I have just returned from a five month around the world trip with my husband and two sons. My husband worked and the kids and I explored. We were in the USA for three months and Europe for two, and one of the first realisations I had was that just because you share a common language doesn't mean you understand your neighbour any better than if they spoke a language foreign to you.

Our environment makes and shapes us and this is why I found the many differences between me and the Philadelphians, the New Yorkers and the Miamians I met so fascinating. We all spoke English and we all lived a relatively privileged life, but because of our physical environments, what we thought was important differed as much as if we lived on different planets.

Even more interesting was how similar and easy to understand I found the Italians I met in Rome, despite the obvious language barrier.

In Sydney, most people are concerned about the environment. We reuse, reduce and recycle, we turn taps off and we use paper plates instead of plastic.

In Philadelphia, where there is plenty of water, land, grass and trees, they use polystyrene cups, plastic plates and buy most of their food ready made and ready to eat with 20 seconds in the microwave. The harsh winters mean playing indoors for 8 months of the year is a necessity - that means Nintendo Wii's are a dime a dozen - you can play tennis, golf and baseball, all from the comfort of your lounge room. But, in the times of good weather you have your own huge garden to play in, everyone in your neighborhood sends their kids to your place of an afternoon to just hang out. You get to know your neighbors really well.

In Sydney, we hardly know our neighbors and we live in such small homes with tiny outdoor areas that having your street over to play is impossible. Instead, friends meet in public parks and on beaches - something that is common to the Italians I met while in Rome. Although we don't speak the same language, when it came to playing in the afternoon, my 3 and 5 year olds were happy and used to taking a soccer ball to a piazza to kick it around, and whoever else was there at the time would join in.

The outdoor cafes of Rome bore a striking resemblance to the café culture in Bondi, Double Bay and Rose Bay where people watching is just as big a pass time as having your morning coffee. In Philadelphia, on another hand, it has only been a recent phenomenon to sit at outside tables and chairs to eat and drink. It's just not part of their culture.

When I was in Miami, I had a car. I had to, because I could not get anywhere, not even to the shops, without it. Nothing was in walking distance. You don't have a local café, a local grocer, a local anything. You don't have relationships outside of those you choose to make.

Within two days of living in Rome, I felt right at home with my local supermarket, my local pasticceria and my local café. I knew the owners, they knew me, they knew about my family and even where I lived - just like in Sydney.

These are just a few observations on how important lifestyle is in shaping who we are. I could go on for pages about how different the Miamians are from the New Yorkers I met, but I think the most important message I can pass on is that even if you think someone seems foreign to you, you can always find some common ground and the biggest lesson I learnt on this trip was that face value is pretty cheap. It is always worth spending that extra bit of time to learn about someone and in turn then understand them and our world better.

Catherine Fritz-Kalish is co-founder and General Manager of Global Access Partners (GAP) - a proactive and influential network which initiates high-level discussions at the cutting edge of the most pressing commercial, social and global issues of today. Catherine's broad business experience includes coordination of a number of international initiatives for the SME unit of the OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) at headquarters in Paris, marketing and brand management within all seven divisions of the George Weston Foods Group, and working within the TCG Group of Companies in the area of start-up incubator establishment.

www.globalaccesspartners.org [1], www.tcg.net.au [2]