I love it when people talk about stuff they have no idea about, it's so cute!
When I got my first foreign posting I spend one month in the class they had for us goiing to the Kingdom. That was not enough for me, I read everything I could on the land, the people, the history, I read the Koran, I read Seven Pillars of Wisdom (twice!). NOTHING - N-O-T-H-I-N-G - NADA could have prepared me for what life was really like in Saudi Arabia. It was both much worse, and far more awesome than anything that I had been led to think or believe.
Or, perhaps somewhat closer to home, I've toured Europe as a tourist (swell) and as an employee of a touring rock band (I'd be banned here if I even began to describe it). Its still hard for me to this very day to think I was at the same places.