This was a much awaited post that I should have probably posted at least a week ago.
As you are all aware of, I am sure, on November 13th Paris was under terrorists' attacks, that struck at the stadium where a football match was playing, at a restaurant and at a night club where a heavy metal concert was taking place.
I have always been in safety, as I was working on the other side of the city that night. We were, however in a kind-of-a-frenzy: the information we got was from sneaking into the back office and checking our cellphones for the latest news - myself, I came to know about the attacks only at 11 pm; our General Manager came straight to the hotel and had everyone to be sent home and all the doors to the outside to be closed. Unfortunately the taxi and uber services were suspended by then, as well as public transportation. I had to insist very hard with my manager to be let go home on foot (I live only a 20-minute walk from my job).
My family was freaking out already: they had texted me an hour earlier and I hadn't yet seen it. I spent the twenty minutes that it took me to get home on the phone texting back to all my wonderful friends who were wondering about my being well. It hadn't yet sunk in what happened that night.
By the time I had answered everybody and the adrenaline had cooled down, it was almost three and I went to bed.
For some blissfull 4 seconds, when I woke up the following morning, I had forgotten everything that had happened. And then it hit me.
Now, probably you would never see me at a heavy metal gig and I am not likely to go to the stadium either, but the restaurant was an even more innocent and random target that it literally could have been me or anybody I know. This is the perfect moment to tell you that none of my friends or aquaintances got involved in the attacks, however, two friends of a colleague of mine were at the Bataclan that night and lost their lives.
Such a sad night for Paris.
I went to the Holy Service they held in Notre Dame that Sunday evening, but there were so many people I ended up listening to the mass on the radio, together with a man and his wife outside in the square in front of the Cathedral. They did not even amplify the service for us who couldn't get in, we had to form groups of three and four to listen from our cellphones.
That made me even sadder.
In the following days, and again today after almost two weeks have passed, I have kept receiving texts and messages from my friends asking how am I feeling and how's the atmosphere in the city.
I am well. I have tried to live my life as naturally as possible, I have already been out with my colleagues and with Masha and her friends. Obviously, I haven't exaggerated and to be honest, I have been avoiding the 11e Arrondissement and Place de la République.
The City is a lot quieter and in my opinion there are fewer tourists. What's worse is that everybody is so jumpy: at the smallest harsh sound everybody turns their necks so fast in the direction, somebody's gonna snap one of these days. Now it's better, but last week, there were sirens at every hour of the day and nobody could make out were they were heading to. You can see in people's faces that they are not relaxed, but always on alert.
It fills my heart with sadness to think of such a beautiful city bent this way. But we stay strong.
