Reply #6: I was out of the country. [View All]

[babylonsister]

We had just started another vacation in Bali and, after a long flight, had gone to bed early. At 10:30pm over there (the 12th of Sept) our dear friend who works at the airport called and told us to turn on the TV. He told us what happened and we thought he was kidding. He said his last flight to Guam was ordered to return to Bali and he had work to do. All we could get on the tube was CNN financial channel, but they were covering it. For most of the rest of that night we watched on this little tube with our mouths hanging open.
The next day and for the following week we were across the street. There's a sports bar there with numerous TVs. The bar/restaurant was open 24/7 and aired only news channels including CNN and BBC. And the place was packed with all different nationalities of people. Everyone came together and that was lovely in a very bittersweet way.
I remember at one point I HAD to leave and ran out blubbering. Very overwhelming to see my country being attacked and to be so far removed from it, though there's obviously nothing I could do. I'm from NY originally and my dad lives there in summer, as do friends, but out on LI so I wasn't unduly worried about anyone. Trying to e-mail anyone was another story. The lines were jammed and the service was hit and miss at best. All I really wanted to do was connect with home.
We had to get tickets off-line to get there because flights were packed. We got a seat in first-class coming home, on CO (husband works for them), in a nearly empty plane.
Then I got home and cried for two more weeks watching the coverage.
I am glad this anniversary is almost over, and cannot imagine anyone having to fudge the facts of a movie when the truth was so compelling.