Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the tragic 9/11.
I remember it so vividly - waking up at home in Australia with two days before I was due to fly out to Germany on a class trip. My parents were already awake, watching TV and tried to explain to me what terrorism was and why someone would fly planes into buildings. I didnt understand the impact of such a horrific event at the time, until I went to school... classes were cancelled, children could go home if their parents let them, and for those who stayed at school, well, we were offered counselling and education on what this was all about.
Today, 10 years on, I understand it a lot more. I think living in the U.S. has helped me to broaden my mind and makes me realise that not everyone in the world plays nice with other countries. Speculations were being made already a month ago that something would happen on this date... we, luckily are 'just' dodging Tropical Storm Maria.
This storm was expected to hit Saturday, and has been lingering and lingering and lingering... people have been in anticipation this entire week, stocking up on hurricane material and fine tuning their generators. Its now Sunday evening and we still haven't received a drop of rain - yet its been dark and cloudy all day. I hope Mother Nature is not holding out on us until after it gets dark tonight - we have already lost power twice in the last hour!
We decided to brave the expected storm and set out on a road trip.. heading west, visiting some beaches we've not yet seen, took some new roads through the rainforest, had some Armstrong's icecream (local icecream), wound our way back East and watched the Remembrance Parade that the local Harley group put on - riding from East to West with U.S flags. Knowing what I know now, and how much it impacted families, watching this parade gave me the goosebumps - and I even almost shed a tear.
