My Nine Years Old Dream

National University of Ireland, Galway

For 9 years, I had a dream.

I wanted to travel to Europe and continue my academic studies. Some people think it is a straightforward dream but it wasn’t for me. At first, I wasn’t allowed to travel as a single female, a young naive one that might get lost, corrupted, badly influenced or seduced by the western societies. Silly as it sounds, I couldn’t change a whole society’s mentality. I couldn’t convince my mum who was the first female in her family to attend college after fighting traditions that says girls shouldn’t be further educated and instead should be “married”. I couldn’t convince my dad who supported my decision in studying Engineering, a not-female-friendly domain that according to society will stand in my way of .. again, getting married. They were both under the society spell and it was a nonnegotiable matter for them. But I never stopped dreaming. I never stopped searching for a way to accomplish this. If anything, this made me want to do it even more.

My Little Syria, My Big New York: The Paradox of Home

Damascus, December 2012, Last photo

I love Syria.

I can’t explain why most of the time and I stopped trying at some point. I still carry it inside me despite four years of separation, four years of living in other countries. I don’t know when I should normally move on, stop counting the years, and find another home. I hide Syria inside me. It is a crime these days and I can’t let go yet. When I get asked what do I miss there the most, I think of all the things I left behind but most importantly I think I miss me there. I was a different person. I had different looks, thoughts, words, outfits, and friends. Everything about me has changed now, for better or for worse that is not clear yet, but that previous version of me is still there. I hide it also deep inside me.
They call it integration. I call it Schizophrenia.

I try sometimes to define home, in order to replicate it, replace it. I fail terribly and end up with a bigger disappointment.

What is home? It is a smell of traditional home cooked meal that welcomes you when you open the door of your house after a long day, a condensed kiss and a hug from a grandmother, a hysterical laugh with an old time friend, a favorite coffee shop that knows your usual order, a loud family gathering you secretly wish to escape to avoid the endless questions and interrogations, familiar faces and roads most walked. It is all the little things. It can’t be written down, can’t be described to those who didn’t live it. It is the hole inside the soul that can’t be seen.

I recently discovered a term for that feeling, a Portuguese word that doesn’t have an equal translation in English. Saudade.    

Saudade is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return.

Saudade was once described as “the love that remains” after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone or something that should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. It brings sad and happy feelings altogether, sadness for missing and happiness for having experienced the feeling. [wikipedia]

I discovered this word when Kinan announced the title of the next piece he was going to play. “Saudade”. Kinan missed home, the same home I was longing. And as I could only use words to express that, he used musical notes, in a great deeper way.

“Sing me home”

It was a life serendipity gift in the new year. I was invited to Osechi, a traditional Japanese food at the new year, at my Japanese friend’s house, Mari and her lovely family. Since my move to NY, most of my time with people was outdoors. People don’t cook, don’t do indoors gatherings, don’t show you their personal space and memories, don’t get to know each other closely. It is mostly casual chats at a loud bar with lots of alcohol that makes these chats even shallower (or sometimes weirdly deep). So it was nice to have a change from all of that and have a dinner in a homey environment with kids, elderly people, and homemade food. Later that night, Kaoru, my friend’s partner and amazing musician invited us to check out his studio in the basement. We got the chance to try a unique collection of musical instruments and hear Karou’s interesting stories about music, culture, and history.

“I have a Syrian musician friend” Kaoru said after knowing we are from Syria. “His name is Kinan ..” and before he could finish his sentence my husband and I asked “Kinan Azmeh?!”

Kaoru replied in a surprise “Yes, you know him? He is going to play next Wednesday and I will join him” I exchanged a disbelief look with my husband that turned into a quick flashback. Kinan the famous clarinetist from Damascus who we used to attend his concerts back home. He was a close friend to two of our friends. I could hear his music playing in my head bursting with all the faces, places and scents from back home.

Kaoru to the left, Kinan to the right

In the heart of NY, in a small crowded pub, Wednesday came very fast not to keep us waiting longer. We met Kinan briefly before the play. I don’t know if it was his Syrian looks, his dialect or the warm memories he brought back to us, but it was a joyful moment to meet him, to meet home within him. We met again shortly, this time he was on stage, and we were sitting impatiently, waiting for him to play on the strings of our hearts, not aware that he was about to break and reconcile our hearts over and over during that night. Kinan took us back to Damascus, to the times before the war, to the times during the war. He was introducing every piece he played with few sentences telling its background story. One piece was about his favorite town in Syria, where he used to go with his family since he was a kid during summer times. This town was “Jesreen” which he dedicated the piece for. My heart skipped a beat when I heard the name of it.

