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!

Day 12 - Slow Day

This morning we continued on cost estimating and pricing. After yet another mediocre lunch, we were given our final assignment. At the end of the program we are required to submit a technical report on all the job sites we will be visiting. After our project briefing we were given some time to start our reports and get a good feel of what will be expected of us.
Home for a workout and lounging by the pool with Mike, Katelyn, Rodregue, and Anthony. For dinner cooked up some eggs and toast topped with tomato marinara. Some may think it’s kinda gross but I like it! Haha. Ultimately, a low key day, but still loving my time in Dubai. Thanks for following, missing those at home, Sean


Here is a fun picture to enjoy because I didn't take any today.

Day 11 - ARCHITECTURE!!! and Birthday!!

First off, today is Dr. Clemence's Birthday!!! (our advisor of the program). This morning we had yet another quiz… on yesterday’s material. Once the quizzes were complete, off to the classroom for another lecture on project cost estimation. For a little background, after an architect gets the conceptual and aesthetic design drawings approved by the owner, an additional set of drawings, called tender (bid) drawings are sent out to contractors to place a bid on a project. A bid is a document submitted to the owner that states the amount of money that a contractor can complete the project. So today we learned the steps of making a bid and how to estimate project coasts. We had a brief cost estimating activity to further develop the skills. New and valuable skills! YEH!

In the afternoon we visited ERGA architects, an associating company of DCC. Let me first say that I WANT TO WORK HERE SOME DAY… well maybe a little closer to home. They have done and are doing some amazing work with DCC! Like the stunning 014 building (see below, also called the Swiss cheese building. A few other projects include the Rolex Tower, Al Manara Villa, and the Guardian Towers. The ERGA offices are beautifully designed with splashes of color amongst all glass walls and wood fixtures and furniture. I got excited just walking through the offices. As we entered the building all we could hear was a endless clicking of key boards and mouses. Everyone was had at work drafting on AutoCAD and analyzing structures with SAP2000 (structural analysis program). I was good to see the some of the programs I'm familiar with being used in their professional environment. Thanks for following my adventure, Sean




014 Building! WOW, right!! Definitely a groundbreaking building with it intricate exterior structure with hundreds of different holes in it.

ERGA designer creating foundation systems.

ERGA scale model! I would enjoy trying to complete somthing like this someday!

Our day finished up early so we were home by 3:30. Perfect!, time for a good workout prior to a celebration for Dr. Clememce's Birthday. Let me add that Dr. Clemence living proof of how maintaining a mentally and physically fit literally adds years onto life. He is what I want to be at his age. Haha. So to celebrate, Mr. Yabroudi took us out to Cafe Havana. As we entered the restaurant it was obvious that business was slow. This did not dictate the quality of the food! Our meal was so tasty. They served calamari and coconut shrimp as a appetizer. I was a happy camper! The second I saw grilled salmon on the menu I knew I had to get it. Everyone was happy with their food. The baked lasagna that Pierre got looked killer, and he had no problem finishing the large serving. My salmon was good, I do love my fish! Although it was slightly overcooked and still not as good as my Dad's salmon, it was enjoyable. Conversation at dinner was fun and scattered with stories and jokes told by Dr. Clemence. For dessert, Mr. Yabroudi brought a strawberry creme cake! It was a yellow cake with custard layer filling, topped with a light butter creme frosting and fresh strawberries. Was
the perfect end to to a great meal and birthday celebration!

It was nice drive back to the apartments. Some amazing buildings here!!

Day 10 - A Day to Learn

Fewww...No quiz today due to the demanding day yesterday. Today was a day filled with new materials and learning. Two lectures and a lot of material; our first lecture in the morning was intro to IT infrastructure and convergent technologies. Although, it does not sound like the most interesting topic, I found it quite intriguing. There are endless possibilities to use IT in the construction faze in order to make buildings more efficient and sustainable. Now that the stuff I like!! Yes, I'm the only Environmental Engineer out of all the interns.

Our second lecture for the day was on financials and accounting. This crash course in construction economics and accounting we were given an insider’s view and summary of how finances work in this field. There are a lot of complications with construction payments. Here in Dubai, within the last 10 years a lot of construction has been put on hold. This has put into effect a series of guarantees and bonds to ensure commitment of the contractor to completing the project.

Sorry to bore some of you with a few of the technical aspects of the course. As much as I would like to spend my 5 weeks here to play around in Dubai, most of the hours in my day are spent learning and working. Thanks everyone for following, talk to you soon, Sean. (sorry no pictures taken today)

Day 9 - Exam and Dubai Aquarium

Functioning on little sleep I woke up early to review for my exam and fit in some final prep for my presentation. Once 1pm rolled around I was done with a tough day! The presentation went well but the reviewing committee hammered us with questions. I was relieved once it was all over.
With the other half of the day I spent an hour or so by the pool relaxing and soaking up the sun. The fact that the UV index here is 10 every day slipped my mind, so I got a little pink with the little time I spent in the sun.
This mall is absolutely stunning! Every wing of the mall has a different design and interior finishes. The only down side is I got lost a few times due to the immense size.


