a shonna in paris: days five and six
i'll get back to the normal events of day five later and get to the update on the paris attacks.
friday, november 13: paris (day five)
it was a long day at the conference and a few of us (kim, sarah and laura) decided to grab dinner near our listing in pantin (about 2 miles from central paris) and i was deciding if i was going to go out to meet other airbnb people since friday was a free night but we also had a big party planned for saturday night.
our waiter was taking FOREVER and right before we got up to leave, sarah checked her email to see there was an email from our head of security that there were incidents in paris. we looked at the news and saw that there were shootings in central paris and decided it was safest to go back to our listing that was about 4 min walk away.
we got home and started accounting for everyone on our immediate team. within minutes we had everyone accounted for except one person, who finally responded two hours later that he was sleeping. during the time he was missing, i was very scared. we then started learning about the explosions, the hostages at the concert venue, etc. with all the airbnb employees in town for the event i started messaging everyone i could think of and tracking down people who i knew would be nearby.
since i've been working with the event team on the airbnb open for many months, i started working with our internal team trying to identify the 699 employees at the event and others in town for other reasons. connecting through social media, the amazing safety check tool created by facebook, whatsapp, etc. we collected names and accounted for people one by one. by 5:00am we had everyone confirmed except one of my best friends, dustin. i knew he was flying out of paris on saturday morning so i just reasoned he was sleeping and would wake up soon. even though i knew that, I was still extremely concerned something had happened to him. it was a numbers game. at 5:15am i finally got a reply to a thread on fb that dustin and his boyfriend vincent were safe. i finally was able to fall asleep and know everyone was accounted for.
it's crazy that i sat at the table on my computer for 6.5 hours trying to track people down, checking social media, etc. only getting up to pee once and being cared for by the girls in the house. when we recounted what happened the next day we reflected that it felt like an hour and a half had gone by and we couldn't believe it was 6.5 hours. time flies when you're scared.
while many of us have mixed feelings about social media, in this case, it was absolutely critical. working for an immensely connected company has it's advantages. i like this quote by dave lee of BBC, "It may seem trivial to even care about social media during moments like this - in happier moments it can seem like a place for selfies, holiday photos and banal arguments in 140 characters. But during a crisis social media becomes the single most significant platform for news to be spread, eyewitness experiences to be shared and official statements to be made. And inevitably, these same channels amplify misinformation, allowing rash judgements and prejudices to boil to the surface, fuelling fear and ignorance." fortunately most of the information through social media has been truthful and supported us accounting for everyone here.
saturday, november 14 (day six)
i woke up at 9am to a few updates but nothing super critical. sarah decided to go home and we are all here hanging out, contacting others and figuring out what we're going to do today, wondering if we'll be able to fly out tomorrow. sadly, all events have been cancelled today for the airbnb open. i know there was a lot of hard work put into this event and i am saddened for the state of paris. violence is something that never made sense to me and i have never been so close to random acts of violence at scale. i can truly say this is the most scared ive been in my adult life but i was so thankful to be with kim, sarah and laura... we were supportive, loving and cared for each other. and they helped me identify people through their network and calmed me down quite a bit as i worked with security and others. i am amazed by our team and thankful to be an airbnb employee. i am saddened for the lives lost, those hurt and friends and families connected to the victims. also thankful for all first responders and military that continue to protect everyone.
tomorrow i am supposed to fly out to barcelona to meet my friend heather. i plan to go unless flights are cancelled. we have to keep moving. keep living.
i am really out of touch with what's going on with ISIS, syria, etc. but i will try to get more educated soon. right now my immediate need is to feel safe and know others i love are also safe. thank you all for your texts, love and care. so sweet to hear from some of you i haven't spoken to in a while.
sending love to paris. please keep parisians in your thoughts and hope that our hosts and airbnb community here in paris is safe.
<3
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-34815972
friday, november 13: paris (day five)
it was a long day at the conference and a few of us (kim, sarah and laura) decided to grab dinner near our listing in pantin (about 2 miles from central paris) and i was deciding if i was going to go out to meet other airbnb people since friday was a free night but we also had a big party planned for saturday night.
our waiter was taking FOREVER and right before we got up to leave, sarah checked her email to see there was an email from our head of security that there were incidents in paris. we looked at the news and saw that there were shootings in central paris and decided it was safest to go back to our listing that was about 4 min walk away.
we got home and started accounting for everyone on our immediate team. within minutes we had everyone accounted for except one person, who finally responded two hours later that he was sleeping. during the time he was missing, i was very scared. we then started learning about the explosions, the hostages at the concert venue, etc. with all the airbnb employees in town for the event i started messaging everyone i could think of and tracking down people who i knew would be nearby.
since i've been working with the event team on the airbnb open for many months, i started working with our internal team trying to identify the 699 employees at the event and others in town for other reasons. connecting through social media, the amazing safety check tool created by facebook, whatsapp, etc. we collected names and accounted for people one by one. by 5:00am we had everyone confirmed except one of my best friends, dustin. i knew he was flying out of paris on saturday morning so i just reasoned he was sleeping and would wake up soon. even though i knew that, I was still extremely concerned something had happened to him. it was a numbers game. at 5:15am i finally got a reply to a thread on fb that dustin and his boyfriend vincent were safe. i finally was able to fall asleep and know everyone was accounted for.
it's crazy that i sat at the table on my computer for 6.5 hours trying to track people down, checking social media, etc. only getting up to pee once and being cared for by the girls in the house. when we recounted what happened the next day we reflected that it felt like an hour and a half had gone by and we couldn't believe it was 6.5 hours. time flies when you're scared.
while many of us have mixed feelings about social media, in this case, it was absolutely critical. working for an immensely connected company has it's advantages. i like this quote by dave lee of BBC, "It may seem trivial to even care about social media during moments like this - in happier moments it can seem like a place for selfies, holiday photos and banal arguments in 140 characters. But during a crisis social media becomes the single most significant platform for news to be spread, eyewitness experiences to be shared and official statements to be made. And inevitably, these same channels amplify misinformation, allowing rash judgements and prejudices to boil to the surface, fuelling fear and ignorance." fortunately most of the information through social media has been truthful and supported us accounting for everyone here.
saturday, november 14 (day six)
i woke up at 9am to a few updates but nothing super critical. sarah decided to go home and we are all here hanging out, contacting others and figuring out what we're going to do today, wondering if we'll be able to fly out tomorrow. sadly, all events have been cancelled today for the airbnb open. i know there was a lot of hard work put into this event and i am saddened for the state of paris. violence is something that never made sense to me and i have never been so close to random acts of violence at scale. i can truly say this is the most scared ive been in my adult life but i was so thankful to be with kim, sarah and laura... we were supportive, loving and cared for each other. and they helped me identify people through their network and calmed me down quite a bit as i worked with security and others. i am amazed by our team and thankful to be an airbnb employee. i am saddened for the lives lost, those hurt and friends and families connected to the victims. also thankful for all first responders and military that continue to protect everyone.
tomorrow i am supposed to fly out to barcelona to meet my friend heather. i plan to go unless flights are cancelled. we have to keep moving. keep living.
i am really out of touch with what's going on with ISIS, syria, etc. but i will try to get more educated soon. right now my immediate need is to feel safe and know others i love are also safe. thank you all for your texts, love and care. so sweet to hear from some of you i haven't spoken to in a while.
sending love to paris. please keep parisians in your thoughts and hope that our hosts and airbnb community here in paris is safe.
<3
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-34815972
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