Day 12: Midterm Presentations & Sustainability & Dinner at Bosporus

Thursday was maybe the busiest and most interesting day of the internship yet. It was the day of the midterm presentation. After long hours of preparation and hard work, it was finally time to present our work and show what we have learned from the internship so far. We woke up early to prepare ourselves. Everyone was formally dressed, with shirts and ties for the guys. At breakfast, when everyone was recalling their part in their heads, we met Mr. Paul Abou Jaoude, a friend of Mr. Yabroudi who is planned to give us a lecture on Saturday.

Getting ready for the midterm presentation

We arrived to the company at about 8:30, with the presentations starting at 10:00 am. In that time, we had the chance to do a mock presentation in front of Bryan (the teacher assistant) who gave us constructive remarks and tips to make the presentation as good as possible and avoid any mistakes.

The two teams presented in front of Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Bassam, Mr. Paul, Dr. Sam, and Ms. Sarah who all gave us comments on how to improve the presentation. We all took the notes into consideration and will employ them in the final presentation.

The teams "Sky Skrapers" and "Ceders of Liberty"

Time to present 

Later that day and after taking a small break and having lunch, we had an interesting lecture about Sustainable Construction by Miss Yara Matar. The lecture drew our attention to the important environmental aspect of construction.

Heading to the dinner 

The day ended in the best way possible with a delicious dinner at the Bosporus restaurant. The Turkish restaurant was a great experience for all of us as we were introduced to several types of Turkish dishes.

That is how we ended the extraordinary second week of the internship. This day and the free day on Friday will get us excited and ready for the eventful week ahead of us.

Dinner at Bosporus Restaurant

Day 11: Ready Mix Beton visit, midterm exam, and movie!

The day started with a lot of hectic studying for the upcoming midterm exam later that day. Everyone had their notes out at breakfast, and studying continued in the buses on the way to Ready Mix Beton. Ready Mix Beton is a concrete plant that supplies ready mix concrete to a lot of major projects in Dubai. Upon arriving, we were given an explanation and history about concrete in Dubai, it's uses as well as what the concrete consisted of. During the presentation, they provided a bunch of food for us.

All the food

After the presentation, they took us on a tour of the plant. It involved the testing facilities, one of their five batching plants where the concrete is actually produced, and a briefing on the management side of the company. Team 1 got to see a slump test performed.

A batching plant

A slump test being performed

Afterwards, we headed back to the office to have a quick lunch. Lunch was a Mediterranean salad and four different sandwiches. Everyone ate super quick to get in some last minute studying before the midterm exam. A lot of us were super confused with the first question, and so the exam ran a little longer than planned for clarification purposes.

Later in the evening, we went out to go watch a comedy movie named The Hustle. There were mixed feelings about this movie.

The start of the movie

Day 10: More Lectures And Quizzes + Basketball!

Today we woke up, had our usual breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the office at 8:15 am knowing we will be having a full, long day of lectures and quizzes!

Upon arrival at the DSLIP office, a nice quiz about Yotel Hotel building and Farid Tower 2 was waiting for us, and as usual, we nailed it.  

After the quiz, we went to the classroom and had the first part of the Commercial management Lecture with Mr. Chris Battle. We learned about the different parties of contracts, types of contracts and contract payment methods in a fun session full of interaction and jokes.

After the first part, we took a 15-minute break, then headed back to the classroom to learn about project acceleration with Mr. Abdallah Yabroudi. It was a short and easy lecture.

For lunch, we had kibbeh as a starter, rice, and fish as the main course and orange cake for dessert.

Today's lunch

Right after lunch, we continued part 2 of our first lecture with Mr. Battle where we discussed the types of contract to be used in different case studies.

After a long day t the office, we went to play basketball. It was the last practice before the official games. We had so much fun and got to relieve the stress and this time it was injuries-free!

The Shovels VS The Bulldozers 

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, showered and started studying for tomorrow's midterm.

Day 9: Lectures and Quizzes!

Today we arrived in the office bright and early for our first quiz on Financials and Accounting in Contracting and Construction.

Directly after, we continued our lecture with Mr. Naim Mohamed, the Chief Estimator at DCC. He taught us how to complete the unit rate analysis and uplift sheets for the structural and architectural drawings, which we will have to do on the mid-term exam. We were all happy to finally see some math in our lecture content!

Katie excited to learn about Cost Estimation and Pricing!

For lunch, we had chicken and meat shawarma and backlava.

Our delicious lunch!

After lunch we took our long-awaited quiz on Construction Planning and Scheduling. After, were given time to work on our mid-term presentations. We were also happy to hear we won't have any more quizzes on lecture material before the mid-term.

