17 Agustus
When I am abroad, one important event that has always been interesting to join is the celebration of our independence day on Aug 17th.
Landed in the Netherlands in Dec 2004, I was given chance to join the celebration in 2005. I went with Made -my classmate for 10 years since we entered the faculty of medicine- and Shuyuan -Made’s roomate in Utrecht. There are approximately 40,000 Indonesians registered at the Indonesian Embassy in Den Haag. So, the celebration has always been a big party for the community. You can see the pictures on the following link perayaan 17 Agustus 2005 di Den Haag . However, the Embassy does not provide free snacks nor lunch. Instead, there are a lot of food stands with a large variety of Indonesian traditional foods. It’s always interesting because if you convert the price in Rupiahs, you have to pay Rp 10,000 for a small piece of simple snack. Something you’ll never do in Indonesia 
Last Sept I flew to the coldest country in the world, Canada. I was lucky enough to get to know with the komunitas Indonesia Montreal beforehand thru their online website. I arrived during the fasting month and celebrated Idul Fitri together with my new friends and family. I must say that the Indonesian bound among the community in Montreal is very strong, may be because the amount is much less than the one in the Netherlands.
So, yesterday there were about 80 people including children traveling by bus from Montreal to Ottawa to join the celebration of our Independence day perayaan 17 Agustus 2007 Ottawa. We arrived a bit late and thus we missed ‘pembacaan detik-detik proklamasi’ . However, the celebration was nice too, especially with free snacks and delicious lunch Around 4h in the afternoon we returned to Montreal. It was such a pleasant experience. Maybe I should start considering in which country I’d like to celebrate the next independence day
Merdeka!!!
August 18th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Wah…enaknya loe Va di Canada! beda bgt dong ya sm di Jepun…komen dong Va di postingan blog gw, buat pembanding aja temen2 yg pd tinggal di LN.
August 18th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Hi Eva, kalo gw kebetulan 17 Agustusan ada upacara di BI, datang jam 1/2 7 pagi, makan ketupat sayur di kantin, trus berdiri deh sekitar 1/2 jam mulai 7:15. Ini upacara pertama sejak P4 15 thn lalu di kampus…hehe. Tapi entah kenapa kok ya ternyata bikin seneng, mungkin krn pengalaman ‘baru’, tapi bener lho, serasa ada rasa syukur dan semangat baru yg belum pernah dirasakan.
August 18th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Gmn kalo taun dpn di DC, Mba? Hehe. Atau di Chicago ^-^.
August 18th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Jauh gak Montreal ke Ottawa? *belon pernah sih ke Canada*
August 18th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Mbak Iin, ternyata 17an di Canada dan Belanda lebih terasa dan menyenangkan
Bu Pop, Ottawa itu 2 jam naik bus dari Montreal. View sepanjang jalannya bagus, jalur hijau, seperti tol Jakarta-Bogor
Haris, I’m sure you feel the new spirit. Glad that you’re there, and hope that someday you’ll make the difference. We need to start new era for our economics!
Qiqi, mau sih rasain 17an di US, tergantung Yang Di Atas nih, mengizinkan atau nggak