Jesreen is the town in Damascus suburb’s where my husband bought our future house, the house to live in as a married couple just starting their shared life. He spent years paying its loan, crafting its details, supervising the workers while they finished its structure. The dream house stayed a dream as we never got the chance to live there. War started, the suburbs turned into a conflict zone before it got besieged and we eventually had to leave the country, and live in someone else’s house in another country. The last thing we knew about the house was that a displaced family of a disabled old man with seven daughters are staying in it after their house got destroyed forcing them to flee the area. Jesreen is not a popular town in Syria. It is barely mentioned in the news. I almost forgot about it. During our journey and after going through dark phases we had to let go of some memories, you can’t hold on to all the pain. There is no time to stop and grieve. You assess the damage, you prioritize the pain. One month after we lost the house, we lost my father in law. A place or a soul? We picked his soul and moved on to the next phase. Kinan’s clarinet shattered us into pieces at one note then put us back together at another that felt like a warm musical hug. My smile was getting wider while my tears dropped unconsciously.

Amazing Kinan with my husband and I

Kinan’s sonatas went in sequence, Kaoru joined in a very graceful blend between middle eastern and Japanese. Kinan and Kaoru talked to each other in music. They argued, laughed and debated with their musical instruments. It was one extraordinary piece I ever watched and listened to. Finally, Kinan played his last piece “Wedding”, dedicated to all those who managed to fall in love in the past five years, despite everything happening. I reached out to my husband’s hand and pressed it gently. We couldn’t avoid that dedication. We needed this reminder in the middle of our busy hectic lives. We needed to stop at some point during those years to catch our breaths, to accept all of it and appreciate the fact that we survived it.

Kinan’s music took us home that day, Kinan was home.

Atlantic Avenue

I stared at the glass window of the shop in disbelief. The rustic sign stood proudly over the shop although missing few letters, Arabic letters. I entered the shop to ask about the price of the big mosaic handmade box in the middle of the display. Greeted by a smile of an old gray hair man. “Come in, I will show you more, you are from Syria, right?”. I looked confused but happy to be recognized “Yes! And you?”

-”Of course! Ahla w sahla, welcome”

We connected immediately. That’s all what we needed to know about each other. He hasn’t yet answered my question about the price, he just said the classic sentence that each Syrian merchandiser has to say “We won’t disagree over the price, don’t worry about it.”. I smiled almost laughing. I hated that phrase so much back home. I even used to leave the shop because I knew I was about to either get ripped off or he is just wasting my time because he doesn’t have what I am asking for. But this time it was different. It was so good to hear it and with a Syrian Dialect. Oh, I missed this.

Syrian Shop on Atlantic Avenue

He started showing me all the boxes he had with different patterns and sizes. I kept asking for more. I wanted to see each and every piece he had of this treasure. Eventually, he pulled out a big white mail bag containing more pieces. “This was shipped from Damascus, look at the stamps and address. I go there every three months to pick the products by myself. I don’t trust anyone” The address in Arabic stated somewhere in Damascus. My Damascus. I didn’t even know they still do this business back there. “ All factories in the suburbs were destroyed or stopped producing. Some took their business to other countries and some opened smaller ones inside Damascus where it is relatively safer”. My heart twisted a bit. One of the boxes was still wrapped in a paper, a piece of newspaper from back home. It was called “Tishreen” which means October, it was named after October war 1973 between Syria and Israel which ended by a truce and ironically both sides announcing their victory to their people. I was trying to read the news. I was hungry to read anything printed in Arabic. I was twisting my head to follow the sentences wrapped around the box. All the headlines were about the war, the fake victories, the unbeatable army, the arrested traitors and the illusional state of security. George Orwell would be very proud, maybe surprised when he discover how his fictional novel 1984 turned into a reality. An ugly one. I would have never stopped for seconds to read this rubbish back home, but that day I asked the old man to keep the box wrapped with this newspaper. He insisted in wrapping the box with a fancy gift wrap but I declined. I want this. I want to take home, home.

