Cultural Awareness

In Ireland and Scotland, the people take great pride in celebrating the holidays that tradition has taught them. I'm very excited to get to witness the celebrating of one of Irelands national holidays during our visit: The Twelfth of July which commemorates William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne. To be able to see first hand how they celebrate their holiday in their own environment will allow us to witness and participate in another cultures tradition that is unlike our own. To be able to do that and be a part of it and accept it for another cultures way is to show great humility and respect for another country's culture. Cultural awareness can be practiced in many different ways, as explained in the Iceberg Theory, different cultural aspects are not noticed and while they may not be as "tangible or visible, they are just as essential to our understanding how other cultures work."

Scotland has a tradition on the last fortnight of July: the Glasgow Fair. We celebrate our own fairs and gatherings in our culture such as the Arkansas's Riverfest.
Once we return from our trip and we then go to our own event  or celebrate a holiday of our own such as Labor Day, we will compare our traditions to that of those in Ireland and Scotland. While we participate in our own traditions we now can be apart of the Participatory Third culture stage.