old. As for your question, your intention isn’t really to know how our first year was like, it is to know how YOUR first year will be like.
It all starts off with you finding you way to your hostel room, the very first day you arrive in Manipal after being admitted. The same night, when you have settled down in your rooms, there’s a very good chance there will be a knock on the door by some random guy/girl, followed by a group of people, who’ve just come by to ‘get to know more people’. You’ll roam around the corridors and there’ll be a lot of you and you’ll get to know a lot of people. And this is good! (If this doesn’t happen by 9pm, the guys/girls on your floor are introverted a-holes. If that happens, please make sure YOU are that random guy/girl who goes around knocking.)
The food court is intuitive. Nothing amazing happens the very first day or the first week. Except, if you plan on going around and getting to know other girls. Please, don’t do this. You’ll never really get that girl, and you’ll always, forever, be remembered as the flirty-guy-who-spoke-to-me-the-very first-day-who-i-hate-running-into. After the first week, or if you’re lucky, the first 2 weeks, food becomes hell. You hate it. You flock to the top floor to swipe you card, spend you parent’s money, and get some good food.
The clubs and activities start off after a couple of weeks. Most of them are shit! Just us trying to copy the IITs without really knowing what or why we’re doing something. You’ll hear stuff like ‘certificates’ and ‘it’ll look good on the resume’. The former is what drives kids to get into them. If you can’t define a clear intention of why you want to join any one of the thousand clubs/student societies in Manipal, please don’t.