Does foreign travel/living really teach you much about the world?

Obviously, we are in a nail-biting period as we wait to see how President Trump's foreign policy will shake out (and whether it will be as awful as many fear). It is too early to know much, so what's a good final topic for the year?

Of course, the globe keeps spinning merrily along, so we could do China, Iran, Israel/Palestine, cyber war, or many other Country or Issue topics. But its the holidays! As well as a scary interregnum.

How about we focus December on the personal? How do we learn about the world? For this group, especially, foreign travel or living/working abroad probably played a major role. But, how much do we really learn about the world by going there? Especially as tourists. Conversely, how much can we really know about the other 95% of humanity if we never go where they live?

We could further flip it. What has your foreign travel/living taught you about how people abroad see America and Americans? If you immigrated here, what have you learned from that experience about Americans and their attitudes towards the rest of the world?

Background readings: Not a mtg for vital readings. But I will find a few related to the topic. See here 3-4 days before our December 8th meeting.