From Southern California, I flew across the United States to Philadelphia where I was picked up and drove to the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, where I will be for the next 10 weeks. I took 2 days to do some grocery shopping, catch up on my sleep and to settle down before the internship began.
May 26th was Memorial Day, so together with 3 other interns from the Wetlands Institute, we walked to Stone Harbor to watch a Memorial Day parade. It wasn’t a very big parade in the sense that not many people participated in it but I would say that it was sufficient. I mean, the veterans participated in the parade, the police, the Fire Company, the local schools. In other words, those who were supposed to be there, were there 
When the parade ended, we followed the crowd, and attended the “Memorial Day service” by the beach. The Star-Spangled Banner was raised and the national anthem was sung. The Borough of Stone Harbor and some other VIPs gave speeches and honour was also given to Sean, a young army who had just returned from Afghanistan after 15 months.
When the ceremony was over, everybody walked to the beach to watch the flower bouquets being placed into the Atlantic Ocean by the coast guards. It was a gesture to honour soldiers who have died in the wars.
Personally, I think Memorial Day is a very good day to honour all past armies (veterans) as well as current ones. I am not a US citizen, but I was touched by the ceremony. We may have a similar celebration (Hari Perajurit) to Memorial Day in Malaysia, but I am sure it is not very widely celebrated because I have never attended one before.
More pictures of the Memorial Day celebration here.
Up next: What’s at the Wetlands Institute?
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Memorial day is a poignant occasion for Americans. Almost all families have had someone or the other either give his life or get wounded in the service of the nation and all Americans honor them thus. Many other countries too do this in different ways. Veterans day for instance is one such.
*national anthem playing on the background
*standing straight with the proud look in the face
BERSEDIA UNTUK BERJUANG!
You will now get an opportunity to see the fourth of July celebrations too. Looking forward to your posts on that. Not that you should not post others earlier if you can!!
Nicole, I don’t think I would have time to see how the 4th of July is celebrated because we’re anticipating a lot of traffic and hence, terrapin roadkills. In other words, people would be bringing in injured or dead terrapins and we would be attending to them..