Ski Dubai

Some facts:

Ski Dubai has 5 runs that vary in difficulty, height and gradient, the longest run being 400 meters with a fall of over 60 meters. The inside temperature ranges from -1 to -2 degrees Celsius while the temperature outside ranges from 24 to 50 degrees Celsius annually. It costs approximately $75 for the whole day, or if you are just feeling tired of shopping, you can ski on an hourly rate of $25. There are many restaurants surrounding the slopes like from where this picture was taken.

But this is nothing compared to the Ski Dome. The word on the street is that it will be finished sometime towards the end of this year. Here is the quote from their website.

"A Unique Experience: The project consists of a dome - a steel structure - that will include a huge revolving ski slope, going through and around an artificial mountain range - created to emphasize the "Arctic Experience" effect. Two huge real-ice columns will mark the entrance to the dome. Within the dome, there will be all kind of Arctic experiences, ranging from Penguinarium, winter aquaria, snow castle, ice-rink, Arctic animals statues, 4-season aquaria, snowfall, sound and light effects, cold and warm bath spa and other facilities, an ice-bridge, a cable-lift, snow maze, ice-slide, polar bears, are some of the features that will be integrated into the development and attractions. It will also have a deluxe hotel, a shopping mall, restaurants, coffee shops and other retail outlets."



Friggin' crazy.

The Grinch has a Birthday Party

Oman

A few weeks ago we set out for Oman. There we would be snorkeling, scuba diving and swimming the Indian Ocean. Much of the trip was spent talking with the ex pat divers about their jobs and making new drinking buddies. I met a project manager for the Dubailand project, and was told he needed several MBAs come the summer of 2009. While Dubailand is something like 2 billion square feet (apparently bigger than Singapore), the real vision of this monstrous undertaking is a vast wasteland. It just seems unattainable. Getting off track a bit....

As we were about to drive across the border from the UAE to the city of Dibba, Oman, we stopped over at a petrol station. There, our Dean asked the girls with me to get into his car for safer travel across. As it turns out, Oman border patrol would have likely arrested me under the suspicion of trying to prostitute a Ukrainian, two Colombians and a Brit. Sweet.

Once you have entered Oman, it looks just like what I have always pictured Afghanistan would look like. Rugged, even jagged, rocky terrain, that seems to have no end. That is, until we reached the port. Unrelated to that visual, the picture above is from the dive boat at about 6:30AM. It is a much nicer image than the 'Omanistan' pictures I have.


Here we have Claudia and Sandra from Colombia, with their respective dive partners for the afternoon. I thought I would attach this picture because of how goofy they look. Hah!

And here is one more awesome picture.

First Dance Party

The first time we got together to have a dance party was the evening of Nuno's birthday (pictured here, from Portugal). While his face may not be completely representative of his personality, it was certainly meant to display his intentions of the evening ;) There are many people in the group that have a certain Latin experience or heritage to share. Colombia, Venezuela, etc. Being around this group as often as I am has made me further realize how much I miss Argentina. Spanish culture is always a party, as later pictures and posts will help to demonstrate.

Umbrella feat. Kurtis, Guarav, and Tisch

Learning the shoulder shake

Nuno's Birthday

Sunny and Nuno

Some pictures...

Me at Radio 1


Burj Al Arab


We smoke a lot of shisha

Reasons for doing this...

At this point in time, the only way to utilize the internet at the accommodations here in Jebel Ali or the Dubai Investment Park, located ever so close to the coveted Green Community, is to stay up any time past 2:00am. The internet here sucks so bad that if and when there are only 10-15 of 120 students using, the bandwidth drops significantly and I will more than likely lose all connection, but I digress.

My ability to analyze the current debilitating circumstances is not why I have made the decision to move here. I realize now that these people I have met here are perhaps the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Their 120 opinions that, because of my election to the student association, I must hear every day. I value each and every cultural difference and attempt to learn from every discourse.

Team Building

The first month we have been here has been all about learning to work together. We are 31 nationalities represented here on the Dubai campus and it has been nuts dealing with everyone's competencies, cultures, varying degrees of English comprehension, etc. I must also mention that out of 120 students, there are 53 Indian students. The word Whoa comes to mind. They are very competitive and have issues and/or worries about not being heard in class. Thus, they will often shout over one another, not really listening to the others point because they're developed idea MUST be shared with the class. This then creates a weird tangent in the discussion. Alas, we are working on it. The pictures here are of a classic team building exercise where students have to come together and build a structure, with very certain parameters, as well as very specific directions on when your building times can be started. It was a great lesson in carefully reading and following the objectives directions. Many thanks to our wonderful professors.

The Marriot

This is our spot that we have learned to love. The backstory to this hotel bar is that in Dubai, you CANNOT get a drink unless you are within the confines of a hotel or mall. So inherently, we have become mallrats and hotel lounge singer types because we have to. Beers cost about 30 dirhams, which is close to $9 / beer, which is not too unlike Los Angeles pricing. The view is nice, but from this vantage point on the terrace it is still 100/100 as we say; 100 degrees and 100% humidity. My favorite quote is from our Boston librarian saying, "I walked outside and it felt like I was stepping into a hot bowl of soup." That pretty much defines our out-of-school existence, but nonetheless, it has been quite an amazing journey thus far.