Day 19: Geotech Lab, Talent Show, Movie

Today was a very busy day. In the morning, we had a great lecture from Mr. Khaldoun on Project Insurances. We learned all about the general requirements for insurance and claims procedures.

In the afternoon, we visited a geotechnical engineering lab at Geotechnical Testing Consultants. It was a state-of-the-art facility with amazing soil testing equipment. We saw consolidation machines, compression tests, cyclic triaxial tests, and more!

After seeing the geotechnical lab, we went back to the apartments to briefly rest before the talent show, that took place in one of our apartments. Marven, Sarah, and Nashwa were the judges. It was a great show and the acts consisted of magic, dancing, singing, acrobatics, and impressions. Juliano and Ricardo did several notable impressions of Mr. Bassam, Dr. Sam, and many of the interns and Endla whistled the tune Mary Had a Little Lamb with her hands. We will find out who will take first place during the award ceremony next week.

Finally, we were treated to movie and dinner, both in the Mall of Emirates. Dinner was at 800 Degrees, where pizza was the specialty! Others ordered salads, lamb, or pasta. It was delicious! The movie we saw was The Spy Who Dumped Me. It was about a women who realized her ex boyfriend was a spy, and she then got involved in the spy business. It was hilarious!

Day 18: Hottest Day

This morning, both teams visited United Precast Concrete Dubai LLC. We learned how precast concrete slabs, beam, and columns are formed. We saw the equipment used and a concrete beam being made. After the visit, we returned back to the apartments because our clothes were soaked. The temperature was 107 degrees Fahrenheit, but the real feel was 136 degrees Fahrenheit.

 When we returned to the office, we had a quiz on MEP systems. We also had a lecture on MEP Coordination given by Mr. Jihad. We learned that coordination among structural, architectural, and MEP engineers is crucial to determine the appropriate actions for project completion.

Students had the evening free to practice their talents and skits for the talent show tomorrow. 

Day 17; Basketball, Salt, & Great Visits

Today was our second to last day of site visits; Team 1 went to the Saddiqi & Sons Headquarters, hosted by Mr. Jihad, and team 2 went to a private Villa, hosted by Mr. Abdallah.  Team 2 initially went to the wrong site, and was late to meet Rami and Mr. Abdallah- The late arrival was not received well!  Team 2 participated in snagging exercises in the almost complete villa while team 1 had an in-depth tour of the Saddiqi & Sons offices and facilities of the building.  Afterwards, both teams reconvened at the office for lunch and a quiz, then headed off to the Al Bonian office for a tour and lecture on MEP services.

The MEP lecture was given by Mr. Jameel Kanafani, the senior mechanical engineer at Al Bonian; which went into great detail about his role in the construction process and the different types of systems that accommodate our living needs and keep us safe.  A variety of examples, variations, and questions were brought up and discussed, which served to everyone's benefit- Since we as students are Civil Engineers by training, and MEP works are somewhat out of our scope of knowledgve.  During our office tour we were fortunate to meet the CEO of the company, before heading off to rest up for another night of basketball.  Even though the tournament is officially over, great pick up games were played and Mishel was sinking BUCKETS. There was also pick up yoga on the sidelines, Sarah got hit in the head by a basketball, we could not yell "heads up!" fast enough.

The Basketball was followed up with a trip to SALT Burgers on the beach, right by the Burj Al Arab. Everybody went, we took up almost the entire pavilion with boxes of burgers and fries, enjoying each others company and chowing down after a big work out. Zack had to leave after basketball because his wife is about to give birth in New York, good luck Zack! Brian and Haley played a wild game of Jenga, Haley won and the two attracted a crowd of onlookers as the next leaning tower of Pisa formed. After everybody finished their dinners and Will and Ghadi finished dancing with the waiters, it was time to depart. At this point in the trip the handshakes and high fives are getting more intimate and less formal, but there is still some confusion on executing the perfect departing high five hand shake sometimes hug or something in between. Hopefully by the time we leave next week we will all have perfected our high fives.

Day 16: Sites, Presentations, and Adventure

Team 1 went to see the Three Villas Project and project director "Superman" showed us around . It was mostly complete with the exception of putting in final finishes, cabinetry, MEP works, and appliances. Throughout the visit we encountered many barefoot workers inside the villa and some hanging off of the scaffolding. You could say some safety measures are different here in the UAE. 

