Job Discussion Forums

[sheikh radlinrol]

I was golfing in Saudi Arabia. Went home, showered, changed and settled in front of my computer with a glass of home made wine. It took some time for the magnitude of the event to register. Incredulity turned to rage. A Palestinian woman was celebrating the deaths of thousands! The next day at work a British colleague announced that 50,000 had died and an Arab colleague was convinced that the USA and Israel were to blame. Jews had, apparently, been informed of the attack and had fled the towers. What about you?

[johnslat]

I was also in Saudi - in Riyadh. I had an evening class, and, as I approached the entrance to the IPA, a Saudi colleague came out and told me what had happened.
At first, I thought it must be some kind of sick joke. Then I saw him start to cry.
Over the next few days, just about every one of my students came to my office to offer sympathy - and to apologize (since so many of the terrorists had been Saudis.) Most of them wept, too, and so did I.

Regards,
John

[spiral78]

I was in Dutch class. When I arrived home, I had a phone message from my spouse, who works as an air traffic controller. All the controllers on the European side were scrambling to turn aircraft that had not yet reached the halfway point towards North America. The airspace was considerably crowded, and everything pre-planned was obviously out the window.

Within an hour or two, our little flat filled up with friends - I was the only American around that they knew, and they brought food and just hung out with me until spouse finally arrived many hours later. Many of our friends are also in atc, and their cell phones were constantly ringing with friends working at Heathrow, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, and other major European hubs - it was a pretty scary thing.

So, I was more aware than most of the fact that, until all the aircraft currently in the air either over or heading to North America were safely on the ground, no-one knew if it was over.

The next day at my Dutch language school, which was populated mostly by muslim students, I was greeted with great sympathy by all....and the school held five minutes of silence a few days later to honour the dead.

I also had to be worried on account of my brother, whose company had offices in the towers. He is based elsewhere, but sometimes did project work there, so though I knew it was unlikely he was there, it wasn't out of the question. He did in fact lose four work colleagues in the event.

It was all very intense, I can say...

[eurobound]

I was about a week away from starting University and was working on the shop floor at a branch of Argos in the UK. Most of the day was spent, with fellow staff and indeed customers, stood dumbstruck around the display televisions watching the scenes unfold.

I can't remember if the BBC was live when the second plane hit, but the first time we saw the footage of it happening I just remember feeling physically sick. Then some idiot customer in a shell-suit with half a brain-cell told me it was '...probably Green Peace what did it.'

I went home and caught the early evening news for a few hours, just watching the same footage I'd seen for practically the whole day at work, before going to the pub and getting unbelievably shit-faced.

I can't believe it was ten years ago really. I just hope another attack of this size never happens again on US soil.

[wangdaning]

I was still in high school in the states. I was drinking my morning coffee and watching the news. Went to school and discovered that all we would be doing all day is watching people throw out wild ideas of what happened. After first period Spanish, I mean watch the news class, me and my friends just left. No one seemed to notice.

[dean_a_jones]

I was living in Germany at the time, had just finished travelling around Europe for the last few months by train and was about to start university in London. My girlfriend at the time had just spent a year living and studying at NYU and I had split my year between NYC, CT and Germany. Had spent a couple months in the city, and had recently gone into the WTC as I thought about going to the top (had been as a child) but saw the prices and decided against it.

Ended up sitting around in front of the TV (we managed to have Sky TV in Germany) and watched the news for about 20 hours straight. The whole thing was surreal, though I do agree with those who have spoken about the fact that due to Hollywood films etc. the images on the day were eerily familiar. By far the worst part I remember was in the evening local (NY) time--lots of people wandering around the city with flyers, posting them up and being interviewed while looking for their missing friends and relatives.

It was a horrible day, but so much that followed has been equally distressing and depressing. The shame and sorrow felt by so many in the Muslim world on September 11 is only echoed by the same feeling so many have in the US and UK (and beyond) when you hear words like 'Guantanamo' and 'Iraq'.

