Study Abroad Director J. Scott Van Der Meid reported that all five Brandeis students studying in Madrid are unharmed after ten bombs exploded on four commuter trains last Thursday morning. The attack left 200 dead and more than 1,500 injured. The explosions occurred two and a half years after 9/11 and just three days before Spain's national elections. The New York Times reported yesteday that Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter delivered to an Arabic newspaper and in a video received by the Spanish government.

Authorities are currently investigating the authenticity of these claims and whether the Basque separatist group ETA is at all responsible.

Van Der Meid explained it was fortunate the explosions occurred early in the morning, when most students were still sleeping.

"In this case, we were lucky," he said.

One Brandeis student in Madrid, Nathan Westheimer '05, was sleeping when his phone rang. He did not answer in time but he heard an all too familiar message.

"Nate, holy shit, are you seeing this?" Westheimer heard. "Turn on the TV."

Westheimer recalled listening to these same words echo throughout his dorm during his freshman year at Brandeis. He felt "an automatic lunge of the stomach."

Later that night, Westheimer joined an estimated 2.3 million people to demonstrate against violence and for what the government called solidarity against terrorism. But he also marched for a different reason.

"For me, it meant standing by Spain during its time of loss, as it, to me, has been an amazing source of inspiration and hospitality."

Madrid's response to what is now being dubbed as 11-M (3-11) is not like how Americans reacted to 9/11, Westheimer said, adding the main difference is nationalism, and that Spain has several political and historical reasons for why this is a sensitive subject.

"Spain, from that concept of nationalism and national response, united under mourning cries like 'we were all on that train' to symbolize the universality of the attacks rather than uniting under a flag."

Westheimer knows a girl who would have been on a platform where a bomb exploded, had she not been offered a ride to work instead.

Richard Rubin '05 was in a subway station when the explosions occurred, but he only learned about the disaster when he arrived at school. Someone explained to him what happened and the first thought that ran through his mind was "God damn them."

He did not know anybody hurt in the attacks, though his host family lives just 10 minutes away from where one bomb exploded. But he said that his host father heard the explosions.

Unlike Westheimer, Rubin said the response in Spain is similar to that of 9/11. "People light candles, write messages, go to Mass - the televisions and radios are turned on constantly wherever you go."

Walking around the city, Rubin notices services to remember the victims. He feels that what occurred was so tragic that it is impossible to capture. But he has no intentions of returning to America before his studies in Madrid are complete

"And to sit back and contemplate what has actually happened is so unpleasant and very hard to do, that you almost don't want to do it."

Another student studying in Madrid, Amanda Jacklin '05, was in her 9:00 a.m. Spanish class when she heard about the attacks. She became frightened and sick to her stomach, thinking, "How could this have happened again?"

She said Madrid is in a state of "anger" and "sadness." But while there are continuing protests against Al Qaeda and ETA, she said people seem to be going on with their normal lives.

"I've heard people say that they refused to let their daily life stop on account of the terrorists, because that is what they want."

Diana Yarmovich '05 was in her hostess' apartment - in the northern part of the city and far from the train stations - when the bombs exploded. She received a call from her roommate who told her not to go to school because something terrible had happened.

Yarmovich did not really understand what was occurring until she received "like a million calls from the U.S."

"The Spanish flags with the black ribbons are hanging everywhere," she said. "There is a shrine in Puerta del Sol, the center of the city. Posters with black ribbons are everywhere and people are just showing support."

Yarmovich also does not know any victims and said nobody from her program was injured.

Students from Spain here at Brandeis also responded with shock. Ana Urmeneta (GRAD) said she found out about the attacks Thursday morning, when her roommate woke her. She then spent the next three hours talking to her family online and listening to Spanish radio.

"I was very worried about my friends who live in Madrid," she said. "I was very angry."

She said she heard the solidarity in Spain was "amazing" after the attacks and that some of her friends went to donate blood.

Urmeneta also feels the attacks influenced the results of Sunday's parliamentary elections. The Socialist Party, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, won 164 of 350 seats in the Spanish Parliament.

Urmeneta said many Spaniards believe that Al Qaeda is responsible for the attacks because Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's outgoing Popular Party supported President Bush in last year's American-led invasion of Iraq. Angered over their support for the U.S., she said many voted for the Socialist Party instead.

But Zapatero said he will continue to maintain close relations with America.

"The Socialist Party is going to keep relationships with all the governments of the world, including the United States, even though we don't agree on some issues," CNN quoted Zapatero as saying on Monday. "That is part of democracy-that we get along with every single nation."

Urmeneta also said elections should have been postponed for one month, or until people can collect themselves.

"Elections should have been one month later because lots of people vote on anger, but we are still shocked and we can't vote like that," she said.

Van Der Meid said predicting student trends in studying abroad destinations is a challenging task, but some may think twice about studying in Madrid or Europe. But he said even since 9/11, students are eager to learn about the rest of the world and he does not expect a decrease in interest.

"If any change or shift occurs, it will probably be in [a] location of study rather than not going abroad at all," he said.