I chose Leeds because I really wanted to come to the United Kingdom and I liked the structure of the LISS programme. For my two modules, I decided to take ‘Music in Film’ in block 1 and ‘Sport in the UK: Health and Performance Issues’ in block 2. What I enjoyed the most about the courses was the field trips.
We went on a really cool field trip to Bradford to visit the National Media Museum for my ‘Music in Film’ class. It was great to explore the museum and also see a little bit of Bradford. I did a lot more field trips for ‘Sport in the UK’.
We went on a hiking trip on Ilkley Moor, a rock climbing trip at Brimham Rocks, and a rowing trip in Roundhay Park. I enjoyed the Ilkley Moor trip the most because of the beautiful scenery and the experience of walking around the small town after the hike.
We also had excursions outside of class, which were really fun. My favourite excursion was the one to York. I loved having brunch at Betty’s Tea Room, exploring the Jorvic Viking Museum, and walking along the city walls.
This was my first time leaving the United States. I learned a lot and experienced many things for the first time.
I learned two important lessons from this trip. One is that the best adventures are ‘choose your own’ adventures. I did not do all of the planned excursions on the weekends. For example, last weekend, I spent Saturday in Manchester. I found out that there was a Comic Con event that weekend so I spent the Sunday morning in Liverpool and the afternoon back in Manchester.
The other lesson I have learned is not to disregard what you want to do because of others. Last weekend, I was hesitant to buy train tickets the night before. My friends weren’t interested in going but I really wanted to see Manchester before I left. I didn’t want to be in a city all by myself but I decided to do it anyway because I thought I would regret it if I didn’t. I took a leap of faith and hoped I would still have fun on my own. The morning of the trip, one of my friends decided to tag along and so I didn’t end up alone. We had a blast walking around Manchester! If I had backed out of doing that trip, I would have missed out on one of my most memorable weekends during LISS.
During the spring semester, I remember trying to decide if I wanted to do this programme or not. I went back and forth on it for a while. I spent so long deciding that it was almost past the application deadline. Then I thought to myself “oh why not try” and applied a couple of nights before it was due. This is the best late night decision I have ever made! That late night decision gave me experiences that I will never forget and friendships that can last a lifetime.
To any students considering applying to LISS, I would say just think ‘why not?’ Apply before the deadline though, please don’t be like me and apply last minute!