Never traveled abroad, but I do know what you mean. East coast and west coast thinking, music - before social media - the 60's. Small scale, I realize, and I was 20 when I came to WA State for a visit but stayed. Prejudice is what struck me. East coast it was Puerto Ricans and blacks west coast Native Americans and Mexicans. Human nature doesn't change or is it just some white people. shoulder shrug.
Cultural differences are what I've not experienced - that would be the fun part to me.
Education - I do hope we pull our collective heads out of our butts here in the U.S. and fund education!!!

This is the issue whenever I return to my birth country. They think I am weird (don't think like them anymore....actually I never was like them which is why I left ) and I think they are closed minded (brainwashed). It is like I begin breathing again whenever I leave there

This happened twice in my life. The first time is when I moved from a small rural town with farms, coal mines, and abandoned steel mills to a cosmopolitan city with 40 plus million national and international tourists a year. I learned how myopic the culture of my youth was compared to a large US city. The second time was when I traveled the world working for a private aerospace company engaged in department of defense work. Those experiences made my friends in that cosmopolitan US city look somewhat myopic. I am thankful for the perspective I acquired and I appreciate anyone who has made a similar journey.

"The stranger who comes home does not make himself at home but makes home stranger"

• Marion Zimmer Bradley

This happened to me when I came back home from the service. I had changed but everyone else was still the same and it was hard trying to re-establish relationships with folks I no longer had anything in common with. Tough.