Well, New York is 2 hours ahead, so…getting ready for school. I was 6 so, I was probably taking a bath.
Side note: Did you know I had never heard of 9/11 until I was 14? I have no idea how or why that happened. (I’m not American).
The trading floor of a large investment bank in London. TVs everywhere so we were all watching the news coverage when the second plane hit. After the initial shouts of shock, the floor went dead quiet as people processed what was happening. Then there was a quiet rush of activity as people spoke to colleagues in NY and attempted to secure their books. I was working IT so after about an hour we were sent off to activate a remote disaster recovery site as there were rumours of possible attacks in London. Got home at about midnight after starting at 6 am.
In my house playing with my toys
On the morning of, I was driving into school for a 9AM class. I was listening to Howard Stern on the way, and just as I was parking, they found out about the first plane. At that point, nobody knew it was an airliner and I assumed it was a small plane, like the one that hit the Empire State Building in WWII. By the time the class took a break an hour later, the computer lab down the hall was showing the live feed on CNN, and I didn’t go back for the second hour of the class.
I was at work in DC. I tell this story every time. We had a standing call at 11: 30 with opposing counsel in an arbitration. Even though we were all rattled we decided to continue business as usual and we were all in the conference room. At 11: 35 we started saying “maybe they decided not to join and forgot to tell us.” Two minutes later the paralegal gasped and covered her mouth. We all stared at her. Staring at the table, in a really quiet voice, she said, “There office was in the World Trade Center.”