He showed me many other things    

I was looking for a gift. I found a treasure.

I discovered several surrounding shops that had even more products from home, mostly food: cheese, bread, pies, spices, sweets and many many more. It was astonishing how food can take you home in moments, happy moments.

That street will always be my secret gateway to home.

Little Syria

I was standing at the bus stop when I noticed the Arabic letters in the poster next to it. It is been 4 years since I saw anything in my native language in a public place. It was weird and surprisingly joyful. It somehow feels more like home when you can see signs with your native language around you.

“Little Syria, NY. An immigration community life and legacy”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was an exhibit about the life of Syrians in New York. I didn’t even know there was a community. The exhibit was held in a more interesting place. Elise Island, the immigrants Islands. The old days “border control” for the US.

We took the ferry to the island and started the tour with the little Syria exhibit. Syrian music was sneaking from the room which was filled with important figures among history who lived in New York and shaped the Syrian community. From merchandisers that started businesses and imported Syrians products to NY, to journalists and writers who started their own Arabic published newspapers. 

Little Syria Exhibit

“What smells remind you of home?” A sign was held in front of two open boxes with a space to smell through. Za’atar, or thyme herbs mixed with spices goes straight to the heart when you sniff it. It is a famous dish for breakfast mixed with olive oil. The second box had Arabic coffee seeds mixed with cardamom. I used it find its taste bitter but always enjoyed its magical aroma while preparing it for my parents or anytime we have guests over. Many stories were told over coffee, many gossips, and many memories.

Inhabitants of “Little Syria” neighborhood were ironically coming from a once called country “Greater Syria”, which was a joint of what is now known as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, Iraq, Kuwait and parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. 

The exhibit ended with a very informative documentary “The Sacred” by Ozge Dogan that narrates what happened to Little Syria, and how it was destroyed by tunnel construction and real estate business, scattering everyone around New York.

The Sociology professor Sharon Zukin analyzes the event in the documentary saying

A global city is based on flows. That means that everything is changing around us in the city, but people naturally desire to put down roots. We want to create places that we can feel emotionally attached to, often we do that through ethnic solidarity, living with people of similar social class. We try to find our place in the city and stay in that place. So it is extremely important that we as humans counter the mobility, the forces that are constantly moving around us and moving us around with roots so that we can stay in place. When our familiarities are taken away from us we feel lost we feel, we feel as though part of our life is stripped away from us. When an entire group of people is displaced by gentrification or by construction projects that group is torn from its roots and it takes a long time for the group to come together again somewhere else if they do.. 

They say history repeat itself. The documentary although talking about a late period, it was rubbing salt in a recent wound. The Syrian diaspora was extending. If people felt lost by moving from a neighborhood to the other and losing track of their usual places and faces, what would it feel like leaving the whole country?

Elise Island Museum

I left the exhibit with a heartbreak and went to tour the museum one room after the other, which only made the heartbreak bigger. The whole museum talked about immigrants journey as soon as they arrive at this Island. The inspection they go through and the temporary life they have on the island before they get admitted into the country to start a whole new life. Immigrants from all over the world who ran away from various types of injustice circumstances to come to this place and work hard, day and night, to provide a better future for the next generation. They faced a different kind of injustice, they faced racism, discrimination, minimum wage and unfair working conditions. One room showed the protests that spread against migrants. They were shamelessly published in newspapers, one for each nationality, Irish, Italian, Asians and the list goes on. It was a challenging journey for all of them who contributed enormously in building this city. This city that is still not sure how it feels towards them.

Refugees are (not) welcome

Weeks from the visit, the newly elected president signed an effective immediately order restricting access to immigrants and refugees from seven countries, first on the list was Syria.

Kinan couldn’t come back to NY as he was performing outside the state. The shop owner I met welcomed me with a disturbed face the next time I visited him. Clearly, he wouldn’t be able to carry on his business and keep traveling back and forth to bring Syrian goods. Atlantic Avenue was flaming with protesters. It took me few long days to know that my diplomatic visa is exempt from the order. It didn’t matter much. I already felt unwelcomed, again, in another country that I thought might be a new home. And I couldn’t wait to leave.

