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That's Entertainment
Sep. 6th, 2004 02:15 pmA couple weeks ago my half-sister asked me what there is to do in Qatar, which is really a very good question. The Lonely Planet guide suggests that four days is ample to enjoy all that Qatar has to offer. Luckily, there are more options for expatriates.
Let's start with the typical American leisure activities: TV and movies.
After having lived without a television for a year or two, we once again have access in our home to the joys of network programming. During our first few weeks here I watched WAY too much TV because, without a car and in temperatures too high to leave the house during the day, I had little else to do. We get about 50 channels, most of which are in Arabic, but Buffy and Angel and cop shows like Law & Order and NYPD Blue seem to be on about 24/7. There are also a couple movie channels, which play slightly censored American movies. (I think they only remove outright nudity.)
My favorite non-English channels are the Arabic music video channel and a religious programming channel that Foobart and I call "All Hajj, All the Time" because for most of the day it shows people praying at the Kaaba in Mecca. (I suppose we should call it All Umrah All the Time, because if you make an pilgrimage to Mecca during a month other than Dhul Hijjah it doesn't count as a Hajj.) I enjoy watching this channel for a couple of reasons: it's my only chance to see prayers, since as a non-Muslim I can't enter a mosque or prayer room; it's the closest I'll ever get to Mecca for the same reason; and I get to practice my Arabic alphabet since they print the words of the prayers and readings on the screen as they're sung.
There are also several first-run movie theaters here; Foobart and I went to see I, Robot last week. (It was much better than we expected!) As on cable, movies have to pass a censor board before they can be shown, and we suspected that a second or two of the shower scene may have been cut, but for the most part movies are left alone. The high point of our movie experience was that two or three of the movie posters up on the walls of the theater have been, um, edited. Some lucky official has taken a Sharpie to the posters deemed to show too much female flesh, so that from a distance it appears that many of the actresses are wearing black bodysuits under their revealing dresses. So we had a great time inspecting all the movie posters to see what had been done to them. There was very little consistency in which pictures were seen as too licentious, and in retrospect I wonder if the few "edited" posters we saw were from older movies. Mores are changing quickly in Qatar. Oh, and another interesting aspect of watching a movie in Doha is that movie theaters, like normal theaters, have assigned seating.
Well, I seem to have written a tome just about the TV and movies. How sad! So far, the other major form of entertainment we have engaged in is shopping, which I have discussed in a couple of previous posts. Also, we make ample use of the gym and pool at our compound; I can count on one hand the number of days we haven't gone swimming in the evening. I'm making some progress on my feeble attempts at a breaststroke, and last night I dived for the first time!
Other forms of entertainment we are looking forward to enjoying when the weather improves are:
Let's start with the typical American leisure activities: TV and movies.
After having lived without a television for a year or two, we once again have access in our home to the joys of network programming. During our first few weeks here I watched WAY too much TV because, without a car and in temperatures too high to leave the house during the day, I had little else to do. We get about 50 channels, most of which are in Arabic, but Buffy and Angel and cop shows like Law & Order and NYPD Blue seem to be on about 24/7. There are also a couple movie channels, which play slightly censored American movies. (I think they only remove outright nudity.)
My favorite non-English channels are the Arabic music video channel and a religious programming channel that Foobart and I call "All Hajj, All the Time" because for most of the day it shows people praying at the Kaaba in Mecca. (I suppose we should call it All Umrah All the Time, because if you make an pilgrimage to Mecca during a month other than Dhul Hijjah it doesn't count as a Hajj.) I enjoy watching this channel for a couple of reasons: it's my only chance to see prayers, since as a non-Muslim I can't enter a mosque or prayer room; it's the closest I'll ever get to Mecca for the same reason; and I get to practice my Arabic alphabet since they print the words of the prayers and readings on the screen as they're sung.
There are also several first-run movie theaters here; Foobart and I went to see I, Robot last week. (It was much better than we expected!) As on cable, movies have to pass a censor board before they can be shown, and we suspected that a second or two of the shower scene may have been cut, but for the most part movies are left alone. The high point of our movie experience was that two or three of the movie posters up on the walls of the theater have been, um, edited. Some lucky official has taken a Sharpie to the posters deemed to show too much female flesh, so that from a distance it appears that many of the actresses are wearing black bodysuits under their revealing dresses. So we had a great time inspecting all the movie posters to see what had been done to them. There was very little consistency in which pictures were seen as too licentious, and in retrospect I wonder if the few "edited" posters we saw were from older movies. Mores are changing quickly in Qatar. Oh, and another interesting aspect of watching a movie in Doha is that movie theaters, like normal theaters, have assigned seating.
Well, I seem to have written a tome just about the TV and movies. How sad! So far, the other major form of entertainment we have engaged in is shopping, which I have discussed in a couple of previous posts. Also, we make ample use of the gym and pool at our compound; I can count on one hand the number of days we haven't gone swimming in the evening. I'm making some progress on my feeble attempts at a breaststroke, and last night I dived for the first time!
Other forms of entertainment we are looking forward to enjoying when the weather improves are:
- going walking on the Corniche
- checking out Aladdin's Kingdom
- a desert safari to the Inland Sea
- scuba diving!
