I find that leaving a new place offers an opportunity for reflection. Often you’re taking a taxi or a bus to the airport, and you can simply watch life out the window. Sometimes you walk to the bus or train station and see a new perspective on your temporary home. These journeys usually take you through the outskirts of the city, and almost always away from the touristy parts of town. My bus to the airport in Sevilla today took me through suburbs and allowed insight into “real Sevilla,” away from the Alcazar and the Cathedral and the Old Town. A few days ago I walked for about an hour from Granada’s city center to its bus station. Both times I saw ordinary people going about their lives on an ordinary weekday. The taxi ride to and from the airport in Rio de Janeiro illuminated “real Rio,” as did the one to and from Salvador’s airport. I think it’s important to remember that sometimes what we see, what we generalize, is not always the full story. A region’s people are often much different, and much more, than the main sights. This is useful when we engage in political and economic conversations as well. Not all Californians are hippie liberals, not all Catalans want independence, and not all Brazilians love football. It’s easy to get caught up in that. Generalizations helped us survive in our species’ early days. But to create a thriving global community, we need to consciously move past that. Sometimes the outskirts can help.