Having huge support from friends I prefer to call a second family helped me get through this. The demonstrations that filled New York streets were overwhelming and something I am not used to. I am used to banners asking to kick out Syrians not welcoming them. Syrians are not even welcome in Syria.

Being a Syrian is undeniably the crime of this century. The crime that I hide but don’t regret. One day, after all this ends, there will be a museum to narrate the history of the Syrian war. They will film all the major events and picture the diaspora in details with statistics, but no one will ever mention how all countries leaders let down the Syrian people and participated in their holocaust.

And most importantly, no one will know that Saudade slowly ended the life in many Syrian homeless hearts.

Washington Square Park

What if the world doesn’t want to be saved?

My way home

My doctor advised me to consider talking to a therapist. She gave me some sleeping pills as a temporary relief, a short time escape from my thoughts that are raising my heartbeat. I want to sleep through it, maybe when I wake up the world would a better place? A therapist will not solve this. This needs restore factory settings.

I am done, done fighting, done swimming against the current, flying against the wind, playing against the rules, traveling the road less traveled, changing the unchangeable, naively believing that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It does not. It eats you up, it crawls into your nightmare and it opens the door to your hidden demons. It does not kill you, it just makes you wish it did already.

Networks, Airbnb, and the United Nations

It’s been over a month now.

The butterflies in my stomach are making less hustle. My mind is gradually accepting the fact that I am in New York. I read all about it. I naively thought I prepared myself for everything I would face. The fast noisy life pace, the dirty streets, the crazy subways and not the most friendly people. I brought few of my books and some pieces of my past just to make sure I don’t lose my identity in the cultural melting pot. I hugged my husband as much as I could before leaving to be ready for the loneliness that will haunt me there. But no “Lonely Planet” guide can ever give you a perspective of a city more than actually being there.

I miss him already. I looked at him through the glass window of the bus that is taking me to the airport. I don’t want to leave this. We did this before, we lived in different places, different countries, different time zones and I hated it every day of it. Why am I doing this? Why am I leaving everything behind and going to the lonely unfriendly city? I tried to remember all the reasons that pushed me to take this decision.

Syria & Google, The Forbidden Relationship

Being a Syrian with dreams and passions can be dangerous.

It causes depression when you realize all the added obstacles to your already challenging life. It can also put you in complicated situations that you can’t simply explain, but one thing for sure is that when you get to fulfill a dream, it is definitely worth it.

I had a “crush” on Google (who hadn’t?) when they started shining. As a Software Engineer that understands what it is like to provide a clean and to the point service and as a consumer who benefits from it, I always admired their way of thinking. I feel proud that I am from the generation who got to witness Google’s evolvement in the Tech industry. From a brilliant search box to an email server that amazingly filters spam that Microsoft couldn’t back then (I am not sure if they still couldn’t as I switched since then to Gmail and never looked back!) to more and more products till recently a smart home device; Google Home. I even owe it to Google Talk (before it was called hangouts) for the thousands of messages between me and my -now- husband when everyone else was using Hotmail Messenger and Yahoo Chat. I remember their withdrawn products as well. Google buzz? Google Wave? These were products that didn’t make it but Google always managed to gracefully announce their failure, learn from it and think of something else to improve. They will not try to cover it and build on top of a failed product, and I appreciated that.

I always dreamed of working with Google in any way, get to interact with their experts or even try their products. There was always one thing that made my relation with Google difficult; The United States Sanctions Laws.

I am a woman, I am brave

I got the chance recently to watch this inspiring TED talk by Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, where she talked about how the society raises girls to be perfect and boys to be brave. How boys are allowed to try, fail, break stuff and build it again, while girls were expected to be perfect, and that ends up affecting their skills and behaviours in their future life.

Coding, it’s an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure. Code breaks and then it falls apart, and it often takes many, many tries until that magical moment when what you’re trying to build comes to life. It requires perseverance. It requires imperfection.

That made me think of my childhood. I remember how my dad gave me full authority to be brave and adventurous. I have three brothers but I was the loudest, the strongest, the most curious, and the one who would push the swing the highest to the sky when we went to the playground.

I would fight with them and they knew they weren’t allowed to hurt me in any way and I kind of abused this power to my favor. Whenever anyone of them would go crying and complaining to my dad, he would just smile and try to make it up for them. He wanted me to be able to defend myself and not allow anyone to hurt me. He raised me brave.

