Sept 11 Remembered

Me, at the site of the New York World Trade Centre on sept 11th 2004  

was reading yesterday's papers about sept 11th being remembered. kinda made me think of that tragic event.

remembered i was having scrabble training when the news broke back in 2001. was one of the late night trainings we had. after i heard the news i still wasn't very shocked until i went up to my room later that night and watched the endless updates on channel news asia. was really tragic.

in the summer of 2003, coincidence would actually play a part in me encountering this tragic event again. this time i was already nearing the 4th month of my travels in the usa with campusa, where i had worked as a camp counselor in colorado(those who've followed my blog would know), and i was with joe, my trustee companion, road-tripping the northwestern u s of a in our tiny chevrolet.

we had planned our visit to long island, new york to meet up with a couple of joe's frens, stacy et al, who would put us up for a short period. we were subsequently chased out of our quarters and had to sleep in our car(again!), but thats another story.

so on the night of sept 10th we actually decided to drive down to manhattan to looksee, obviously not knowing the significance of the date. its about an hour's drive from long island, so it wasn't to tough a drive but by the time we drove over the brooklyn bridge it was almost midnight liaoz(dun ask why we started off so late).

so we were just driving around the city of manhattan amongst its horrid traffic conditions and wondering why the hell there were traffic jams in the city at 1am? then we saw people celebrating, and fire engines driving around blaring their horns. and STILL we didn't realise what was going on.

it was only when we drove to the site of the twin towers, that we realised that it was already sept 11th. and on that very site, two extremely strong bright blue lights shot through the sky and illuminated the night light. it was a fascinating atmosphere, with throngs of people crowding the site, and our car having to battle the traffic.

as if an omen of commemoration, these bright lights that soared into infinity attracted thousands and thousands of birds that flew in circles around these lights and created a magical effect of confetti that defied gravity. in fact we didn't even realise they were birds till someone told us.

so that explained the crowds. and even on our way home(to long island) we could still see the blue lights from miles and miles away.

anyhow, thats what that picture above represents. me, stopping along the road to take a picture with the two giant beams behind me. abit blur(lousy camera) but very significant nonetheless. its a sombre feeling to be standing on the grounds where thousands perished so innocently a couple of years ago.

let those who perished rest in peace.