Blog #2: Pre-travel Prep
So now that I could check picking an abroad destination off my list of things to do, it was time to do the pre-travel prep to get myself ready for my semester overseas. An experience like this one requires careful planning and a lot of logistical arrangements. Never in my life had I been faced with the responsibilities that come along with organizing a 4.5 month “vacation” and I was determined to get the job done with as little interference from my parents as possible.
My first order of business was to seek out roommates that I’d share a living space with for the duration of my time abroad. My best friend Emily and I had both chose to go abroad to Tel Aviv so it was automatically assumed that we’d live together but we needed two more girls to fill the room. Emily and I consulted and decided that as bonus for our experience, we wanted to expand our social network by seeking out roommates who went to universities other than Michigan (Babin/Harris, 2016). We used social media and word of mouth to find out about other girls going on the same program who also needed roommates (Babin/Harris, 2016). We were finally set up by friends at other schools to live with two girls, one who attended Syracuse University and the other at University of Maryland. After verbal communication over social media platforms and daily texts leading up to our departure date, we quickly learned that these girls shared the same values as us; they expressed the same desires to immerse themselves in israeli culture (Babin/Harris, 2016).
After we solidified our rooming situation it was time to plan how I’d spend my two, week-long breaks over the course of the semester. Because Israel is so close to Europe, I found this time-off from school as a great opportunity to explore some of the european cities I’ve always wanted to visit. I knew that as a college student on a budget, I had to prioritize monetary value in my planning (Angell, 2017). My parents gave me a specific budget for my break trip traveling expenses, which I made sure to adhere to in my travel arrangements. I made sure to look at money-saving airfare sites like Expedia.com and Kayak.com when finding flights to each location. Also, instead of getting a hotel room in every european city, I planned to stay with friends I knew from school who would be studying abroad in those locations. Therefore, I didn’t have to pay extra costs for a place to stay and could spend more quality time with my friends. After figuring out potential costs and finding the cheapest, most convenient options for traveling from Tel Aviv, it was set that i’d be visiting the cities of Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Florence, and Mykonos.
Here are some of the photos from my travels to each place in Europe:
Finally I was faced with the last step of getting ready for my trip: packing four and a half months worth of clothing and other personal items into 2 checked bags and a carry-on. Looking back, the process of organizing was a game of weighing my functional and hedonistic values. Since I couldn’t just transport my life oversees, the process of packing up for my travels was like a game of wants vs. needs, and a balancing act of satisfying my functional and hedonistic demands (Angel, 2017). It took me 3 separate tries to fully fit everything in the bag and get the zipper to close but I finally got it, which meant I was ready for takeoff.
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| Emily and I at the JFK International Terminal ready for our departure to Tel Aviv, Israel |
Babin. B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th edition). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Angell, A. (2017). CB Chapter 2 Creating Customer Value. Lecture presented in University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Angell, A. (2017). CB Chapter 3, 4 and 5 Perception, Learning, Motivation. Lecture presented in University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Hey Jessica! Super cool to hear about your process of getting ready for your semester abroad. The first thing that intrigued me was when you talked about being determined to plan you abroad trip alone without the help of your parents. I had the same mindset when I was going abroad as well – I thought it would be a good challenge to see how much planning and logistics I could do without any assistance. It wasn’t something I actively thought about though, it was more something that I noticed myself doing. Thinking about it now, I think this happened because I subconsciously am aware that soon enough I’m going to be emerged in the “real world” more than ever within the next year, and of which will certainly entail a lot of traveling and last minute plans where I may not be able to get any help. Where did the motivation for you come from, if you're aware of it?
ReplyDeleteSimilar to your mid-semester travels, I traveled throughout Europe before reaching my abroad destination of Australia. The cities I went to on my trip were based around where I already had friends abroad, so that I could save money on living as well. I've been thinking about my future travels as well in terms of accommodations. Unfortunately we won't have the same affordance of having friends in some many places at once. If you're ever doing another budget-friendly trip, definitely consider staying in hostels. I feel like the word "hostel" has a bad stigma to it, but there's many really nice ones out there on top of the affordance of meeting new people from all around the world. Signing up for a membership with Hostelling International is worth it in the long run, as you get discounts on the normal prices – https://www.hihostels.com/
Lastly, next time you're planning flights, be sure to also compare Kayak and Expedia to Google Flights: it does a really good job at showing the lowest prices out there, and also lets you track pricing, which sends you notifications when the price goes up or down – https://www.google.com/flights/.
Hi Jessica! I really loved your blog and the personalized pictures you included! The minimum was two but I thought it was great how you went above and beyond, including pictures from the cities you talked about in your blog! You talk about how multiple factors went into which cities to visit over your breaks, and I would like to know more about which factor was most important to you when making your decision. Was it that you typically picked the cities where your friends were in to save money and then took into account other factors? Did the websites you checked out have the strongest influence on you? I am curious as to your answer because that will show what you value most when you make a decision, whether it be economic, social, functional, or experiential (Angell, 2017) since you touch on multiple. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this blog post!
ReplyDeleteAngell, A. H. (2017, September 13). Chapter 2 - Value. Lecture presented in Ross
School of Business, Ann Arbor, MI.