Me with one of my three brothers

Whenever anyone asked my dad how many kids do you have, he would sarcastically answer: “ I have 3 girls and a boy” referring to me as the boy. And this answer always cheered me up. I even used to tease my brothers by saying “HAHA he called you girls!” as if being a girl is an insult. Now when I grew up, I realized how ridiculous this “complement” was.

I realized this the most when I wasn’t a child anymore, when I became a woman. When I was not allowed to be the loudest anymore. When my endless questions were prohibited and considered a sin. I couldn’t argue anymore. No more running and discovering. No more fighting with my brothers, they are stronger now and they are the ones who could protect me. I am a woman. I am supposed to be weak, and a reason for my dad to always be worried.

I had to adjust to a new style of life where I wasn’t allowed to be brave anymore. I should be a quiet normal stay-at-home girl and focus on studying. This was a huge turn in my life but I never gave up. The little brave girl inside me was still loud and curious. I couldn’t simply make her “un”brave. I was still determined to be the best but I had to think of another way to do so. It was almost during the same time when my family bought a computer at home. That was my new friend. I spent hours trying to discover it. I clicked on each and every single icon on that system. (You can guess it was not connected to the internet by then!). I felt satisfied feeding my curiosity, but it kept asking for more. After several attempts to convince my parents to get an internet connection, I successfully opened a whole new world to discover. I developed a new interest for websites, and of course, I needed so badly to understand how they actually worked. I still remember my first modest programming project using Microsoft FrontPage (it no longer exists now). I decided to build an HTML website for my high school. I started learning by dragging & dropping, taking a sneak peek at what was going on in the back end and what is being generated by every action I did.

My curiosity led me to study Engineering. I ended up graduating as a Software Engineer, going into many adventures and now living in Galway where I never thought I will be. This degree at some point saved my life during the Syrian war and I will always be grateful for having it.

Even though my over protective dad was strict at some points, but I owe it to him that I am who I am today.

I am brave.

* I gave this talk on celebrating international women’s day in Galway 10-03-2016

What is it like to talk about Syria?

“Soft gates, hard paper” by Prof. Henk Van Houtum 

When I left Syria during the harsh winter of 2012, I packed all my memories in two big bags and left what I couldn’t carry due to flights’ restrictions on luggage weight. I used to think a lot about the leftovers; my fluffy cat, my tidy books, my grandmother, and my piano, but after things got worse, I didn’t have the luxury to think about all that. I was just concentrating on surviving, so I blocked all the memories coming from Syria. My mind and heart simply suffered from an overload and I had to clear out some space for new ones, or that is what I thought.

“Go Home” The Refugee Crisis from a Syrian / EU perspective

“Go Home”

This phrase was left as a comment on a refugee’s picture in a piece of news on social media. This comment was not the only one. It was among other hateful comments asking refugees crossing EU illegally to go back from where they came from. Why? I will tell you the story.

How Racist Could The Irish Be?

This picture was taken from :http://www.theirishstore.com/blog/2015/04/20/awesome-irish-sayings/

I love Galway.
Well, beside the weather. Everything here looks just perfect. It has an unexplained vibe, a nice mix between interesting history and bright future, a lot of stuff and events going on around, not too big to be lost in and not too small to get bored and above all it has the nicest people in the world. I think that was the first thing that I realised when I moved to this city. How friendly everyone is. I think it is infectious. It spreads in the air. You have to be nice to be able to live in this city. People make you a nice person by their acts of kindness, even if you weren’t one. At least that was what I thought.

And the Oscar goes to..

I recently got the great chance to attend the Extended Semantic Web Conference held in Slovenia. I presented our contribution to the Linked Data Mining Challenge that I talked about in an earlier post, and yes we won!

It was a positive experience and my first step into the research world which I kind of liked it. I got the chance to meet a lot of cool researches done all around the world. In addition, I joined the N2 Women Lunch where I met great ladies working in IT & research domain and discussed different obstacles we face as females in this field.

I came back to Galway full of excitement and energy to do more in my life, specially after knowing I will be part of launching Galway branch for… or you know what? let’s keep it a secret until then. Stay Tuned!