USA Chat

A lot of people join #usa for a simple reason: to speak Spanish for a while after a full day in English. It is the room for Latinos living in the United States — Mexicans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Dominicans, Central Americans and Spaniards — each with their own accent and nobody switching language. There are dedicated rooms for Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Dallas.

The three hours between coasts are what you notice most. When it is midnight in New York and people start dropping off, it is 9pm in California and the evening is just getting going: the room refreshes in shifts and stays alive far longer than a single-country room. The gap with Spain runs from six hours on the east coast to nine on the west.

The subjects are the ones people raise here rather than back home: papers and paperwork, rent and work, where to find food from home, which school to send the kids to, and the usual mix of football from there with sport from here. It is also where people ask about cities — who lives where, what rent is like, whether a move is worth it. San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco have rooms too; all at United States rooms.