I don't recall the morning much, aside from getting up around 5 AM and going out onto my roof to watch the sunrise and to eat something, too stuffy indoors. Was a brilliant blue sky without a cloud in sight, and on such a clear day you can see Manhattan from where I live in Brooklyn very cleary...here's a shot from the window taken on a muggy day:
So you can imagine that on a clear day it's a very, very vivid picture. Sometime during the reading of John Locke's " An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. " in class we began to hear sirens, Ambulance, Cop, Firetruck, which was a bit strange, but having the windows closed and the shades drawn, no one saw much and assumed it was the usual; a siren is a common thing to common in NYC.
Sometime later, the teacher got a call on his walkie-talkie, and we literally watched him go to the window, go back to his desk, and literally put his face in his hands. At which moment someone noted where you could usually see Manhattan, there was a giant black cloud which was moving in our direction and as it moved, whatever was therebefore seemed to be covered by it completely; just pushed out of sight. All that there was was a thick and almost overpowering smell of burning tile and rubber, a smell as if of burnt syrup heavy in the air.
At that point something started to click and people got scared and the professor said something along the lines of " I can't teach anymore - but you'll find out for yourself soon " A girl started crying - as if she knew before anyone told her: she lost her mother and father that day. Both were working in the first tower.
I remember leaving the classroom and walking home, opening the door to dash to the windows, shut them, and turn on all the ACs since it really stank and there was white dust floating in the air. Sitting next to the TV, slumped in a corner, just watching the " minutes ago " footage of the first tower collapsing was a freezing, paralyzing feeling. After the second one came down, watching the footage over and over again was just drawing a blank from me - all this was happening 25 minutes by bus away, and there was just nothing that could be done...the rest of the day was an empty, hollow blur.