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Roseville Student Studying In Brussels Says Attacks Won't Sway Her To Come Home

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (CBS13) — A Roseville family is relieved that their daughter is safe after terrorists struck Brussels on Tuesday.

We spoke with Julia Hildebrand about her experience in the 12 hours since bombs went off at a Brussels airport and a metro station.

She described her Belgian classroom on Tuesday when every phone started buzzing.

"Half of the class was crying and the other half of us were just kind of in shock," she said. "They were running out of class to call their parents to make sure their parents were okay because it was during rush-hour time here."

Students at Vesalius College in Brussels were dismissed from class after the two attacks hit an hour apart. The first bomb went off at Brussels International Airport at 8 a.m., when Hildebrand was getting ready for school.

"I was kind of following the news. I went to school at 9 this morning. I was in class for about 20 minutes and then I saw the other update," she said.

The second attack hit the Maelbeek metro station just two miles from her classroom.

"When I heard that, I thought 'OK this is a serious situation,'" she said.

Born and raised in Carmichael, Hildebrand began studying international European law in Brussels last summer. Before that, she took three trips to the country as an exchange student.

"I love it here," she said. "I can't understand it. I can't understand having beliefs so radical that you would think that killing innocent people is OK."

But even though she's back on alert, she tells her parents the attacks aren't going to run her back home.

"I said, 'No, I'm not. You know this.' If I go back to the US, I have to worry about mass shootings in my school. Here you know I mean we have Paris. But bad things happen everywhere," she said.

Classes have been canceled for the rest of the week, but she says she won't let it stop her from living her life.

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