For some evening fun we headed to the Dubai mall with the intention of getting some dinner and going to the DUBAI AQUARIUM. The evening was full of laughs and silliness. We had a great dinner prior to the aquarium at Ribs and Rumps. I had a small dinner at the apartments already so I had side or very garlicy, garlic bread. The others had burgers, of which they said fell within the top 5 burgers of their life. Our waiter was eccentric and supplied us with many jokes for the night. I was in a hyper mood doing James Bond impressions and acting out the escalator scene from the movie “Elf.”


The aquarium tunnel was really well done. I never want to be that close to sharks in open water... It was really neat to study them up close. From a design/construction frame of mind the aquarium is a engineering feat within its self.


Cute penguin!!! Give me a little penguin kiss.


The Duabi Aquarium and under water zoo was a blast! Thanks for following my adventure. Talk to you soon.

Day 8 - Desert Adventure

Hello everyone! Today was well balanced between work and play. It is the first entire day off since the start of the internship. We had the chance to sleep in a little. I woke up around 10 and took my time making breakfast and enjoying the morning. Soon after, I began to make some progress on my presentation preparation. On Saturday my team is responsible for giving a 40 minuet presentation. Not only did we have a presentation but all the interns had to take our first exam on the mater we have covered up to this point. Much of the afternoon was spent preparing for both.





On a more exciting note… at 4:30 pm, we left Topaz Courts Apartments and headed for the desert to begin our desert adventure. We began our travels to Rub' al Khali or Empty Quarter Desert, one of the largest sand deserts in the world. After a 40-minute ride, we stopped to deflate the tires so it would be easier to drive on the sand and over the sand. I took so many pictures. I have chosen a few funny and good pictures for you to enjoy. This ride through the desert was like a real life roller coaster. The car flew over the dunes, slid around turns and dropped off hill like an action movie. Mike and I purposely sat in the back of the car to get the greatest roller coaster effect. Our vehicle got stuck on top of a dune. This would not be a good place to get stranded, for there was desert as far as your eye could see. Thankfully, another car on our voyage toed us over the ridge. The vehicles slid over the sand dunes and sometimes seemed to fall over sharp edges.



The drivers stopped a few times during the trip for soft drinks and to watch the sunset on the desert. Once the sun set the vehicles traveled about ten more minutes to the camp site for dinner. At the camp site, we were able to ride camels, get Henna tattoos, and. A barbecue and open bar was provided for dinner. We all sat on pillows at floor-level tables. At the end of the dinner hour, there was a belly-dancer that performed for the guests. One of my favorite parts of the night is when the entire campsite turned out the lights in order for us to view the dessert sky with zero light pollution. We sat in darkness for about 30 minutes. I was so relaxed and content lying underneath the starry sky letting my mind wonder. Towards the end I drifted into a light sleep. Knowing the jokers I went with they would have left me there for the night if they found me sound asleep. Haha. Around 10:30 pm, we boarded the vehicles to head back to Topaz Courts. This desert adventure provided us with a great opportunity to get closer to all the members of the internship. Unfortunately, after we got back to the apartments there was more work to be done. Most of the students stayed up until 2am in preparation for our exam the next day. All in all, such a wonderful day!













DINNER!!! The meal provided was authentic and delicious. Some appetizers included falaffl and zatar manakish (my new favorite appetizer simsum spice salt and light mint) For our main coarse, our barbecued chicken and lamb were well cooked and filled with smoky and sweet flavors. The hummus and mixed veggie salad provide a cooling sensation from the heavily spiced meal. Olives are a must have for me whenever they are offered. The sides of curry veggies and rice provided some nice flavors of the Arabic region.


Ok... during our adventure we stumbled upon this young boy stranded in the dessert making a sand castle. Haha. This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip thus far. This so called "boy" is actually one of the Lebanese University interns, Chris. We all had a good laugh over this picture, so enjoy!

Day 7 - Day at the Office

Hello everyone today's blog will be shorter due the entire day spent in the office learning about the intricacies of construction planning and scheduling. This topic is of great importance in the construction process. The numerous computer programs and graphs can seem to get confusing and puzzle like at times. Successful planning and scheduling will ensure the completion of a project is both on time and within budget.

On to some more fun stuff. After my long day, I gathered the strength to head to the gym for a good workout. I was quite tired after my workout but my curiosity of the city life here in Dubai gave me some energy. After a quick dinner of mushrooms dipped in hummus with a cold class of V8, me and four other interns went out to explore. We found a local lounge where we shared a fun conversation over a few drinks. We sat outside thinking the heat would be less intense as the night went on....WHAT WERE WE THINKING! It stayed quite hot through the night. We made our way home early enough to watch a movie at the apartment before bed time rolled around. Thanks for following, talk to you soon.

