BLOG #1: Pick A City, Any City

         Like so many other college students do each year, this past semester I packed a bag, parted with friends, uprooted my life and set off for a semester abroad and the adventure of a lifetime. Before I could choose the destination for my new temporary home, there was much consideration and planning that went into the big decision. I had to weigh the pros and cons of each city, and then figure out which factors influenced me the most. In other words, I had to decide what I valued most to take away from an opportunity as special as this.

            As I sat down to explore the options for destinations I might’ve wanted to travel to, the cities that jumped out to me as possible choices included Sydney, Australia; Prague, Czech Republic; Barcelona; Spain; and Tel Aviv, Israel. Each city had their own unique set of cultural distinctions and personalities, each a different language, food cuisine and population of people that intrigued me.

            I decided that before I could choose a city that i'd be living in for an entire semester, I needed to determine what I wanted out of my personal abroad adventure. I decided to do some product differentiation to analyze the ways my life would vary in each place (Babin/Harris, 2016). 

Was it that I was searching for the opportunity to do the once in a lifetime, outdoorsy adventures like jumping out of planes and bungee jumping off cliffs, in the laid-back Aussie city? 

Sydney, Australia

Or could it be that I wanted to live in the old, fairytale-like city of Prague, a choice that would give me the perfect location to be able to travel with convenience to other cities in Europe on the weekends? 

Prague, Czech Republic

Did I want to dance on tables and marvel at the Spanish tapas in the always-lively city of Barcelona? 

Barcelona, Spain

Or maybe the city for me was Tel Aviv, a place id traveled once before but still longed to return, a place with so much spiritual importance to me?

Tel Aviv, Israel

  

            I was able to first narrow down my choices by imagining day-to-day life in each place. By picturing myself in each setting, it led me to consider the importance of the climate of each location. Attending the University of Michigan, has forced me to put up with -20 degree weather and walks to class that require no less than 4 pairs of socks. I decided that this semester abroad would be an opportunity to escape the torturous cold and please my inner beach bum. While living in Prague would be awesome, I knew I had to cross that option off my list after deciding warm weather was of utmost importance for me.

            Then I was down to three: Barcelona, Sydney and Tel Aviv. At this point in my decision-making process I turned to the person who helps me most in times of indecision: my mom. I can recall naming off the three cities to her over the phone and her immediate rebuttal when I said Sydney. As a concerned mother already emotional over the fact that her “baby” would be traveling the world all on her own to spend 4 months away from home, she wasn’t shy about dismissing the option that would land me the furthest distance from home. Although a little disappointed that I had to drop this option, I valued my mom’s approval and support, and of course needed to respect the wishes of my parent who would be financing this experience for me.

            Finally, it was down to two amazing options.  Barcelona and Tel Aviv were so similar but also had slight differentiating attributes and unique offerings that helped to finally solidify my decision. Both provided the benefits of amazing weather, a vibrant nightlife and authentic food options (which equally rivaled as two of my favorite food types.) The two main significant differences included the convenience of travel to other locations around Europe and the culture of people in each place. If I chose Barcelona, I would be choosing an experience that allow me to travel to a different city in Europe each weekend, a huge plus because that would mean getting the chance to check off so many of the places on my European bucket-list. If I chose Tel Aviv, it wouldn’t be as easy to travel to other cities, nor would I be able to travel as often. However the benefits of immersing myself in the social environment of Tel Aviv was something I couldn’t ignore (Babin/Harris, 2016). While I knew it would be an interesting experience to live amongst Spanish people, I was so curious and fascinated at the possibility of living in the place I’d been religiously reinforced to call my “homeland,” without fully knowing why.

What led me to make my final decision was the internal influences of my personal values, which were pulling me to Tel Aviv all along. The just meaningful difference, which finally led me to my answer was my personal tie with the Israeli culture and wish to expose myself to a place and people I had such an incomparable connection to (Babin/Harris, 2016). For me, this decision would satisfy my hedonic motivation for going abroad in the first place -  the desire to learn new things abroad that extended far beyond what I could learn in the classroom (Babin/Harris, 2016). This decision was a way to learn more about myself.

 For more information about popular abroad destinations visit this website:

http://www.allthingsabroad.com/

Babin. B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th edition). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.