9-11-01 is a day ingrained in everyone's minds. A day that has forever changed air travel and how safe (or unsafe) we feel inside of our own borders. You probably remember exactly what you were doing when you received news of the terrorist attacks. I also remember what I was doing on September 11th, except it was just a normal day of teaching for me and I had no clue America was about to change. In fact, I was sleeping peacefully while everyone in the US watched in horror as the planes attacked and the towers fell.
You see, I was living halfway around the world in Beijing, China in 2001. I was 23, had just graduated from college, and was embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. I had just arrived China the end of August to be an English teacher for the school year. I hadn't even been there a month when the news that rocked the world occurred.
I received a phone call at 7:30am on Sept. 12th (dinner time in the US on 9-11). It was from our in-country liaison. He started the conversation by asking if I was sitting down, which really freaked me out. He alerted me to the fact that the WTC and Pentagon had been hit by hijacked planes. He talked about arrangements that could be made in case I needed to go home. I'll be honest...being a Midwest girl, I'm not even sure I knew what the WTC towers looked like or how tall they were, much less how much they were a part of the New York skyline.
I met my team of other American teachers at the school for our morning prayer and the mood was somber. As the day progressed, we learned more about the events of 9-11. The news we received in China was filtered, but I did have a teammate who was from NY share several emails she had received from friends recounting the terror of seeing the towers collapse.
It was hard for me to imagine what was happening in the US because we were so far away and in such a different place. We heard about flights being cancelled and baseball games being put on hold. We could only imagine the disarray that was taking place in the US. It was almost like we were watching a movie because we felt so disconnected from what was happening and it didn't seem real to us. In some ways, we felt safer being in China than if we would have been in the US. We didn't know if there were going to be other attacks on the US in the coming weeks, so it was a scary time for us, but I don't think it even came close to the fear that people living in the US experienced.
Later that afternoon, I ran into some of my junior high students who had newspapers in hand. They wanted to talk with me about what had happened in the US. At that point, 15 Chinese citizens had died in the attack and those junior high boys felt a loss too. They had a hard time understanding how such an "accident" as this could occur.
And that word "accident" kept coming up. Evidently, that is what the Chinese government initially called the terrorist attack- "a terrible accident." This was not just a mistranslation, this was a serious misunderstanding (or an attempted cover-up) by the Chinese government. I saw a lot of things during my time in China that I didn't necessarily agree with, but this event truly opened my eyes to the ways of the Chinese government. I don't often talk down about China or my time there, but I was appalled by these events.
The Sunday following 9-11 (Sept. 16th), I attended church with some of my American co-workers. We attended one of the international churches that was only for foreigners (you had to show your passport to get in). After the time of worship, they had a memorial/prayer service in honor of 9-11. There were people in our midst that had lost their parents, children, and co-workers, which finally made the magnitude of 9-11 hit me. The US ambassador was also present and read a statement from then President Bush. I finally started to realize the severity of the terrorist attacks and the wide-reaching effect it had on the US.
After 9-11, we tried to lay low for awhile. We were put on heightened alert at our school and our foreign affairs official didn't want us going out after dark for awhile. I remember we would tell people we were Canadians if they asked where we were from because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves as Americans.
I did have one really scary experience in November 2001- the only time I was traveling alone. I was on a bus traveling from one city where I had been visiting friends and going to another city where I was meeting up with my team. The bus was showing 2 movies during the ride. The first was a Chinese film starring a Hong Kong actress and the second was "Executive Decision." Have you seen it before? I hadn't, but I soon became extremely uncomfortable as the film portrayed a plane flying from Athens to DC that was hijacked. While the hijacking movie was playing, I was talking with a Chinese girl in the seat behind me who spoke decent English.
During the movie, 4 men sitting in front of me asking if I was an American and if I was a Christian. I pretended like I didn't understand them (because I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to tell them the truth since I was on edge already because of the movie). The girl behind me served as my translator since she didn't think I understood the mean. I finally said that I was a Christian and avoided answering where I was from. I then asked them if they were Christians and they said they were Muslims from Egypt. Then they proceeded to get on the phone and I heard snippets of their conversation.
Thinking about the movie, the current world situation, and my conversation with those men, I could hardly wait to get off the bus. I have no clue why they wanted to know where I was from and my religious beliefs and I have no idea what Arab Muslims were doing in China. I was definitely paranoid and practically ran off that bus when it got to my stop. That was my one 9-11 related freakout moment. I sure got some extra prayer time in waiting for my stop to come up!
