Since it’s Independence Day, the students have no classes or activities that require our attendance. The university handling us, UMSU, doesn’t really require us to go to school today also because there are no available drivers that could take us back and forth. But being who we are, we wanted to involve ourselves to more events and activities as much as possible. We wish to experience every bit of Indonesia-ncy we can get. We won’t let such opportunity come to waste! So, we decided to STILL attend even though we have no other agenda but to witness how Independence Day looked like in Al-Amjad. Triin and I convinced the others to come watch the event with us. We booked a Grab, and arrived. Al-Amjad is an Islamic school. If it would be converted to Philippine equivalence, it would be like one of those Catholic schools we have. They do things slightly different and stricter, just like our Catholic schools. We also have been told that only Islamic schools celebrate Independence Day in school by organizing a program for it. When we got there, all students are lined up and there’s this other group of students wearing beautiful white uniforms. They look so neat and nice! I think they are the, as we call it in the Philippines, CAT members – the one who were trained as soldiers by teaching them how to march simultaneously and act by command. Every time they have their flag ceremony there’s always one who commands – to raise the flag, to salute the headmaster, to report, etc. Today is just like any other flag ceremony, it just had more speech and routines. The “CAT members” (that’s how I’ll call them from now on) marched simultaneously in a VERY COOL way. It’s not that I haven’t seen it before but it’s really nice how they put so much effort just to celebrate Independence Day. We can really see how they pour their hearts in singing the national anthem and feeling every part of the program in honor of their country. After that, the program started for the final round of Al-Amjad Got Talent and this time the teachers and the headmaster will judge the winner. Fortunately, our favorites from the first round got in! They just performed their first performance but this time some of them wore a better costume, some had better music, some had more practice, and stuff like that. In the end, the trophies and certificates were awarded to the right people. This doesn’t mean everyone else are less deserved to win. I saw how they took the gut and perform in front of a jury. Everyone did their best and I think that made them all winners. We went home right after we saw them packing up the stage and the chairs. Miel, Triin, and I went out to enjoy the rest of the night.