15 reasons NOT to go to the University of Limerick

– By UL International Student Marina Vernaton

To quote Ernest Hemingway, on living in Ireland, “…The memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other.” Here are few reasons why I would recommend you NOT to choose the University of Limerick.

• Some of the pubs are really old, like really old. Take for example this wine and tapas bar in the cellar of an old Georgian House in Limerick city.

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• You’d start each day with some of the most delicious black pudding, a real Irish breakfast. But you cannot get this pudding back at home, so breakfasts back home will be ruined forever.

  Full Irish Breakfast

• After a rain shower, you will inevitably find rainbows. You will spend your whole time here trying to chase the foot of the rainbow in search of a pot of gold.

Rainbow in the Burren, 30 minutes from Limerick City

• The Limerick city council actually supports street art, meaning that you will have to look at art like this throughout the city.
  

  Street Art in Limerick, Ireland, by SmugOne

• You will be so annoyed that you cannot take home every single unique treasure you find in flea markets or charity shops, because they simply won’t fit in your suitcase!

  

Lucky Lane, Catherine St, Limerick City

• You’ll be torn between your loyalty to your home team/sports when you inevitably indulge your inner-athlete by watching an Irish (Munster) Rugby match at the Thomond Park Stadium !

Thomond Park Stadium Limerick, home of Munster Rugby

• You will go against your natural instincts develop a love for trad music in the Limerick music scene. Pubs and street performers keep traditional Irish songs alive, and you will not be able to explain this new passion to people at home who have not experienced it.

  

  

  Left, Weekly Trad Night in Scholars bar on UL Campus. Right, Trad session 7 nights a week in Dolan’s Bar in Limerick City. 

• You’ve never had a Concert Hall on your University campus, and between free screenings and tickets from the international office, how can you go back home and live without your evening performances?

Performance at the UCH on UL Campus

• Once again you’ll find yourself joining a club you hadn’t dreamed of. You never imagined you’d be hitting up one of the céilí and set dancing courses in the UL dance society! All your planning at home never prepared you for the types of things you will actually find in UL.

UL Dance Society

• You will have to work on a real project with people from all over the world, from different nationalities, providing a type of tacit learning that you won’t even realise you’re picking up.

  

  

  

  

  

  Some of our International Graduates 2016

• You will end up doing things you never imagined such as traveling around Europe with a UL Club or Society. Clubs, societies and trips already organized (Sub Aqua Winter Trip 2015 Lanzarote,  UL outdoor Pursuits club in trip in Morocco and the Alps…), UL Skydive Club etc.. With 66 active clubs and societies, you’ll definitely be encouraged to take chances you never imagined you would take.

Train to be a sky dive instructor in UL Skydive

• You will have NO free weekends. Limerick is located : between Galway (1h25), Cork (1h42) & Dublin (2h17), and just 30 minutes from Shannon international airport, so you will definitely end up spending your weekends either jumping Ryanair planes around europe, or hopping on buses and traveling all around Ireland..

• You will probably stay here for an extra year that you never planned! UL graduates are eligible for a 12 month third level graduate scheme visa, to stay and work in Ireland. A massive number of major companies have their European headquarters in Ireland.

• The UL Green campus is UNFAIRLY amazing. In the spring and summer in particular, it’s without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. You will make memories that last you a lifetime, the types of memories that you’ll basically have to travel back to recreate for the rest of your life.

• If you don’t like the outdoors, definitely do NOT come here. When you observe the grasslands and wildlife in their natural environment, when you admire the breathtaking scenery of the this incredible Island, it will tempt you far too much to get drawn into an outdoor way of life. Nature walks and cycles through the countryside might not seem like things that will tempt you, but wait until you get here.

You definitely shouldn’t come to the University of Limerick, or it will change your life.

 

By University of Limerick International Student Marina Vernaton

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