A Narrative Community: Voices of Israeli Backpackers

Appendix 2: Questions Asked

The interview conversations typically consisted of three phases. First, I introduced a general question with the intention of eliciting the core travel narrative. The question addressed the interviewee’s travel experiences: • Can you tell me about your experiences from the trip? I sometimes added that narrating the travel’s experiences chronologically, in line with the trip’s itinerary, might make the recollection process easier. The second phase of the interview consisted of clarifications that addressed the topics and the episodes mentioned during the core narrative. I asked the narrators to expand on issues they had touched on earlier. This I did when I felt that the account did not convey the entire picture, when there were silences that interested me, or simply because my curiosity was aroused with regard to particular events and moments. In the third phase of the interview, I introduced seven preplanned questions. This phase was more structured than the previous phases and was based on pilot research that included twenty short interviews with backpackers. However, this phase, too, was “negotiated ” (Fontana and Frey, 2000), and I presented the preplanned questions differently to different narrators. Sometimes, if the narrator had already elaborated on an issue about which I was planning to ask, I did not present the question. Also, I tailored the sequence of the questions and often their wording, too, to the particular interviewee. The questions addressed peak experiences, gendered experiences, the question of whether military service had had an influence on the travel experience and how it was conducted , bodily experiences, gastronomic experiences, social interactions, preparation for the trip, and the experience of returning to Israel: • Can you tell about particularly meaningful experiences that you had during the trip— both positive and negative experiences? • Do you think military service affected your trip and its experience? • Do you remember physical or bodily experiences that were particularly meaningful? • Can you elaborate on meetings, interactions, and relationships that you had with backpackers and with local people? • Did you have experiences or incidents that were related to/influenced by your gender? APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONS ASKED 205 Appendix 2 206 Do you think the trip is different for women/men? • Can you tell about a meaningful gastronomic experience you had? • Can you tell about the preparations for the trip and about how it was to return to Israel—about the experience of returning? When this phase was concluded, I asked each interviewee whether she or he had any questions or comments. At the very end of the meeting, I collected standard sociodemographic information. ...