My Muse: Steve

Our friend, Steve Muse (husband of Susan--my old roommate), sent us a list of questions about Qatar. I tried to find a good picture of Steve to go along with this post, but this was the best I could do. Apparently, everytime we are with Steve and Susan we only take pictures of their dogs. Here is a picture I have of their "family" visiting us right before we moved: Susan is in the chair, Jon is playing with their dogs, and those sexy legs on the side are Steve. :)

In response to the posting with the questions from my neices and nephews, Steve said:

Well I really like the Q&A session so I have a few of my own:

Do the people in Qatar think that O.J. is guilty or innocent?
I doubt they care. Although, ironically, an old Oprah was on last night that had the assistant district attorney that prosecuted OJ on as a guest. I will see if can get the ratings from the TV network to see how it did. :)

Are American sports a big deal there? Do they have ESPN? Or are they playing Cricket and Soccer all the time?
They have ESPN and Fox Sports and a couple other sports channels available by satellite, but we don’t get them because it is too expensive for it to be worth it. I don’t think American sports are very popular. Americans will get together here to play basketball—there are several courts. I think the Young Men in our ward have played basketball for mutual activity for the last 3 months at least. Occasionally you will see a couple of people in a field playing Cricket. Soccer is HUGE. Every neighborhood has a sport club, which (as far as I can tell) is just a soccer club. I haven’t counted how many stadiums there are in Qatar, but I would say there are at least 10 in Doha alone. They are huge. I have no idea what supports them or keeps them going. I am working on a good conspiracy theory on world domination through soccer.

Do you think we could make a fortune selling water sealant in Qatar?
Jon and I joke around all the time about starting a plumbing business and becoming millionaires. Put together a business plan and we can be partners.

What do the people of Qatar call themselves? Qatens? Qatarians?
Qataris. Qatari is used as an adjective and as a noun. For example: The Qatari food is really good—and—Our neighbor is Qatari.

Do they have different types of sand there? Or does it seem like the sand came for one giant rock?
When you look at the landscape, it does looks like it all came from one giant rock. However, Hallmark and local souvenir places sell cool frames that have 10 different kinds of Qatari sand layered together. (Like the sand art project you made in elementary school or summer camp.) It is amazing how different all the kinds of sands are.

The Movie theaters, do they show mostly U.S. movies, or is there a popular underground independent Qatarian movie making scene?
Both. Last night we went and saw “Hoodwinked” It cracked me up. It was a dumb/funny movie, but worth seeing for the Fletch references. I highly recommend it to any true Fletch fan. Sometimes we have current movies, most of the time though we are about 3-6 months behind the US. Arabic movies make up about a third of what is playing at the theaters. From the posters they look like soap operas. I am not sure where they come from…too underground for me. Other interesting movie fact: Movies are edited here, but not always like you think. I was surprise that they have played Munich, Passion of the Christ, Jarhead, Duce Bigelow, etc. They don’t edit them for political ideas or language at all, just kissing (and probably nudity.) Public displays of affection are not really seen as appropriate. It cracks us up to see how they edit out the kissing scenes, but it is nice not to have to worry about sex scenes either.

What is popular music there?
American, Arabic, French, Indian…they have it from all over. I am trying to find some good local garage bands…but no luck yet. There is not enough good music that comes from the US. It is mostly Brittany Spears and bad R&B/Rap.

Are the people of Qatar as concerned with our politics and what happens here, as we in the U.S. are concerned with their politics?
Even more so. Qataris have a much better understanding of the US than we do of the Middle East. Most Americans have never even heard of Qatar….but then again a lot of American’s couldn’t pick Utah off of a map either. They pride themselves on being really educated about world politics. The US actually has pretty filtered reporting about the Middle East. All we (as Americans) “know” about the Middle East is that it is hot, has terrorists, and is always at war. While some of this is true for certain regions, there are a lot of different “worlds” and cultures that make up the Middle East. I think that most Americans that visit Doha are pleasantly surprised because it is so much nicer than what they were expecting.

Do they have pets like bulldogs and stuff? Or do they mostly have lizards and stuff like that?
There are a lot of stray cats everywhere. They seem pretty clean, so at first I thought they were pets. Apparently they are left alone because they keep the rodent population in check. I have seen very few dogs and when I do, they belong to Americans/Europeans. I don’t think Arabs usually have dogs as pets—I need to find out why. I have seen fish and bird pet stores, but that is about it. I found a cockroach in our kitchen the other day…does that count?

Are the cell phones they use there cooler than the ones they have here?
Yes, but they are more expensive. Cell phone plans are a lot more flexible here because you don’t have to sign up for a two year contract. You can pay by usage or by monthly or yearly plans. The downside of that is that you don’t get a free or discounted phone when you sign up. You have to buy them at full price. You will understand if you have ever tried to buy a cell phone without a cell phone plan—the prices are about the same. Jon and I both have the really simple Nokia model (which is like the first cell phone I ever owned.) It was about $50.00. The next cheapest phone is about $150.00 and then they go up exponentially from there. EVERYONE has a cell phone, only they call them mobiles. Everyone looks at me crazy when I refer to my “cell” phone.

Thanks for all the questions Steve. You and Susan both are "true friends." We miss you!