Day 6 - Concrete and More!

Early morning visit to Concrete Batch Plant

Prior to our tour of the concrete plant, we were given a very interesting and informative lecture by Mr. Adel Willam (owner of RMB Concrete Company).
Fun Fact = concrete has to be pored under special conditions in order for it to set correctly. Here in Dubai they have to add ice chunks and poor the concrete in the middle of the night to maintain favorable concrete temperatures.


Lebanese student, Pierre Karam and I enjoying our tour of concrete.


This is light weight concrete. New technology in concrete has been able to maintain similar strength properties but reduce the total weigh by adding tinny Styrofoam balls. COOL RIGHT!






Off to the beach again after work! It's becoming a after work tradition. Such a good way to destress form the day. Well our taxi driver suggested a new beach that was a litter further away than we hoped... Was a decent beach with a very tropical feel. Warm water, nice sun set and good friends. Can't ask for too much more!


So after it got dark we had a little trouble finding our way back to where our taxi left us. Did a lot of unexpected walking but was a fun adventure in the end! Thanks, and talk to you soon.

Day 5 - A Meal I Will Never Forget

Hello all, today in the office we had some time to review the construction drawings and take a look at the architectural drawings for the Kingdom of Sheva project prior to our quiz. Today our first team assignment was assigned. We are required to prepare a professional presentation for all the topics we have been learning and to maintain a blog for the work we do during our time with Dubai Construction Company (feel free to follow at www.dsipprogram.blogspot.com). We ended our day in the office with the first part of the construction management presentation, informing us of the responsibilities and role a project manager has on a construction site.

More importantly was dinner! Mr. Yabroudi took us all out to dinner in the Dubai Mall (biggest mall in the World).


My professor Mr. Clemence and his wife went in Mr. Yabroudi’s Mercedes Benz! Twas nice! We ate at a Lebanese restaurant. I purposely sat next to a LAU friend so they could explain all the food. We never saw a menu all, Mr Yabroudi ordered for us and before we knew it out table was being flooded with food and it didn’t stop for a solid 20 mins. I was one of 2 people that tried everything. I was not a fan of the Lebanese Baba Ghanouj. Some of my favorite items included, Fatouch, a fresh salad with paprika and mint. I also really enjoyed Rakakat which is the Lebanese version of mozzarella sticks. For the main course we all enjoyed a large platter of barbecued chicken, lamb, and mixed meet placed under a tomato based pizza cracker. This dish was called Mashawi, and had subtle curry spice after taster with predominant smoky and sweet flavors. So much great flavor and tender meat! To finish our meal a wonderful set of sweet treats arrived at the tables. My hands down favorite was the 6 kinds (yes I tried all of them) of Baklawah (Lebanese spelling), a layered nut and pastry dough, resembling caramel flavors. My new favorite dessert is Namoura. This is a dense caramel pastry made with toasted pine nuts and corn meal. By the end of the meal I was over full but I did not care one bit knowing the epic meal I just had.

Once home I decided to hang in the LAU students room where we simply sat around and joked around looking at the pictures of the day’s events. Thanks for following, talk to you soon! (Picture to follow soon)

Day 4 - Dubai City Tour

Off to the offices early in the morning. We had some time to study and take care of the company blog. Another pop quiz…this time on safety on the construction management. It’s looking like we should be expecting a daily quiz on recent material. The internship seems to be setting a standard on the high quality they will expect from us for the duration of our time here.

A DCC Project manager came in and presented to us on Construction Drawings! I really enjoy looking at construction drawings. After spending some time around construction drawings you really begin to get a good feel of how the buildings will look in its final stage.
We only had a half day of work! The internship had something fun planned of us…yesss. A tour of Dubai! Our stops are listed
- Souk Mandinat Jumweirah (indoor fine goods market)
- Burj Al Arab (sail looking building, has tennis courts on exterior of top floor!)
- Old Dubai and Old Dubai Museum
- Gold Souk (locals try to pressure you into buying fake Rolex watches) – I found a carpet store and bargained a little with the owner to drop the price 50 dirham…but I didn’t buy it. Was a fun experience none the less)
- Visit the Dubai Mall (Biggest mall in the world – a lot of high fashion)
- Dubai Mall Fountains
- Top of the Burj Khalifam which is the tallest building in the WORLD!!!

Back home for dinner at the mall. Mike, Katelyn, Rachael and I went to PF Changs. I ordered egg drop soup. Mmmmm… Thanks for following.



Burj Al Arab - I was easily the hottest I have ever been while taking this picture. The heat from the pavement and sun reflecting from the water made the temperature around 115-120F. I'm glad that I can provide you the picture without experiencing the intense heat.


Syracuse University Interns at Burj Al Arab


Burj Khalifam - view from the 124th floor. Fun fact the elevators went about 23mph and building stands about half a mile tall.



The view was unreal, especially looking straight down






Panoramic picture of Dubai fountains (outside of the Dubai mall)