London - I was mere blocks away from most of Thursday's terrorist attacks here - close enough to hear the massive thunder of one explosion - yet it felt as though I was 1,000 miles away.
I was getting ready to leave my dorm room Thursday around 9:45 a.m. when I heard a loud boom I thought to be nothing more than a huge roar of thunder and a sign of an incoming storm. But as I walked to class, I ran into a crying member of my study abroad group who said she'd heard news reports that the two Underground subway stations that bookend our neighborhood of Bloomsbury had been involved in a power surge, causing an explosion and there were likely fatalities.
Our group went to class a little freaked out, but had not yet learned that one of London's signature double-decker buses had exploded just more than one block away. We assumed the blast we heard was one of the subway's mechanical failures, which police now say were a series of calculated attacks from 10-pound bombs left on and systematically detonated in central London subway cars.
By the time we left class, some of the panic in the city had subsided and people were beginning to talk about terrorists being responsible for the atrocities, rather than a mass technical glitch. Businessmen and women began walking home, knowing there was little chance public transportation would reopen that day. A group of us gathered in a local pub to watch the news and try to figure out what was going on. It was surreal watching news reports of the chaos and slew of emergency vehicles next to places my new friends and I walked several times every day of the past two weeks.
It wasn't long before the neighborhood around our dorm and between the two Underground stations was a total crime scene. It was impossible to walk for farther than two blocks in any direction without being stopped by police. Many MSU students who left for class that morning were not able to return to the dorms until dinnertime.
Myself and others in my program agree that it doesn't feel as though we were close to what happened at all. Other than the meters of police line still blocking off several areas of the city, we were all fortunate enough not to have seen, or been involved in any of the gruesome incidents. Londoners who weren't involved were kept far from attack sites.
Three days later, I am leaving London, and surprising to some, I am not excited about this. I never felt unsafe in London, not even moments after I learned there were terrorist attacks around the corner from where I eat and sleep, although I still don't understand why. I fell in love with this city in mere hours and was made to feel like a proper Londoner by many locals who enjoyed Americans who were interested in their gorgeous city.
This city is surprising me with its resilience following such a horrifying day. It took only half a day for many people to take a breath, turn off the news and attempt to get back to their daily lives. I guess it fits the stereotype of the typically stoic English.
London is far more familiar with such events than the United States. And it was common to overhear locals say things like, "For people who've lived in London their entire lives, this is just a blip."
For the past dozen years or so, there have been ongoing, albeit smaller bus attacks by the Irish Republican Army. But Thursday's incidents were the largest attack on London since WWII. And similar subway attacks occurred in Madrid less than two years ago.
For example, I called one of my only friends who lives in London Thursday afternoon to find out if he was safe. He told me he was on a bus about a block ahead of the one that exploded. He said everyone on the bus knew immediately it was a terrorist attack and felt upset and annoyed. He, like most others, got off the bus and tried to get far away.
"I just put my head down, started walking quickly, and tried to get home as fast as I could," he said.
This is not to say that Londoners have already forgotten the atrocities that hit their city - indeed they are still pulling bodies from one of the subway stations - it just feels as though they are choosing to respond to it differently than the United States might. The general feeling seems to be initial anger, followed by bravery and moving on with their lives, but still with great sympathy and compassion for those who were killed and still missing.
At most of the bombing sites, mass makeshift memorials have been made with piles of bouquets of flowers, candles and flags. Londoners and tourists alike walk by the spots and take time to reflect on what happened. But within three days, the number of journalists at these sites outnumbers the numbers of others. I myself went as a journalist to see one of the scenes, but was immediately overcome by the power of the site. I didn't feel comfortable reporting much and just looked and read many of the cards. "We are all Londoners," "London will never be the same without you," "Madrid is with London," "You are so brave," read some of the notes placed near the memorial site. I was taken aback at how emotional I became. The nature of what had happened did not hit me until I forced myself to be near the pain.
It will obviously be impossible for me to forget where I was when these events happened, no matter how far away it felt. And in time, I'm sure myself and many of us studying in London will begin to grasp how close we were and how lucky we are to have lived. Watching London and its people go through such a tragic event has helped me learn more about the city more than I could ever have imagined.
Sarah Frank is a journalism senior on an MSU study abroad program in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic. Reach her at franksa2@msu.edu.