Students working hard in the office after lunch.

Back at the hotel, we were able to relax a little bit at the pool before studying for our two site quizzes tomorrow. Some up us ended the night with ice cream and crepes, while others had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Day 8: Farid Tower Visit, Estimation Lecture, Basketball W/ SALT

Cedars of Liberty and the Skyscrapers both visited the Farid Tower 2 Project. This residential building mix will have 2 basements, a ground floor, 19 floors of apartments and a roof level with a technical floor. First, we got a tour of the site office; then, we went to the meeting room with Mr. Mazen Hallak who detailed the process from start to finish. Mr. Hallak spoke to us about the building’s exterior façade, the pool, finished and the snag list. We took a tour through the building to evaluate the different sized apartments that were almost completed.

The site visit today was the shortest one so far since it was really hot inside the building we got to go through. Afterwards, each group was allowed to work on their projects with their own teams, with the Cedars of Liberty having a small spill and the cleaning button being used for the 1st time! 

The lecture that we were shown today was about cost estimation and pricing with, Mr. Naim Muhammad who is the Chief Estimator for DCC but we only got through half the lecture for today, the other half being done tomorrow.

Another Sunday, another day for basketball practice! The teams faced each other head on for another day, getting ready for the tournament that will happen in the near future but, around 4 people got injured today during the practices.

After the basketball practices were over, Mr. Abdallah decided to take us to SALT, a restaurant but there was no inside seating so we made our way to Buffalo Wild Wings instead. We were too hungry from the practice and ordered way too much food. Much of the food was left over and taken back to the hotel. Thank you Mr. Abdallah!

Day 7: Half Day Adventures

We started day 7 of our adventures in Dubai by waking up for an 8am site visit on a Saturday morning! After the desert adventure yesterday many of us had a tough time waking up but we all managed to get to the vans on time. Today, all of us visited the Yotel Hotel site where we saw some exciting features like the curtain wall installation, reinforcement for the pool, and hotel room finishing. Some of us were able to lay a CMU brick wall with the help of the workers on site.

Yotel Hotel, with curtain wall installation on right.

Team 2 posing before laying a brick wall.

Brick that Michael cracked.

On the way back to the DCC office, many of the students passed out from the exhaustion of the past week's activities!

Katie catching some zzz's. 

Michael and Jamie getting in a power nap.

At the DCC office, we were relieved to find out that there was no quiz today. Instead, we were able to receive an informative lecture on financials and its pertinence to the construction industry, specifically financial statements, bonds and equities.

After eating a very American lunch of lasagna, pizza, and Jell-o, we were able to go home to the hotel early! Some of us took a half-day trip to the Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark on the Palm Jumeirah, where we rode some fun water rides and took in the amazing views of the Persian Gulf. 

Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark.

After returning to the hotel, some of us got Thai food for dinner while the rest went to Festival City mall to eat dinner and catch a fountain show. All in all, a fun and tiring day!

Yummy Thai food at Go Thai.

Day 6: Weekend Day Out To The Desert

We started the weekend with enough sleeping, there was no bus at 8:00 am waiting for us. Adding more sweetness to our day, we were served a Nutella crepe to our breakfast table made specially for us.

Nutella crepe prepared especially for DSLIP 2019 interns

To make use of this day from the beginning, we divided our selves into two groups. A group went to the beach to enjoy the warm water and tour around town, they have also tried some Turkish food. The second group went to the mall and bought some cool stuff and souvenirs.

Photo of the beach visited

 Then, we all headed back to the hotel to prepare our selves for the Safari.At 4:30 PM, four land cruisers were waiting for us to start the adventure. We spent the first 45 minutes drifting and enjoying the bumpy road. We also had several stops to take photos and try sand boarding. Besides, we had the chance to watch the sunset and enjoy the scene.

Nour N. sand-boarding 

Saiid showing some movements at sunset

Then we were taken to a camp where we had dinner and enjoyed the Arabic cuisine along with some drinks.Then we enjoyed our time cheering for a talented belly dancer who filled the whole place with energy. Meanwhile, we all had "Henna" drawings, a traditional Arabic temporary tattoo, as a memory of visiting this place. After that all lights were turned off and we laid down and gazed at the stars in an atmosphere of calmness and relaxation. Finally, we went back to our rooms with a memory filled with unforgettable moments.

Some of Arabic food served

Henna drawing on Jamie's hand

Belly dancing show

Today was a joyful day after an exhausting week, we got the chance to go out and have fun and recharge energy for next week's commitments.

DSLIP 2019 Interns In the Sahara