Team 2 went to go visit Galleria Barsha Retail Center. Mr. Jihad and Ref Rami took us around and on top of the site. From the basement up to the roof where we walked across the thin fragile and incomplete skylight glass learning about the riveting topic of MEP finishing and authority approval. 

After lunch we went to the main structural designer, e.construct, for DCC projects. They are best at preforming value engineering and saves millions of dollars on various construction projects across the United Arab Emirates. Their presentation was on 3D printing structures and how it will be the future in building small-scale buildings. 

In our free time we all went to the Dubai Mall to have dinner, shop, and go to the world’s largest aquarium and underwater zoo. We took a taxi to the metro station and took the metro to the mall. For a lot of us, it was our first time on the metro. The walking to, in, and out of the mall was ridiculous. We probably walked a marathon there. In the aquarium, we saw many sharks 

and a few big ones with lots of razor shape teeth swimming above us. One fish we saw in the underwater zoo called the Archer Fish would shoot water with pinpoint accuracy at us, our cameras, and setup targets. It was wild.

Day 15: Basketball Finals

Today started with a visit to two sites, one to the Three Villas and the other to Galleria mall. Team #2 woke up the earliest possible at 7:45 and went to Superman’s site which was almost done where they were spoiled by some cooled air inside the villas. Whereas Team 1 got picked at 8:30 and had more time to sleep! However their site visit was much more exhausting because it consisted of going around each and every corner of the galleria mall thanks to Mr. Jihad and Mr. Rami.

After getting back to the office a quiz was done (obviously), one was distributed and this was before lunch. After lunch a lecture by Mr. Ian Harper was given about disputes and claims and was full of Q&As (seriously a lot of them!) all this couldn’t deplete the energy because we were preparing for something bigger by the end of the day.

  

                      

We came to the hotel and had little power naps before the big game. the teams were tense as the final in basketball were being held. No wonder who won the championship. Mr. Yabroudi was preparing well before we came to Dubai. The Bears smashed every single team in the tournament with no mercy. 2 final rounds were played. The first one was the Bears vs the Wolves for the first and second prize. The Bears roasted the Wolves as Mr Yabroudi scored the highest number of baskets in the game. Mr. Bassam was counting on Ellen their key player, unfortunately the defense on her was tough. As for the second match, the Tigers barely managed to get through the match vs the Lions. Eventually, Claude was not able to score a buzzer shot like last time and thus everyone was disappointed.

Day 14: Cheese Cake Madness

After an exciting day at Abu Dhabi, today we headed to the office to work on our midterm report which is due tomorrow. During our work, Mr. Yabroudi distributed the midterm exams which included many good grades. Then a Lecture on BOQ and S-Curve was presented by DCC CEO Mr. Abdullah Yabroudi, and we worked on a BOQ and S-curve exercise which taught us many beneficial information. Then at night, Mr. Yabroudi invited all the group to dinner at the Cheese Cake factory where we had a lot of delicious food with amazing company. At the end of the dinner, because of Mr. Yabroudi’s generosity, the huge number of leftovers were taken and distributed to each room. We truly thank Mr. Abdullah for his essential teaching lesson during the day and his generosity during the night.

 

Day 13: Abu Dhabi! ft. Zack

For the first time in our lives, a 9 AM departure felt great. This time we were all united in one big bus, which made our hour and a half trip more interesting.

Louvre Abu Dhabi was very interesting! We discovered a lot of artifacts in the gallery while learning about old cultures and ancestors. We had fights on which piece of art was the best as each one had a favorite. Luckily there were no injuries (recorded). 

Our next stop was to the Ferrari world where we all went on the roller coasters and tried the VR ferrari race and it was a breathtaking experience. Seeing all ferrari cars and reading the history of ferrari was something dazzling to us. 

We had lunch at an italian restaurant where we ate more than we could handle and directly after that went on the roller coasters. Good thing no one threw up !

Our last visit was to the Grand Mosque. All the ladies had to wear a cloak as per traditions and juliano was not able to enter since he was wearing shorts so he had to wait in turn to wear a sweaty white cloak just to be able to enter the mosque.

TIPS FOR NEXT GENERATIONS: Please wear jeans when you go on your Abu Dhabi  trip.

On our way back, we took the last exit where we all ordered burgers and played fooseball and again juliano lost. I'm pretty sure that was not his lucky day.

And yeah, the bathrooms there are next level cabinets.