I was in London - I spent the semester abroad, and we had some tense days when we thought we were going home... it was crazy.
I remember walking home from the grocery store, and thinking that it was a beautiful day. And then I got back to my flat right after the first plane had hit - we didn't know if it was an accident or what at that point. And then we saw the second plane hit the second tower, but I still don't think we realized it was a terrorist attack - we all thought it was some bizarre horrible accident.
When we found out about the Pentagon also being attacked is when I think it all hit home. My dad worked in the Pentagon for five years, and I used to go visit him there - so it just made it real. I called my mom, who was in California (it was like 7 am there I think?) and woke her up, and I was crying and she thought I was hurt or something was happening in London - I just kept saying "Turn on the TV, turn on the TV..." I was the last person who was able to call America that day, phone lines were completely blocked.
My roomie and I went to our last class, just to tell the teacher what was going on. We got there and everyone else was there, and our teacher wanted to have class. Lexi and I basically told him that we weren't staying for class, we just wanted to make sure he had heard abou it - he still didn't want to cancel class, but we just left and I guess he ended up cancelling it.
A whole bunch of people ended up congregating in our flat (like 25 people... it was packed) and we just sat and watched the TV with these horrible shocked expressions. A friend that a bunch of us knew had worked in the WTC, 97th floor... So we were all really worried about Garry, and other FSU theatre alums who lived in NYC.
We had a meeting that night, and they told us to try to not look like Americans (no white tennis shoes, no college sweatshirts, etc.) and they took the FSU sign off the front of our buliding. It was pretty scary. The first time I was able to cry was like September 14th - we went to the American Embassy in London and there were all these millions of flowers and candles and balloons and letters - and I just broke down and sobbed forever.
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