[Guy Courchesne]

I'd had my bachelor party the night before so was in a fog waking up the next morning to all kinds of mayhem on the news. Spent most of the day fielding phone calls from my Mexican inlaws trying to figure out how to fly up to Canada for the wedding to be held 4 days later. No luck, all airspace closed.

[BadBeagleBad]

My son and I were both sick, so stayed home in bed, and I turned the phone off so we wouldn�t be bothered. We didn�t turn the TV on all day, so when I remembered to turn the phone on at about 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon I was astounded that I had close to 40 messages. At first, I thought, oh my God, something has happened to my mom/husband/ some other family member, but as soon as I heard a couple of them and turned on the TV I realized it was something else altogether.

A friend of mine was in Paris at the time, staying in a B and B and I remember her telling me later that the owners just told her to stay as long as she needed to without charge, since there was no way she was getting a flight back to the US any time soon.

[AGoodStory]

I was helping a young neighbor, perhaps 10 at the time, take his dog to the vet to be euthanized--so the day was pretty grim right from the moment I woke up. My neighbor was growing up in a household with two very self-absorbed parents, and his dog had been his primary source of comfort and affection for several years. He had been nursing his dog for several months as her health declined and she became increasingly frail. The dog was dying of canine lymphoma, and the boy's father had made the vet's appointment for that day and then gone off to work expecting the mother to get the dog there. Mom, however, refused, telling her son that she didn't want "that dirty animal" in her car "because she stinks."

So I ended up driving my neighbor and his dog to the vet. As I backed the car out of their driveway, the mother shook her head in annoyance at her son's tears, and yelled at him, "It's just a dog. It's not the end of the world."

At the vet's, the staff had turned a tv on, and were gathered around it. After watching the images for a moment, my neighbor said, "I think my mom was wrong."

[Isla Guapa]

I was living in New York City on that dreadful day and thinking about what the city (and I) went through still brings tears to my eyes. I will try to write more later, maybe on the day itself.

[Captain_Fil]

At the time, I was a handyman in Oakland. I had been divorced for a year and was trying to rebuild my life.

On that fateful morning, after doing my workout, I rested and watched TV.

I was shocked...

I saw the WTC on fire. Suddenly, the second plane hit the other WTC tower. It was on live television.

I became numb. The horror of what happened hit me like a punch to the gut. People were being burned alive, blown to pieces or falling to their deaths. I felt sick. I felt sad.

The following Sunday, I went to church. (It was more of a patriotic rally than a religious service.)

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I was at my 2nd day of teaching in Ukraine. My DOS told me that something had happened in NYC, and wondered if I wanted to go home and watch the news. Having no idea the magnitude--and not wanting to appear lazy on the 2nd day of work--I stayed and taught. Obviously, upon seeing the news later that evening, I was dumbfounded

[posh]

I was on holiday in Makarska, Croatia and went looking for an internet cafe to check the football results. I found one in a big tent next to the beach. It was really dark in there and full of kids playing 'blow the crap out of everything'. I logged on to a newspaper and the front page was showing planes flying into buildings over and over again. I thought I was on one of the kids' game sites until I started reading ...

That evening I went to a busy bar which had CNN with the volume turned down. I was shocked and upset (I'm British) but the Croats were pretty much celebrating.

[artemisia]

During a class on that day, my students tried to tell me something major concerning the WTC was happening in America but it was confusing. Maybe that was mainly due to language issues but they also didn�t know all the details. They said 7 planes and I came away thinking there�d been, inexplicably, a series of major planes crashes, which would�ve been bad enough.

Puzzled and uneasy, I arrived home quite late and immediately switched on CNN to see major events that�d already taken place being played out in quick succession.

Something like that was so far outside of the ordinary that it seemed alien. I couldn�t get my head around it for quite some time but it was clear why some people had heart attacks on the street � extreme shock and terror.

[scot47]

I was teaching at ELS in Jeddah (moonlighting). I phoned my wife who was in the residential Saudia Compound and told her to switch on the TV.

Took a while for the reality to sink in. Even at that early stage many were convinced that this was a Judeo-imperialist conspiracy. Some crazies still believe that. Quite a lot in fact.