It wasn't until I returned home that following summer (June 2002), that I was finally able to view photos and videos from 9-11. It was so surreal to me.
You see, I was living halfway around the world in Beijing, China in 2001. I was 23, had just graduated from college, and was embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. I had just arrived China the end of August to be an English teacher for the school year. I hadn't even been there a month when the news that rocked the world occurred.
I received a phone call at 7:30am on Sept. 12th (dinner time in the US on 9-11). It was from our in-country liaison. He started the conversation by asking if I was sitting down, which really freaked me out. He alerted me to the fact that the WTC and Pentagon had been hit by hijacked planes. He talked about arrangements that could be made in case I needed to go home. I'll be honest...being a Midwest girl, I'm not even sure I knew what the WTC towers looked like or how tall they were, much less how much they were a part of the New York skyline.
I met my team of other American teachers at the school for our morning prayer and the mood was somber. As the day progressed, we learned more about the events of 9-11. The news we received in China was filtered, but I did have a teammate who was from NY share several emails she had received from friends recounting the terror of seeing the towers collapse.
It was hard for me to imagine what was happening in the US because we were so far away and in such a different place. We heard about flights being cancelled and baseball games being put on hold. We could only imagine the disarray that was taking place in the US. It was almost like we were watching a movie because we felt so disconnected from what was happening and it didn't seem real to us. In some ways, we felt safer being in China than if we would have been in the US. We didn't know if there were going to be other attacks on the US in the coming weeks, so it was a scary time for us, but I don't think it even came close to the fear that people living in the US experienced.
Later that afternoon, I ran into some of my junior high students who had newspapers in hand. They wanted to talk with me about what had happened in the US. At that point, 15 Chinese citizens had died in the attack and those junior high boys felt a loss too. They had a hard time understanding how such an "accident" as this could occur.
And that word "accident" kept coming up. Evidently, that is what the Chinese government initially called the terrorist attack- "a terrible accident." This was not just a mistranslation, this was a serious misunderstanding (or an attempted cover-up) by the Chinese government. I saw a lot of things during my time in China that I didn't necessarily agree with, but this event truly opened my eyes to the ways of the Chinese government. I don't often talk down about China or my time there, but I was appalled by these events.
The Sunday following 9-11 (Sept. 16th), I attended church with some of my American co-workers. We attended one of the international churches that was only for foreigners (you had to show your passport to get in). After the time of worship, they had a memorial/prayer service in honor of 9-11. There were people in our midst that had lost their parents, children, and co-workers, which finally made the magnitude of 9-11 hit me. The US ambassador was also present and read a statement from then President Bush. I finally started to realize the severity of the terrorist attacks and the wide-reaching effect it had on the US.
After 9-11, we tried to lay low for awhile. We were put on heightened alert at our school and our foreign affairs official didn't want us going out after dark for awhile. I remember we would tell people we were Canadians if they asked where we were from because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves as Americans.
I did have one really scary experience in November 2001- the only time I was traveling alone. I was on a bus traveling from one city where I had been visiting friends and going to another city where I was meeting up with my team. The bus was showing 2 movies during the ride. The first was a Chinese film starring a Hong Kong actress and the second was "Executive Decision." Have you seen it before? I hadn't, but I soon became extremely uncomfortable as the film portrayed a plane flying from Athens to DC that was hijacked. While the hijacking movie was playing, I was talking with a Chinese girl in the seat behind me who spoke decent English.
During the movie, 4 men sitting in front of me asking if I was an American and if I was a Christian. I pretended like I didn't understand them (because I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to tell them the truth since I was on edge already because of the movie). The girl behind me served as my translator since she didn't think I understood the mean. I finally said that I was a Christian and avoided answering where I was from. I then asked them if they were Christians and they said they were Muslims from Egypt. Then they proceeded to get on the phone and I heard snippets of their conversation.
Thinking about the movie, the current world situation, and my conversation with those men, I could hardly wait to get off the bus. I have no clue why they wanted to know where I was from and my religious beliefs and I have no idea what Arab Muslims were doing in China. I was definitely paranoid and practically ran off that bus when it got to my stop. That was my one 9-11 related freakout moment. I sure got some extra prayer time in waiting for my stop to come up!
It wasn't until I returned home that following summer (June 2002), that I was finally able to view photos and videos from 9-11. It was so surreal to me.
It was the scariest day of my adult life. Thank you for sharing your memories.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing...it is an interesting perspective from overseas!
ReplyDelete