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steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

I was living in Queens and going to uni in the Upper East Side. In fact, I was supposed to start a new job downtown on 09/11.

I turned on the TV before heading out to my late morning class and was stunned to see the news. My then GF was on the last train allowed into Manhattan. My friend who worked at Lehman Bros. left Tower Two 11 mintues before the plane struck.

Life was a huge mess for a few weeks. Funny thing, I remember the first week or two after the attacks everyone in NYC got really friendly. First day back to class, one of my profs ran up to me and hugged me. The bars and restaurants were packed with people getting together.

Oh yeah, my college was near the Pakistani Embassy and a National Guard depo. There were street barricades and sandbags all over the place. Looked like Beirut walking to class.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

I was in the US working for a small non-profit at the time and overheard a visitor to the office saying something about a horrific incident in NY. I went home on my lunch hour and returned with my portable black and white TV. Ten of us crowded around my desk to watch the horror unfold on that little TV screen. About 30 minutes later, our director told us to go home since there was no way we could focus on our work. He also decided to close the office for several days. I went home and was glued to the TV for days; scenes from that fateful day are still etched in my mind.

Insubordination · Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 394 Location: Sydney

Watched it live all night (in Australia) on TV. Saw the towers fall one by one. It was surreal and frightening to think what other events might happen next. I still remember the freaked out newsreader's reaction. Went to work about 9am with the front page of the paper hoping to talk about it. Didn't think that most students in my classes that day were Arabic speakers, including a couple of Palestinians, and that some didn't necessarily feel the same way about it as I did. There were also some anti-Arab feelings in the room. I elected not not to talk about it in class.

RIP and condolences to all those still suffering. Was in NYC a couple of years ago on the night of 9/11 and saw electric lights representing the towers beaming into the night sky; it was beautiful.

Isla Guapa · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 3:03 pm Post subject:

MotherF · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:24 pm Post subject:

I was doing what I'm doing now. I was in this very building, and I'm pretty sure I was posting on Dave's. Razz

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKZqqSI9-s

Maybe it's for being the anniversary, but it feels exactly the same watching it now as it did 10 years ago live.

GOTL · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 53

I was in Casablanca Morocco working. One of my students came running screaming " teacher, teacher, the Jews, the Jews are attacking your people. I was shocked and confused. Our director had a family member who worked in the twin towers and closed down the school. There was a group of us, about 20 ( ten Moroccans, 6 Americans, 2 Brits, 1 Aussie and 1 Canadian) who went to a local bar and just watched the news for the rest of the day well into the night.
We were all shocked but the Moroccan people were amazing. They kept coming up and expressing shock. We kept being brought tea, beer, whiskey and food. I remember the student's reaction, the one who blamed it on Jewish people, when we learned that the majority of the terrorist were Saudi Arabians.
She said, well it figures. Saudis are just American puppets. Most likely they worked with Israel and America to make this happen.

Isla Guapa · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 4:43 pm Post subject:

Hatred of a people, any people, in this case Jews, is amazing. Facts must not get in the way of proving one's deeply-indoctrinated prejudices to be true. I'm glad to hear that only one of your students had fallen for that oft-repeated calumny, either that the Jews were responsible for the tragedy and that they knew about it ahead of time and hence were able to escape.

GOTL · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 53

Isla Guapa · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:49 pm Post subject:

I had the feeling that was the case. I wonder what I would have done if I had been a teacher at that school on that fateful day.

MarkieP52 · Joined: 02 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I had just got into my classroom and was dreading reading more Harry Potter. My teacher just came in and turned the tv on. We watched it and saw the second plane hit. At the time it didnt really hit me because it was so far away it seemed in NY and I was in Illinois.

Captain_Fil · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 5:58 am Post subject:

Five months before 9/11, I accompanied my father to Boston and New York.

It was a pleasant trip. We ate dinner at an old oyster house in Boston. In New York, we strolled through Times Square at night. The sights there were so spectacular. (I would recommend this experience to anyone.)

Sometimes, I think of what would've happened if we had flown to New York on 9/11. We did fly aboard United Airlines, after all.

Such thoughts can give you nightmares...

Shocked

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

I was sleeping on the carpet in front of my TV and my daughter woke me up. I watched as the news portrayed that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in a horrific accident.

When I saw the 2nd plane hit live, I knew it was no accident and immediately started the first day of the rest of my life.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

GOTL · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 53