I don’t think people underestimate this at all. I eye rollingly note that much of what is allegedly about opening horizons and minds ends up being “good old fr

I don’t think people underestimate this at all. I eye rollingly note that much of what is allegedly about opening horizons and minds ends up being “good old friend bonding” and sentimental alma-mater patter. I’m not sure most folks ever leave the circles they make in college, much as folks who didn’t go to college tend to not leave high school groups. I find this tendency to be an inbreeding factor that encourages “big fish in small pond” mentalities and parochialism. Would that a lonesome study abroad led to bonding with different nations peoples, for the sake of leaving our nationalist naval gazing bubbles for the sake of world peace and international cooperation, but instead we bond with people ostensibly in the same sócio-economic basket.