Day and Night Part I

July 6th

When we got done with class today the streets were crazy. Everyone was wearing the British colors or waiving the British flag around. London had won the bid for the 2012 Olympics. It was a huge party right out in the streets. You could not help but want to join in the celebrating, so we all did. We grabbed some of the little British flags they were waiving around and jumped right in. I have to say it was exciting being part of something so great. The whole city had united to celebrate. We went home that night with excitement in our veins. It was hard to calm down after a day like that.

July 7th

On our way to class this morning I picked up the morning paper on my way to the tube station and it was filled with pictures from last nights celebration. I was happy to have a memento from last night. As we neared our stop the lights flickered a little and they made everyone get out a stop ahead. We had no idea what was going on, but figured the train was having problems so we emptied out the carts as we were told to and walked the extra two blocks to class.

While sitting in class ( I was sitting in between Aaron and another girl from the course), the girl sitting next to me leaned in and asked if I had seen her flatmate J. I looked around and realized there was at least 5 other students missing. We had seen them partying pretty late into the night last night, so we just figured they had maybe skipped class today.

During our break that same girl and I ran to a nearby deli and picked up food for us and for Aaron. On our walk back we ran into two more students who were upset because apparently the tube system had been shut down. Now we were stuck on this side of town miles and miles form our flat.

When we all finally settled back into the classroom the professors seemed to have panic written all over their faces. They asked if we could please sign in. They needed to know who was here and who wasn't. This seemed a little out of place since it had never been done before. As I was signing my name a student ran into the room and yelled..."bombs went off in the tube, and they say there were more."

I felt my heart skip a beat as I looked up. A second student ran in a couple seconds later and with schock in his eyes somberly said, "a bus blew up and there were more explosions in the tube."

We all suddenly realized that we had indeed seen the missing students this morning, they had gotten into the train we all normally took. The reason that Aaron, Meg, the other flatmates, and myself were not on it was because of bakery. We stopped as we always did to grab coffee and fresh bakery down the street from our flat. Normally the bakery is out and ready to be purchased, this time it was not out on time. Aaron had asked me if I wanted to wait for them to put the bakery up since we had time before we caught our usual train to class, but I said I was not in the mood for bakery this morning so we caught an earlier train. Early by 5 minutes. 5 minutes that changed my life.

As it slowly hit us all that the missing students were on the train panic spread across the room. We did not know what to think or feel at that moment. Students wanted to go out and look for them, but we could not leave. The school had initiated a lock down on the campus and no one was allowed in or out.

I remember standing near my chair, with what I think was a look of sheer terror. As I was standing there, Aaron put his hand on my hand, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "you're okay, we are all okay, and its going to be okay."

I will never forget the words he said to me, because they are what got me through all of this.

At that moment we did not know what was happening exactly. We did not know if it was the start of something or the end of it. We were scared and at a loss as to what to be feeling. As the hours passed and no word on the missing students some of us cried and some of us sat and tried to act normal.

After a couple hours had gone by they told us we were getting free food in the cafeteria and could also use the phones in the building to call our parents and let them know we were okay. I remember calling my parents and having to tell them I was alive and okay and hearing my mom crying on the other end. I remember eating because they told us we should. And I remember playing charades to pass the time.

When we were beginning to loose all hope and fearing the worse we heard that the missing students were okay. They were suppose to be on their way back to the flat. They got lucky they were in the train after the one that had the bomb. We, unknown to us at the time, at been on the train in front of the one with the bomb. When we saw the lights flicker, that is when the bomb had gone off.

After four or five hours they let us go home. We had no way of getting to our flat but walking. Before we left we were given a talk, we were told that we should cover up anything that had the American flag on it or anything that pointed to the fact that we were from the United States. At that moment, the media was placing the blame on the United States. We started our walk...