Forty-eight hours before Sherry and Angie Regiani of Clarkston left for Europe, the discouraging news broke that three subway cars and a bus were bombed by terrorists in London.
The mother and daughter were to leave Detroit for Niece on July 9. Angie, 19, was to attend the Loban Contemporary Dance School, in London, for two weeks of professional dance training beginning July 18.
Before deciding to continue with the planned trip Sherry Regiani, 52, checked with friends overseas.
‘My thought is if something is going to happen, it could happen whenever wherever,? said Sherry. ‘So we went ahead with our plans anyway.?
‘Angie had the opportunity to go and we had the air miles, so we went,? she continued. ‘For the rest of her life she will remember this. I didn’t want her to say ‘When I was 19, I had an opportunity to go to London, but my parents were afraid.??
‘We initially flew into Nice, took a day trip to Monaco and then flew to stay with friends in Paris. We took the Eurostar (train) from Paris to London,? said Angie.
She added the trip through the Chunnel under the English Channel took three and a half hours.
Angie is a junior at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Penn. studying musical theater with a dance minor. She works for a dance tour group, Pillow Project Dance Company, that performs three weekends a month.
‘It is a very go, go, go life style. You live life on the road, especially when you are with a tour group. It is what you expect when you go into this business; you have to just pick up your life and go,? said Angie, who flies roughly three weekends a month so she is quite familiar with travel security. ‘This was my first trip across the pond.?
In the wake of the bombings Sherry and Angie found security heightened in many places.
? We went up in the London Eye (a big Ferris wheel that takes 30 minutes to go around). They searched everything, backpacks, everything, and even waiting in line there were armed security,? said Sherry. ‘There was security everywhere, police and armed military, guns in arms and at the ready, not just over the shoulder. In downtown Paris on Bastille Day, July 14, there were armed military on every street corner, there was a very visible presence.?
Sherry described the people of London and Paris as very wary. She said Londoners were getting back to normal, but the security was ‘very much present.?
‘Londoners are very determined,? said Sherry. ‘You could hear a lot of talk, ‘We will get them. Here are the pictures, and we are going to get them.??
Sherry spent a week traveling Europe with Angie to the tourist sites. They both say they saw a lot while in London, but did not see any of the destruction caused by the terrorists. They said they went by the sites, but could not see any damage.
Angie was in class in Laban, London when the second set of bombs went off July 21.
‘I was there for the ‘kind of fake? bombs. They didn’t actually explode, it was more of an implosion. They just caused a ruckus,? said Angie. ‘Some people left (class) early, some walked all the way home because they didn’t want to take the tubes (London’s underground subway) home. It kind of changed the way people were commuting everywhere? said Angie.
‘Actually, I wasn’t scared. You don’t let it interfere with your life. That is what they (the terrorists) want,? she said, ‘I just wasn’t going to let it interfere with my studying over there.?
Angie said after the ‘dummy bombs? there was a even greater police presence. They were in the ticket booths, on the trains, on the platform to board the trains, under ground and above ground.
‘The police wore bright green jackets and they were all over the tube station. Any tube station would have them, they were a very visible presence,? said Angie.
Angie stayed in Grenwich, a burrow just outside of London, for two weeks. She said she frequently traveled between the two towns and would go into central London three or four times a week. She said the distance to class was short so she walked a lot.
Angie also said she took the Docklands Railway, an above ground train that only goes underground for stops.
‘You do feel a little safer because it is an above ground mode of transportation,? Angie said
She added that people avoided the tube the first day’either taking taxis the bus or walking.
‘The tubes were closed, where the bombs went off, but it effected the entire station, so if you had to make a connection or had to get off it could be difficult,? said Angie.
‘Most Londoners had the attitude that they were not going to let it bother them; I am not going to let this disturb my life. Most people handled themselves very well and were not biased to another ethnicity.?
Angie said speed and convenience makes public transportation the preferable mode of conveyance. She said if police checked every bag and preformed high security searches like air and tube travel that public transportation would not be as efficient.
‘You might as well have your own car,? she concluded.
‘I wouldn’t have done anything differently; I was there to soak it all up,? Angie added. ‘I loved London and I would go again in a heart beat.?
Sherry said she was not afraid to have Angie in London. She credits an international cell phone with alleviating a lot of fear. She said communication with her daughter was key.
‘Really no, I was not afraid. I’m a Christian woman and I really believe a lot in faith, and I believed we we’re going to be okay. Of course, I prayed a lot after I came home when Angie was still in London, especially with the second little incident,? said Sherry. ‘This whole generation is growing up in a whole different world and they seem to take it all in stride because that is the world that they know.?
Angie arrived home late on July 30 and left for Pittsburgh on August 2. She starts her junior year of college at the end of August and plans a career on stage in New York when she graduates.