The 27th International Festival of Raleigh

        For my first international expedition, I chose to go to the International Festival held in the Raleigh, NC Convention Center. I decided to go with my girlfriend, mom and my brother for a fun thing to do for the Saturday afternoon. My expectations were set very high because I heard from very high that it was so culturally diverse. However, I felt something was missing after I left.

       When we arrived, we sat through the line that most of have experienced if you have ever attended a convention. My hopes were at an all time high for the anticipation that they were creating. We then walked to the balcony overlooking the whole festival, and it was spectacular. There was a sea of people from the Biergarten, past the boardwalk of food, through the expo's of different countries, to the international dance stage. 

      First, we browsed the different stands of countries. If you wanted to know about Asia, South America, Middle East, and Africa, you were in luck. Though, the deeper I went into this area the more upset I felt when very little amounts of European countries were being exposed. Do not get me wrong, I definitely loved the Tibetan Mountain Flags and the Japanese Kimonos. Though, I missed the German Lederhosen, or Scottish plaid. I must admit they had the Scottish booth, but very little was shown to express there culture. So, I made the conclusion that other areas are more in depth with their culture or the european areas are still yet to be filled. All in all, I loved looking at the different items to buy in each stand as I am a sucker for international artifacts.

     The boardwalk of food made me feel excited at first, until I saw those prices. Good Gosh! I mean it was expected that: convention... high prices...blah, blah, blah. Though, the amount of food for the price was not equal. Either way, the food diversity actually astounded me. I was shocked that they had a booth for the Netherlands. Though, I couldn't bring myself to try it, I was very impressed. The Biergarten also looked like fun though I was on a tight budget and did not have the time to wait for a table and then finally get a beer from the booth. Saying that, it did look like fun to watch a musical act and drink. 

     The International dance stage was were we spent the other majority of the adventure. I saw a lot of Bollywood dancing and middle-eastern dancing but unfortunately missed any scottish or irish dancing, which is my favorite style. Though I would have to say, the variations of dance was extremely distant. For example, when I heard the Philippines dancers were upcoming, I was expecting something island-like or tropical. I was very dumbfounded when it was the properness of an English Ball. I greatly enjoyed their dancing, and learned that my mother had done something like the Bamboo Stick dancing in high school. 

(Sorry for the horrible iPhone photo)

    Overall, it was fun to be there just upsetting that my favorite region was being missed. Its not that they weren't present, it was that they have so much more to bring to events like those. It may be that I travelled just recently this summer to Vienna, Austria and I am coming off the international high, but I expected there to be more. I am very excited to see what transpires next year and see if I can do anything to help the european aspect of the festival. Keep the global diversity alive. ~Mike~