Airports are a good barometer for cultural differences. Because everything is fairly standardized internationally within airports, you can isolate variables to an extent and gleam glimpses of how locals really behave: what they eat for breakfast, how rigid or chill their adherence to procedure is, etc. I noticed this while passing through the Rome, Barcelona, and San Francisco airports today.

It’s also somewhat of a microcosm for our planet: despite our smaller differences, we’re all one species living on this one rock together.