This winter break, being thousands of miles away from home, which would cost me a fortune to visit, I packed some stuff and wandered around as the residential halls closed.

Around that time, a very important man was traveling, too. Unlike me, though, he had a very serious and imperative reason to travel. George W. Bush went to the Middle East. BBC correspondent Matthew Price travelled with him to watch the president’s progress closely.

I thought about what I’m going to achieve from my traveling. I couldn’t find any answer, but the president did. At first, he’d said he genuinely believed that there could be a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and Palestine signed by the end of this year. Price wrote in his tour diary, however, that this strikes him as pretty unlikely since he had actually lived in Jerusalem for almost four years.

My first stop was Florida. I had accepted a kind invitation from a very dear friend to accompany her on a week-long vacation. There, the homes of the wealthy and those who can afford to travel, struck me. The tourist side of me saw huge beach houses and expensive brand-name stores ornamented by New Year’s themes everywhere. The journalistic side of me saw beggars with empty cups in the middle of shining boulevards where many tourists shop for designer products.

As for Mr. Bush and Price, their first stop was Tel Aviv. What struck the tourist Mr. Bush was his confidence about a negotiated peace deal by the end of the year. And what struck the journalist Price was the noticeable difference between what he heard from Bush’s aides, and what he heard from people on the streets. He wrote, “like my taxi driver this morning, who told me with that weary sigh everyone here has when talking about such visits: ‘It won’t achieve anything.'”

I didn’t get much from Florida, rather, the entire time I was worried about my not-very-full bank account. On the other hand, my fellow travelers to the Middle East didn’t have to worry about that. Price observed that the logistics going into this trip were phenomenal – somehow the White House is reluctant to say how much. Costing millions of dollars, George Bush clearly thinks it is worth it. “He left this troubled land [Israel/Palestine] still talking of his confidence.”

I, on the other hand, left Florida thinking about where to stay for the next four weeks with no confidence.

While on my way to upstate New York to visit a friend, Mr. Bush traveled to Bahrain. There, he welcomed a new Iraqi law that allows thousands of former junior supporters of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to take up government jobs. Well, it was Mr. Bush’s administration that supported the removal of Baath party officials from office in the first place, soon after the occupation of Iraq in 2003.

I don’t think I have any entry to add to my winter break diary on this new law.

In Port Jarvis, I settle down at the mercy of my kind friend and her family; off to Saudi Arabia President Bush went.

“Welcome to the Middle Ages, baby!” That’s what someone in the travelling White House press corps said as Price and other journalists hit the ground in Saudi Arabia and women on board were discussing wearing headscarves.

For them, touring in a region I am from brings about questions of whether a dress code is the sign of uncivilization. For me, visiting towns where poverty and social injustice stands is sign of “Western uncivilization.” This part of my trip was an actual middle age. It just didn’t feel right to see such sceneries in a country whose president claims to be the most powerful man in the world, or a country whose economy claims to be in the best shape.

In his trip, President Bush called for countries across the Middle East to be more democratic and liberal, to introduce economic and social reforms. He says each country must manage changes in its own way.

To many, including Price, it feels like he’s trying to impose Western cultural values onto the Arab world.

Finally, Price wrote, “I always feel the same when leaving the Middle East. Slightly sad.” As I was reviewing my tour diary of all the places I visited, he went on – “this is a special place, a place that has suffered so much, a place that is so misunderstood by so many people.”

I thought to myself how much of what we see around us and beyond our borders is actually interpreted correctly and acceptably. Then, I thought in each trip to a new place, and in each observation of a new culture, how many times do we judge a society with the intentions of imposing our own opinions?

What about me? How much of what I saw was rigid elucidation of my background?

Parisa Saranj is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].