Going to school in a small town compared to a bigger city is dramatically different and in this blog Matthew Cruz, our Canadian Ambassador, tells us all about his experience and course in Creative Multimedia at Limerick IT…

Hey! My name is Matthew Cruz, I’m a Canadian student finishing a degree in Ireland. I grew up in a suburb in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, so big cities are basically all I know. I currently attend Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) in their Creative Multimedia program and am loving every minute of it.

LIT has four different campuses consisting of Moylish (the main campus in Limerick), LSAD Claire Street (the school of art and design campus down town Limerick City), Thurles (the campus that is, well in Thurles) and finally the campus I go to, Clonmel, South Tipperary.

The Creative Multimedia program at LIT is broad and teaches you many different skills, leading to very many different career opportunities. There are three streams with three very different “majors” you can choose from in the Creative Multimedia program. These include Programming, Motion Graphics and Marketing & Analytics. The first two years in the program are general and everyone is all together. Years three and four are where you choose your preferred stream and have modules that focus on your preferred stream. I choose the Marketing & Analytics stream. The program I was enrolled in at my Canadian University was marketing media focused so this felt like a natural continuation for my education.

The Creative Multimedia program is only offered by LIT at the Clonmel campus. If you are used to living in a smaller town then you will feel right at home. If you are from a bigger city you might find the change in pace of life quite different. I found adjusting to the much slower and less urgent pace of life a little difficult at the beginning, but got used to it rather quickly. There was definitely some things I wish I knew before I got to Clonmel so I’m going to list my “top 3 must know tips for living in Clonmel”…

  1. This isn’t like your big city life, you can’t just go out at 10pm and get a coffee from your favourite cafe. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, closes at 5pm so get all your shopping and food needs before the town shuts down for the night.
  2. I hope you like walking (or cycling)… there is very little to no public transportation in Clonmel. Unlike large cities where you can hop on and off the subway or bus to get where you want, you cant do that here. There are many buses and trains that leave Clonmel so you will never have that feeling of being stuck. Ireland is a relatively small country so you can always just take an inexpensive bus ride basically anywhere to spend the day.
  3. Everyone here follows “Irish time”. Everyone is so nice and will go out of their way to help you as much as them can, but if you are used to the urgency you get in a big city and like things done then and there, you are not going to get that in small town Ireland. No point in stressing just relax and enjoy the slower pace.

Interested in studying abroad? Visit the Education in Ireland website for more information.