It’s been quite the junior year! This year marks my best and yet hardest year of my time here at Syracuse University. Through all the hard work and busy days I have been rewarded with the great honor of representing Syracuse University as a one of six engineers on a journey to Dubai to collaborate, learn, and experience a civil engineering internship. An opportunity of a lifetime!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Day 13 - Secret Trip 1 and 2!!!

So today was the first site visit of the trip. We try to get an extra early start on these days to avoid the extreme heat. We arrived at the Conrad Hotel located on Sheikh Zayed road around 8:10. What an awesome structure! It is projected to be a 7 star hotel with a few floors of for commercial use. The interior finishes in the mock up rooms were stunning. There is a ridiculous amount of marble in the hotel. There are a total of 50 floors and the structural work has been all completed. They are currently adding the exterior glass panels, called the curtain wall. This wall has no structural purpose it simply hangs off the core structure. This allows for a nice smooth exterior, and is very popular in Dubai.

50 floor Conrad Hotel! WOW so pretty.


The view from the top floor. If you look closely you can see the man made islands shaped like the world. Neat-O!

Funny story I got in a conversation with the Senior Project Engineer and he said it takes about 30 min to walk down 50 floors. I joking asked him if I could try to make it down in a quicker time. He was going to allow me to try but he wanted all us to see the steel structure that supports the 3 floor s of ball rooms. Darn! Walking the job site was a blast. It’s so awesome to see the engineering we learn in the classroom applied to actually build a world class building. Was fairly hot but I have a feeling it’s gonna get a lot worse…darn.



Once back at the office we had a wonderful surprise!!!!! We originally have a mystery weekend vacation this weekend. Instead Mr. Yabroudi decided to take us to Fujairah (one of the UAE Emirates)TOMORROW!!! Surprise!!! I like luxurious surprises. Well it gets better… for a bigger surprise he is deciding to take us to INDIA for 3 days after our midterm exam!! We were all so excited. Jumping with joy!! Wahooo. There is now in a little rush to get our Visa’s, but everything is still on schedule. This trip is turning out to be more than a adventure of a life time.
Ended the night in with movies, cards, computer games and blogging. Fun times!

We leave for India on June 2nd! I'll be going here! This is unreal!
Thanks for following and talk to you soon, Sean

PS I'm not sure I'll have internet in the hotel in Fujairah, so if you don't see blogs in the next few days I'll update once I'm back in Dubai. Take care everyone!
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1 comment:

  1. DonaldMay 30, 2011 at 5:14 PM

    Hey Sean,

    The Conrad Hotel looks impressive. Where does the marble come from? I don’t remember reading anything about marble quarries in the UAE. Iran? The Ayatollah’s Marble Quarry and Persian Rug Outlet? Where does Fred Flintstone work? He’s a bronto-crane operator and works at Slate’s Rock and Gravel Company. I wonder if Mr. Slate expanded the product line into marble. One on the universe’s unanswered questions is: Where did Barney Rubble work?

    I am sure you could have made it down 50 floors in less than 30 minutes. But, how fast could you have made it up? I thought the Conrad Hotel is supposed to open this year. How much more needs to be done? Great view from the 50th floor. I see a lot of sand. Does the blowing sand damage the glass structures?

    Two vacations – that’s cool? So, a DCC van to Jumairah. How do you get to India? Ferry ride from Dubai across the Strait of Hormuz to Bandar-Abbas, Iran. Then, it’s another day to Agra assuming you’re not going to make a stop in Mumbai. If you’re going to Mumbai, just south 400 km down the road is Goa, India. Jason Borne, an SU graduate by the way (a little known fact that I noticed as CIA Deputy Director, Pam Landy, was going through Bournes’s file), was living incognito for two years as he was trying to get his memory back. More importantly, does DCC have a company jet?

    I always enjoy reading your blog. The pictures are great. I hope you can resurrect your hard drive. I look forward to hearing more about work and play.

    With all my love,

    Dad

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