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.

Day 12: Midterm presentations

The main event of this day was the midterm presentations that were held at 11:00 sharp at the meeting room. Each team gathered and prepared very well in order to be able to answer all the questions of the attendees. The stress was obvious and the two teams did their best. After that, Mr Yabroudi brought for all the students a bag of chocolate to get some energy and relieve the stress.


Then the two teams enjoyed the lunch break with some discussions about their performance on the midterm presentations. After that, a lecture about leed certification and green buildings was presented by Mr kim McLure. During that lecture we got a deeper understanding about the sustainability in the UAE.
After that long day at the offices, the DSLIP students enjoyed the ultimate 3 D experience of the "mission impossible" movie at "mall of the emirates" vox cinema.

Day 11: Concrete Plant & Midterm Exam

In the morning, we visited the Ready Mix Beton concrete plant. We learned all about the ingredients in concrete and how to manipulate them in order to produce different qualities and functions of concrete. Then, we toured the facilities, conducted a slump test, and visited the mixing cabin to see how the concrete is transported into the mixing truck. The highlight of the trip was when Mr. Adel brought out toys to show us how operations functioned in the plant.

After visiting the concrete plant, we frantically studied on the bus ride back to the DCC offices because we were planning on having a midterm after lunch. To our surprise, we got back to the office and we were greeted with not one, but two quizzes! I know what you're thinking, "oh this is much better than a midterm!" But, sadly, we still had the midterm after lunch.

Some people did great on the quizzes so they were awarded with KitKats! Some people... not so great, but it helped us learn our mistakes.

After all of these exams, we needed to relax. The stress level was high in the office. We finished the day with some desk yoga instructed by EunSeong Choi.

After yoga, we felt we needed some more fun after a tough day of 3 exams. We went to a beautiful rooftop restaurant, Level43. Then, we went back to the apartments to prepare for tomorrow's Midterm Presentations!

Day 10: Commercial Management

Today we spent both the morning and the afternoon in the office. We had two lectures on commercial management given by Mr. Chris Battle, a commercial manager at DCC. We learned about traditional contracts in the construction industry and different types of procurement. We also had time during the day to work on our group presentation, midterm reports, and study for our midterm exam tomorrow.

We were all excited about today's lunch. We had kibbeh, fish sayadiyeh, and jelly.

Everyone studied on the way home before basketball.

We had the second round of playoffs today for basketball. The first game was lions vs bears. The bears won. Second game was bears vs tigers and the bears won once again. The final game was lions vs wolves and the wolves won in overtime.

Everyone studied hard and got a "good" night's rest for our big midterm exam tomorrow! 

Day 9- Form Hotel Dinner and Tour

Today was an action packed day with lectures, quizzes and another amazing dinner. Our morning began with a lecture on cost estimation and pricing from Mr. Naim Mohamed, Chief Estimator of DCC. Mr. Naim went through all of the documents included in a tender package and explained an in depth analysis of a quantity take off sheet. This was all great information and gave us students a good perspective of how DCC comes up with the price for each job.

Image 1: Quantity Take Off Sheet



For lunch we had Veggie Vines as a starter and Kibbe Labnieh for a main course. This food was new for the American students and we found it delicious.


After lunch we had another quiz. This quiz covered Mr. Bassam's lecture on planning and scheduling. Once the quiz was complete, Mr. Naim finished his lecture and wrapped up everything we needed to know about cost estimation and pricing.


The plan for this evening consisted of a tour and dinner at the Form Hotel in Al Jaddaf. This hotel was the first project of DCC's that we were able to see a complete finished product. The quality of this hotel and its specific details were impeccable. Our tour began in the hotel lobby with the greetings from the Form Hotel management staff. We then went to the roof where we saw a beautiful swimming pool and a state of the art workout room. The tour continued to a suite containing two separate rooms. The detail and comfort displayed in this room was second to none. Our tour concluded in the basement where we were able to see the security room with live footage of cameras throughout the whole building.

 Image 2: Swimming Pool

 Image 3: Bedroom in suite

Image 4: Security camera footage

Finally was the delicious dinner! Roots, the restaurant in the Form Hotel, prepared a fixed menu for us consisting of pre set appetizers and desserts as well as our choice of prawns or lamb shoulder for a main meal. The majority of the students choice the lamb shoulder and I can confidently say no one regretted the choice. Dinner ended as usual with Dr. Sam telling several of his hilarious jokes.


Images: Students enjoying, Starters, Main Course, Dessert

Day 8: Pizza Madness

Today, it was weirdly dust, a complete haze across the skies. We started the day off at a site visit. It got up to a scorching 112 degree farhenheit. It was another day of pounding water until our stomachs hurt to stay alive and out of the hospital.

After the site visit we went back to the offices to eat Indian lunch and get slammed with the typical daily quizzes. We had a noteworthy lecture on finance. It was hands down one of the best lectures any of us have ever experienced.

Most importantly, it was the first day of basketball playoffs. Bears took the first game against the Wolves. Tigers had a narrow victory in overtime vs. the Lions. And Wolves overtook the Tigers in the last game. 

We finished off the day with endless amounts of gourmet pizza. The toppings were ranging from spicy chicken to margarita to a nutella dessert pie and much more. Our stomachs are about to explode from this heavenly food. 

Needless to say it was a tremendous day!

Day 7: Lazy Aftermath

Day 7: Lazy Aftermath

Perhaps we should have slept today. We were almost dead in the office, at site, even in the bus. In fact, it’s not only us who were lazy or tired. Even the workers on site were too lazy that they had to use a crane to lift a Seven-Up bottle. I mean it’s not our mistake, it’s perhaps Mr. Yabroudi’s generosity and kindness that led us to this laziness. A packed schedule full of fun activities mixed with serious and hardworking work is energy depleting we must admit however we cannot deny that this a very important way to learn and to remind us how important time management is. Speaking of fun activities, yesterday we had one heck of a day at the Dubai Safari. Now speaking of hard work, we woke up to the sound of the alarms and got prepared to go to two new sites. Unfortunately, we were still day-dreaming about the astonishing belly dancer and thinking about nothing but how relaxing was this day. Hence, we were not psychological ready to go back to work especially to the site.

So today was a sunny, very hot day, it was actually warmer than usual and we had to drink tons of water at the site to compensate for all this exhaustion.

Many of us didn’t want to go out of the bus, some forgot their notebooks, the others woke up late (but we all made it on time haha!) as if this the unconsciousness’s way of telling us to stay at the apartments and relax!

 The picture says it all, our colleague Juliano was so mad when we woke him up from his dream because he had to go to his site that was a residential building called “the court”. The other team visited Marquise tower that was located in Downtown Dubai and for sure it had also lot of none-willingness to go to work cases!

Not to forget that today our friend Edin got out of the hospital after having tough days fighting against the tight schedule! And to be honest when we were visiting the site we kept thinking about how lucky he was for sitting somewhere in the AC not having to walk one step in the burning sun. and to be honest, he wasn’t innocent at all because he kept on sending selfies from the hospital to play on our nerves! 

Finally, let’s take a moment to appreciate this beautiful pose of Bryan.