A UT-Arlington student studying abroad in Paris was inside the Stade de France last Friday night when terrorists began violently attacking the city. A week later, she's sharing her memories of that horrific night and why she won't cut her stay in France short despite the attack.
Rebecca Johnson has spent her entire life in Arlington.
She grew up in the city and currently attends UTA, where she's studying kinesiology. After commuting to school during her freshman year, she felt she was missing out on the college experience of living away from home. So she and her parents decided that a study abroad program might be the opportunity she was seeking.
"My mom went to Paris when she was younger and she loved it," said Johnson, who is now a sophomore. "So she talked me into choosing Paris."
Johnson arrived in Paris in September and quickly fell in love with the city.
"It feels like another home to me," said Johnson.
On Nov. 13, she and a group of friends went to the Stade de France to watch the French national soccer team take on Germany.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
She now remembers that night for all the wrong reasons.
"The second explosion went off and it shook the whole stadium," said Johnson. "It was so loud."
At that point, no one in the stadium knew what was unfolding just a short distance away. The match continued.
"I didn't have internet connection," said Johnson. "I couldn't go online and look up what was going on."
By the time the game was over, there was a sense something bad had happened in Paris. But it wasn't until Johnson and her friends left the stadium that they realized the scope.
"Everybody just stopped and they started screaming," said Johnson. "They turned around and started sprinting the other way. I had no clue what I was running from. I'll never get this out of my head – I saw people being trampled on the ground."
She got separated from her friends in all the chaos and ran back inside the stadium, where her first instinct was to call her father.
"All I could say was, 'I'm okay, I'm okay, I love you,'" said Johnson.
She eventually left the stadium and took a train to the 10th Arrondissement, thinking she'd be able to find a safe place to meet her friends. She didn't know at the time that other attacks were taking place right in that area.
"I messaged my friends and told them I'm here," said Johnson. "And they were telling me to get out of that area. It's not safe. Honestly, I had no idea what to do."
By that time, the entire area was shut down. Trains weren't running, taxis were full and Johnson was an hour's walking distance from her apartment. She just stood outside the train station with about 500 other people, waiting.
"I was completely alone," said Johnson. "I had no one to talk to."
While she was there, her boyfriend called her. He asked where she was and then told her he was sending his dad to come pick her up.
She made it back to her apartment at around 2 a.m. the next morning.
On Saturday, she only left once for about 10 minutes to get groceries.
"After I got back to my apartment that morning, I did not leave my apartment for two days," said Johnson.
She went back out into the city on Monday to attend a memorial event – a decision she's glad she made.
"When I finally did get out, I felt a lot better," said Johnson.
She says the joie de vie she had grown used to in Paris has been replaced by great sadness and tension during these last seven days.
"When I got here, it was so relaxed and everybody's just always happy," said Johnson. "And it hasn't been like that the past week."
Still, she turned down an offer from UTA to finish out the semester back in Texas.
"I'm not going to let [the attacks] affect my trip here," said Johnson. "I'm not going to let them define my study abroad experience."
