Week 1

I'm obviously terrible at keeping in touch with all of you at home so I started a blog so I don't have to! No but really, I want to keep you up to date with all of the experiences I get to enjoy and I will post pictures so you can see them too.

A lot has happened in the week since I left the States. I've been to the top of the world's tallest tower, walked around the world's largest mall, and have eaten dinner at a $1 billion horse track.

It all started with a glorious 13 hour flight from JFK. I didn't move for the first 12 of those but I got a lot of sleep, read a few pages in a great book, Three Cups of Tea, and watched a few movies. When we finally stepped off the plane, it was a balmy 100 degrees out...at 8am.

The 5 other Syracuse students and I met with our boss, Mr. Yabroudi and the 6 students Lebanese students that we will be working with at our apartment, Topaz Living Courts. Then we went to our first dinner, at the Hilton in a restaurant named Bice which set the tone for the next few nights. We've had dinner at the Atlantis Resort, a five-star restaurant at the horse track I mentioned, and in a movie theater with lazyboy recliners instead of normal seats.

We have been working almost everyday since Saturday, the 15th. I won't bore you with details because I'm sure no one cares about the tendering process or laying rebar but I will say some of the construction sites are incredible. We visited one tower that looks like Swiss cheese but the whole structure is held up by this concrete wall.

When we're not at work we get to experience a lot of unique things only Dubai can offer. We have been to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It towers almost three times the height of any other building in the city. We also took a tour of the Old City which is kind of misleading. By "old" they mean all of the historic buildings that once stood in Dubai are now being rebuilt out of concrete. There is nothing old in Dubai, unlike European or US cities where the old and new are mixed together. Everything is modern and some of it seems like it's straight out of the future. They have the biggest tower, hotel, mall, amusement park, you name it- it's all brand new. As our driver once said, "Dubai has the everything the biggest and tallest, only the people here are small."