Another culture, or one's own

A traveler sometimes discovers affinities with another culture—or travel can bring out a sense of belonging to one's own culture. Things are more complicated when a piece of home, loved or unloved, is encountered in a distant place; and when one can encounter another culture at home. And—trickier still—sometimes home culture is painfully artificial or hard to pin down. Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright—as well as writers such as Thoreau, Henry James or Tom Wolfe—have gone looking for a truth about their own culture—an "authentic" America. What should a designer know about his or her "own" culture, or another one? Does it help to think of "thresholds" of culture or travel? What destination brings up these issues for you?