From underneath her black hijab and abaya, American Laurel McCormack saw life from the eyes of a Saudi Arabian woman.She saw other women under the same head scarfs and cloaks as university students, doctors and businesswomen with high aspirations like her own.Life under the black fabric didn’t have quite the feel that she had imagined.“We came in with some misconceptions and this feeling that they were all going to be really oppressed,” McCormack said.The student trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed the Mercer University junior from Forsyth County to form her own ideas of the kingdom and its culture firsthand.McCormack, a 2008 graduate of Forsyth Central High, said the experience was contrary to the turmoil Americans usually see in the news.“You don’t see the human side of the Middle East. You don’t see lifestyles stories from the Middle East,” she said. “It’s really hard to put a face to a people.”The fellowship was offered by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education to increase cultural awareness between the nations.McCormack, an international affairs major, was one of 10 female American students selected to participate.Her involvement in Mercer’s Model Arab League earned her a chance to apply, and one of her professors, Eimad Houry, recommended her for a spot on the trip.“I couldn’t have made a better choice,” Houry said.