Internet Cafes and Iraqis

It's easy to forget how many Iraqis are in Jeramana. When I first moved here, I would hear an Iraqi accent while walking down the street at least once a day. But through the summer to now, discounting my Iraqi friends, I don't hear that much random Iraqi. Except on the internet.

I'm applying to grad school, and thus have been spending a lot of time in internet cafes. Since my laptop died last spring, cafes are my only computer resource.

After work, the woman's room fills up. It's much less smoky than the "men's", which is mostly used for playing network games (this is part of the reason for the divide - men say bad words while in the heat of computer battle and heaven forbid one of us hear these words!). The gender divide isn't enforced and seems to be more a function of the rooms' purposes - all the game players are dudes and most of the chatters are ladies, but men too use the ladies' room to chat without the background noise of victory or defeat. Families, old people, children, and young ladies and men chat away with family and friends in Iraq, Europe, America, and Canada. By 8, every computer in the women's room is occupied with the occupant chatting away on skype or hotmail or yahoo messenger. While I try to convey to one school or another why I'm really special, I'm surrounded by Iraqi dialect.
"zayn, zayn"
"gultilich"
"ishtag lich!"

(Besides the tell-tale g and ch sounds, Iraqi dialect is much harsher than Shami. It's hilarious, as every single dialect of Arabic is. Seriously. While some are funnier than others- Lattakian, as spoken on De'ah Diyah, must be near the top- even Shami, which should at this point should be neutral, is hilarious when extra-Shami, as on Bab al-Hara. Lebanese - always hilarious though personally I don't appreciate the limp-wristed effete used with it. In Jeramana, lots of people speak Druzi - hilarious! I know its not only me that thinks this, as, every single person I told today I'm travelling to Aleppo for Eid, said, "Itchbak kheito?" and laughed.)

Parents hold up children to the webcam while boyfriends and girlfriends flirt. Just today, the whole room turned to watch a young man sing to his love. The man next to me helpfully tried to explain the situation to me (as if the language of sweethearts isn't immediately identifiable) by saying, "He sing to his friend." and after a minute "His friend is a girl." I told him thanks in Arabic, but I got that as most dudes don't sing love songs to their men friends (at least not in crowded internet cafes).

It's great to think about how connected technology lets us be. There are some people there everyday when I go in. Despite the distance, they can connect . But it also reminds me how we've (America) destroyed this country and scattered its people to all corners of the globe. We've broken up families and left thousands in limbo, just waiting here in Syria to go back or move to the West. They chat with those left behind and those that have them behind. And then I go back to my essays and write about how my experiences in Syria will enrich my future research.