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Two years ago, I was still in school. My schedule was fixed, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I had to play basketball in the afternoon. I was also in driving school, and after basketball, my driving teacher would pick me up at the gym.
It was early afternoon, after basketball, and I was driving along the Beyenburger Straße, which is more like an alley, lined by trees and leading through a Shire-like landscape (hills, forests, fields). The car's radio was on, and suddenly, in the midst of the music they were just playing, a voice said "A second airplaine has just crashed into the World Trade Center".
Of course I didn't believe it. I thought that was a spoof or some radio drama, something like "War of the Worlds". The speaker went on, repeating what had happened, and then came the ordinary news. I asked my driving teacher, Marcus, whether that was real. He shrugged, saying they had said that half an hour ago, too.
Eventually it sunk in that this was, in fact, not a radio drama. When I got that, I forgot steering and almost crashed into a tree (thanks to Marcus for preventing us from becoming two more 9-11 victims). He switched off the radio then and told me to forget about it for now, and the rest of the driving lesson went by normally. I forgot about it so completely that, when in the evening at judo practice one of the kids asked me whether I thought there would be war, I didn't realize what she meant. Then it came back, and I said maybe, if they find out it was no accident (as at that point of time, nothing was known except that it had happened). She stared at me with big, scared eyes, and then ran back to her mom who shot an evil glance at me (probably she had just spent half the afternoon convincing the girl that there would be no war... oops...)
The next days, we were asked to wear black in school, and there were moments of silence on three days (I remember that my art teacher fell asleep during the five minute one) and a demonstration on Friday. I said, jokingly, that some people would sure try to re-name "The Two Towers" because of the memories connected to that phrase, not knowing that some people would indeed be childish enoudh to ask for that half a year later.
And as is fit when towers fall, a babylonian confusion of languages arose, all claiming that things would never be the same again and this was the end of the world as we know it.
And I feel fine.
Things are still the same.
My world did indeed change in the following time. That had, however, nothing to do with 9-11.
I got my driving license, and a car. I graduated.
I worked at the nursing home for a month. I went to China with my parents.
One year ago, I made an internship at the local newspaper. They asked me to write an article about how people of my age and younger had experienced "this day last year", what they thought about what had been said and done then. And maybe I could ask schools whether there was anything planned?
I did phone many of my friends, noted the different opinions, called at the schools ("Why should we be doing anything special tomorrow? OH! Hm! A moment of silence!") and wrote that article. They enjoyed it a lot.
It as a particularly wet year. A month earlier, flooding rivers had wrecked several towns and villages in Eastern Germany. People had been killed by the flood, and many houses were destroyed and had to be torn down.
There were elections, the first nationwide ones that I was old enough to participate in.
I wrote more articles on other topics, and I became a freelance writer for that newspaper.
One month later, my first semester at the University of Cologne began. I was a bit disappointed by English, enjoyed Japanese, was fascinated by the scope of Cultural Anthropology. I got to know Fuchs, Elfy, Kan und Elia. I helped them move to their big appartement.
I was angry at George W. Bush and went to a demonstration against the Iraq war. It didn't help, but at least I had "raised my voice to broadcast my objection".
I found my own appartement in Cologne. I started to practice kendô and kyudô, and it's two and a half weeks until my dan testing in karate.
Today, I got through two semesters - half the basic part of Japanese. It's vacation time. This year was particularly dry and arid, but autumn is slowly nearing, and it is finally raining as much as it should, although that won't save most farmers' crops, I'm afraid. Certainly I matured a bit, but I'm still making a lot of the same mistakes. Big things change quickly, but the small and subtle ones take their time.
This night, the foreign minister of Sweden died. She was stabbed in a mall yesterday, probably because she supported the Euro. I don't expect there to be any moments of silence when school starts again next week.
- - -
( Das Ende der Welt und was danach passierte )
- - -
It was early afternoon, after basketball, and I was driving along the Beyenburger Straße, which is more like an alley, lined by trees and leading through a Shire-like landscape (hills, forests, fields). The car's radio was on, and suddenly, in the midst of the music they were just playing, a voice said "A second airplaine has just crashed into the World Trade Center".
Of course I didn't believe it. I thought that was a spoof or some radio drama, something like "War of the Worlds". The speaker went on, repeating what had happened, and then came the ordinary news. I asked my driving teacher, Marcus, whether that was real. He shrugged, saying they had said that half an hour ago, too.
Eventually it sunk in that this was, in fact, not a radio drama. When I got that, I forgot steering and almost crashed into a tree (thanks to Marcus for preventing us from becoming two more 9-11 victims). He switched off the radio then and told me to forget about it for now, and the rest of the driving lesson went by normally. I forgot about it so completely that, when in the evening at judo practice one of the kids asked me whether I thought there would be war, I didn't realize what she meant. Then it came back, and I said maybe, if they find out it was no accident (as at that point of time, nothing was known except that it had happened). She stared at me with big, scared eyes, and then ran back to her mom who shot an evil glance at me (probably she had just spent half the afternoon convincing the girl that there would be no war... oops...)
The next days, we were asked to wear black in school, and there were moments of silence on three days (I remember that my art teacher fell asleep during the five minute one) and a demonstration on Friday. I said, jokingly, that some people would sure try to re-name "The Two Towers" because of the memories connected to that phrase, not knowing that some people would indeed be childish enoudh to ask for that half a year later.
And as is fit when towers fall, a babylonian confusion of languages arose, all claiming that things would never be the same again and this was the end of the world as we know it.
And I feel fine.
Things are still the same.
My world did indeed change in the following time. That had, however, nothing to do with 9-11.
I got my driving license, and a car. I graduated.
I worked at the nursing home for a month. I went to China with my parents.
One year ago, I made an internship at the local newspaper. They asked me to write an article about how people of my age and younger had experienced "this day last year", what they thought about what had been said and done then. And maybe I could ask schools whether there was anything planned?
I did phone many of my friends, noted the different opinions, called at the schools ("Why should we be doing anything special tomorrow? OH! Hm! A moment of silence!") and wrote that article. They enjoyed it a lot.
It as a particularly wet year. A month earlier, flooding rivers had wrecked several towns and villages in Eastern Germany. People had been killed by the flood, and many houses were destroyed and had to be torn down.
There were elections, the first nationwide ones that I was old enough to participate in.
I wrote more articles on other topics, and I became a freelance writer for that newspaper.
One month later, my first semester at the University of Cologne began. I was a bit disappointed by English, enjoyed Japanese, was fascinated by the scope of Cultural Anthropology. I got to know Fuchs, Elfy, Kan und Elia. I helped them move to their big appartement.
I was angry at George W. Bush and went to a demonstration against the Iraq war. It didn't help, but at least I had "raised my voice to broadcast my objection".
I found my own appartement in Cologne. I started to practice kendô and kyudô, and it's two and a half weeks until my dan testing in karate.
Today, I got through two semesters - half the basic part of Japanese. It's vacation time. This year was particularly dry and arid, but autumn is slowly nearing, and it is finally raining as much as it should, although that won't save most farmers' crops, I'm afraid. Certainly I matured a bit, but I'm still making a lot of the same mistakes. Big things change quickly, but the small and subtle ones take their time.
This night, the foreign minister of Sweden died. She was stabbed in a mall yesterday, probably because she supported the Euro. I don't expect there to be any moments of silence when school starts again next week.
- - -
( Das Ende der Welt und was danach passierte )
- - -
