Europeans and Canadians, what were your thoughts/reactions when 9/11 happened?

[Robert Jan]

At the very moment i found out i was in the gym. my old gym. there are tvs on the walls, they showed the famous footage.

I was excited, and confused. no positive or negative feelings at that point just the realisation this would have consequences. Later on I learnt more about the backgrounds, although its so complicated I still dont feel comfortable saying I understand the situation.

I wasn`t shocked with horror, or hateful or angry. It gave me the same emotionally neutral confirmation that the world still sucks I get from seeing floods, famines and casual wars on tv, only now with the realisation this was a firecracker in a giants cave and things were going to happen.

 

[The Red Dragon]

i found out in math class, i think my school overreacted...First thing I thought, 'The Great American Arab Hunt'

 

[roogilimoo]

I remember thinking how I always knew america would be attacked one day for sticking their noses in other country's affairs too often....

 

[rjl296]

I remember thinking how I always knew america would be attacked one day for sticking their noses in other country's affairs too often....

most original post of the day

 

[Imnotdutch]

Has nothing to do with bin laden, or israel, or us being the enemy of the koran, blah blah.

-= nav =-

It has a lot to do with the often unwanted influence of the USA in other countries.

I hope you meant billions because millions means little on the grand scale of things.

 

[Yarg!]

I was glued to the TV, I couldnt believe what I had just witnessed. Later that day in school there was a PA announcement about the attacks from our principal. Then for the rest of the classes we just listened to the radio or watch TV. Everyone was pretty shocked and noone made any dumbass comments on how the Americans had it coming or how stupid their nation was. Since we live just an hour drive from the border, we were all moved by a great loss that effected not only our neighbor, but us as well.

 

[danielson]

i was getting ready to go to the gym when i saw the first plane hit....first thing i thought was it was a terrible accident

as i saw the second plane hit, my reaction was 'holy shit'.....i was then speechless for a few mins, before i realised it had to be terrorism and not an accident

then i came on EF asap to see if anyone knew more, and to see if everyone was ok

after the towers fell i hit the gym, they were all talking about it, very sombre workout. days after i was saddened to the point of tears....and if im being 100% truthful angry that islamic terrorists were responsible for this, that they used civillian planes and that they struck civvy targets as well as military.

i also worried for world stability, and the fact the finger got pointed so quickly.

 

[Mandinka2]

It was a pretty bleak time in my life , i was handing in my final year chemical engineering project and hadnt slept in days. So I was pretty much a zombie at that time. I remember that after the first tower was hit I thought it must be some kind of bizarre freak accident and as news of the second one broke my mind just went blank , I didnt have the mental energy to comprehend the ramifications. Just saw that Guiliani was makin Dubya look like a tenth rate politician in the days afterwards. I felt sorry for the people and their families but not for the U.S. government because I was sure they were gonna do something much more terrible in reprisal.

 

[theoak01]

I didnt know what to think really, a bit nervous perhaps, felt sorry for the people but that was it really

 

[buddy28]

was everyone there glued to their tv's like they were here? i mean, where i am, the entire place was a ghost town. NOTHING was open, not even food stores.

stores and most businesses were open. They closed my university half way through the day when it became apparent it was a terrorist attack.

I was tuned in to CBS 4-5 hours everyday for the next three weeks watching the 24/7 coverage of the follow-up to the sept 11th attacks.

The day. The day was terrible. I remember, like I often did back then, I got up at around 11-12. My roommate was just getting in from one of his classes and told me a plane had hit the world trade centre. I thought bullshit. Asked him if it was just a small Cessna or something. He’s like, "NO MAN! It was a big plane!!"

I asked if it was overcast or cloudy, he said, "No."

I’m thinking bullshit. He heard it from a friend of a friend.

So I’m making some macaroni and cheese in the kitchen and he turns on the television. Then he tells me to come here. I see Dan rather on the screen looking unusually sombre talking about a state of emergency existing in the US, briefly discussing how all domestic air traffic had been grounded, then they cut to the infamous video clip of one of the Boeings 737's? on a final approach to the WTC south tower and colliding with it. I couldn’t believe it. A second clip was shown immediately after of another jetliner colliding with the north tower. I couldn’t tell which was which. After a couple comments from Dan about a plane hitting the Pentagon! And another crashing in Pennsylvania, they showed a few more amateur video clips of the then-collapsed North and South Tower collapsing and horrified people running away!

It was just bombshell after bombshell. It took me about half an hour to get a handle on what had actually happened, in what sequence and at what time before it actually hit me how serious it was.

When I went to bed, I was sacred. I felt like the world had changed and, as cheesy as it sounds, wasn’t a safe place anymore.