Inside Student Blogs

Ariana Lisefski London, Spring 2013

Ariana is a junior at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Gender and Women's Studies. On campus, she is busy with bellydance and yoga, and as an executive member of the student health club. She has ridden elephants in Thailand and gone whitewater rafting in New Zealand, but her time studying abroad in London will be her first experience of Europe, which she hopes to make the very most of. Writing is how she makes sense of the world, and she hopes to share this blog with you while she explores jolly old England!

Ariana's Posts

• The End

  5/06/13 • (0)

  After a long week of what felt like constant travel after classes at IES ended, it was a welcome relief to meet my parents and boyfriend at the airport, ready to greet me and take all my heavy bags and drive me home. Though I hardly knew how to feel about being back in America.

  England, London, Post-departure, Study Abroad, Travel

• Hello Goodbye

  4/22/13 • (1)

  People always use the term “life-changing,” but that seems so casually used, so obvious! Of course your life is going to change with each new experience you have! But I would say it’s been person-changing.

  departure, England, Farewell, London, Study Abroad, Travel

• The Best Of

  4/16/13 • (0)

  There are a million-and-one things to do and see on any given day in London, but it helps to find the practical and fun places that you’ll go every day while living here. Here are all my go-to’s.

  Advice, Best of London, England, London, Study Abroad, Travel

• Going Dutch

  4/02/13 • (1)

  I keep saying, in probably every one of my blog posts, that these places I visit feel “unreal.” All these sights that have been represented so many times in movies and books and photographs have only been some other reality to me up till now. So when I see them in person, I doubt what I’m really looking at!

  Amsterdam, Belgium, Bruges, Brussels, England, London, Netherlands, Study Abroad, Travel, weekend

• À Paris: La Deuxième Partie

  3/27/13 • (0)

  On with the surreal Paris weekend, part two! Day two, and we did it all over again.

  England, France, London, Paris, Study Abroad, Travel, weekend

• À Paris: La Première Partie

  3/27/13 • (0)

  …this weekend felt nearly like an out-of-body experience, like I was just witnessing another person walking around Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame…

  England, France, London, Paris, Study Abroad, Travel, weekend

• Brighton, Camden, and St. Patty’s!

  3/19/13 • (2)

  Week 10! It definitely feels like my time abroad is dwindling, but I still have 5 countries left to see before I go home! So the past week I have been making the most of my time left at “home” in England.

  brighton, Camden, England, Field Trips, London, markets, Study Abroad, Travel

• A Wee Bit of Scotland

  3/11/13 • (0)

  I can already say that Scotland has been one of my favorite places I’ve traveled so far in my life. I know I’m going to look back on all my adventures here and remember in particular this past week. It was just four days of utter bliss. And shortbread.

  England, Field Trips, London, Scotland, Study Abroad, Travel

• Weekend on the Sea

  2/27/13 • (0)

  Most people picture the stark white chalkstone cliffs that feature in a lot of movies and photos, but most tourists in their rights minds don’t go there in February. Except us.

  Dover, England, London, midterms, Study Abroad, Travel, weekend

• Shakespeare Was Here

  2/19/13 • (0)

  This has been a very Shakespearean week here in jolly old England! In my Shakespeare class this past Monday, we got a tour of the Globe Theater in Bankside.

  castle, England, Field Trips, Kenilworth, London, Shakespeare, Stratford, Study Abroad, Travel

• Taking the Waters

  2/07/13 • (0)

  This past weekend I went on a 2-day trip that took us to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. It was incredible.

  Bath, England, Field Trips, London, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Study Abroad, Travel

• Minding the Gap (between America and Britain)

  1/30/13 • (0)

  Even during the week in classes, we get to get out and connect what we’re learning to the city itself. Any given day might have us meeting at the Museum of London or the National Portrait Gallery for a class.

  Cotswolds, England, Greenwich, integration, London, Oxford, Study Abroad, Travel

• London Loves a Snowball Fight

  1/22/13 • (0)

  It’s really very easy to just get out and explore, especially living in central London, where most things are just a short Tube or bus ride away. A few nights ago, a few friends and I just went spontaneously to find something to do, and ended up walking along Tower Bridge, which is lit up incredibly at night. I love that there is no shortage of things to do and see here, and I just want to see it all.

  classes, Courses, England, London, Study Abroad, Travel, Weather

• The Beginning

  1/14/13 • (0)

  What I’m learning is that to throw yourself into the unknown, just being spontaneous and going into every new situation open to what you’ll find, very little can go wrong—and it feels like you’re on top of the world when it goes right. As I sit looking out on London from the 32nd floor Sky Lounge of Nido, it feels like I am already there. On top of everything.

  Eaton, England, Housing, London, Study Abroad, Travel, Windsor

• New Year, New Country

  1/04/13 • (1)

  I’m dwelling on the start of the New Year, a year I will spend largely away from home in a country I’ve never visited. I’m dwelling on resolutions: to seize newness and difference, to step out of my comfortable bubble, to just go.

  England, London, Pre-Departure, Study Abroad, Travel