Dream Bigger
so...i just got back from dubai last night! what a trip! overall, it was a lot of fun... very exhausting but also a lot of fun... just how a sponsored studio trip should be i think. so yes, i'm just gonna roll through what i remember doing so get ready baby..
so first of all, let's mention the long ass flight to dubai. saturday afternoon... first a seven hour flight to amsterdam that we just got in on time to board... i sort of forgot that international flights require sooo much lee time. my goodness! anyways, the flight was allright. i did a considerable amount of the reading i needed to do thank god but also had the chance to watch a movie and play some video games. the airplane had this great on demand entertainment system so i didn't have to watch something i didn't want to watch you know. so, after seven hours we touch down in schipol... mind you, "boston" time, it's like about 1 am now, and schipol its like 7 am i think. anyways, we had about a seven hour layover so we took the opportunity to go into amsterdam and of course... look at architecture. mind you, it wasn't really my idea, but someone in the group wanted to check out borneo sporenburg which i've seen like twice already but still, seeing it again...from a more "urban design" perspective was interesting i have to say. i have to say though that the jet lag was seeping in and so, as boston time became more like 6 am, i was really starting to phase out. after borneo sporenburg we went back into the center city and had a tourist breakfast and then took the train back to schipol where we boarded the second leg of our journey... to wonderful dubai. now, this flight i had to sleep. so basically that was what happened, sleeping and eating airplane food... which was hmmm... acceptable. we finally got into dubai at about midnight their time, which is about 4 pm boston time so i was feeling allright, since it was still "day" in a way and i had slept so much on the airplane. the city on entry from the sky really was kind of cool. right against the ocean and then sharp skyscrapers just sticking out of the desert! i don't have all my pictures organized now, but when i do, i definitely will post kids.
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anyways, a note about jetlag. i think i faired allright in general. but allmost every day of our short five day stay was absolutely exhausting... meeting and cab rides and more meetings, blah blah blah. i mean the city is fascinating but we had to go through lots of beauracratic jumbalaya with different offices and sort...which will be helpful ultimately since this is a studio project but still, some days it was horrible. one day, not only were we tired from the schedule, jet lagged, but we also were starved as well... having completely skipped lunch... very cranky afterwards. haha. overall though, it was ok. coming back, we chose a good time. getting in here in the evening and just going to bed at the normal time. i have to say i woke up very early today though so i guess i am still aclimating to everything.
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ok... first day in dubai! what did we do! well, it was first a meeting with an architectural group in dubai, who were located in one of the most iconic buildings it dubai, teh dubai towers. its actually two towers in the complex, one being a hotel, the other being an office. after the presentation by the architectural firm, which was allright...despite a desintegrating coffee cup incident (interesting!), we stopped by the hotel and rode the CRAZY glass elevator up like 5o stories. it was a little vertigo but lots of fun. later that evening we returned to this bar at the top of the building which was some fun shee shee time in a typical building top bar...pretty cool. i have to say i still like the top of the hub on the prudential building but it was cool nonetheless. anyways, after that meeting we went to the american university at sharjah, which is the city right next to dubai (they basically abut) and basically well...wasted our time. i mean i guess our perspective might have been different if we weren't so tired...mind you, this was our first day in dubai! anyways, after a much needed nap and then a very native quick dinner of "kabob" we went to this bar i was talking about. had some great conversation with fellow studio mates getting to know them... and actually i have to say i checked off one of the things i have been meaning to do for the longest time. that is, to become friends with a lesbian... haha. actually, its my "butt-mate" this semester and she's turning out as a pretty cool cat. actually we were talking about potentially setting up some sort of "sexuality and gender" seminar on architecture, design, and space here at GSD...something i actually think would be very very interesting. yay... i know lesbian. haha..
the second day, we found ourselves at a meeting at the dubai municipality...basically their governmental planning department which in general was kind of interesting, not really but kinda. after that was a meeting with a developer group called nakheel, which is the group making one of the most iconic developments in dubai, the "world" and the "palms" development... basically these completely artificial land development right on the ocean... theya re crazy. despite only being raw land right now... the idea that this is the outcome of just dumping rocks and sand (which funny enough is not desert sand but dredged sea 
bed sand)...is mind boggling. actually what is mind boggling...or more mind numbing is the appropriate word... are the plethora of tacky models we saw everywhere. i mean...development is the religion of this town, and these models are like the constant reminders of those gods. but still, from a "design" standpoint we were thinking all the time... oh my god... i can't belive they are building that... not in the oh my god... that is cool way... but in the oh my god... i really can't believe they actually are going to build it. believe me... this is the city of suspension of disbelief. this was the day we were completely starved so the first thing we had to do after getting back from nakheel was eat... and i believe that was the night we found a little cafe outside and just had more local fare i believe. and then sleep...ahhh... sleep was great..
the third day actually was a lot of fun. the morning was an early start but the meeting was actually overalll very good. we went to a second development group called dubai holding which wa sdeveloping a place called "dubailand"... which is basically the town's bid for something like disneyworld. you know, despite the craziness of all the development ideas here in dubai, i have to say that each individual developer really are adamant in believeing that they should be doing these kind of things in the first place. still, there needs to be that suspension of disbelief that i was talking about. on one hand it feels like if you just stop asking questions, everything could make sense, but on the other hand, its blatant "vision" 
is so mind boggling that you can't help but say... what the fuck? after dubai land, we had a free day, which finally started the "fun" in dubai. some of us wanted to go to the crazy indoor ski slope that supposedly nestled right in a mall. ok... hello...indoor ski slope in a mall in a desert... haha... surreal!!! anyways, four of us finally went to this abomination and in general you know... in a completely touristic mind... it was a lot of fun. i mean come on... when else will you be able to say that with two hours time, you went from a snow covered slope (in a desert) to lounging around a pool (in the desert)... from ski boots to flip flops! haha. that evening we had a great dinner of lebanese food and had an enjoyable walk through the older part of the city. oh, the older part of the city is actually fairly regular...and in that sense kind of more interesting typologically in that sense that it is more easily understandable i guess... i mean, all these other developments are creating a new kind of urbanity for sure... which makes it by nature interesting... but because its so problematic already, you wonder if it is actually any "good"..
anyways, enough of that architecture crap. ahhh... finally our last day in dubai. very fast four days and every day was so chock full. it was nice to have one day that was just kind of lazy even though it was still fairly busy. so, the plan was to go this waterpark called "wild wadi" (wadi is the local term for a dried riverbed) but at $40 a pop i was like...err... i think i am just going to the public beach next door.... which was a lot of fun! i am glad i did that instead. this was the "jumeirah" beach.... don't you love that name... jumeirah... its like jew mare rah...rolls off the tongue well. so yes... this was also the beach right next to the famous "Burj al Arab" hotel, which suppoesdly is a "7 star" hotel, whatever the fuck that means. i mean, its a pretty cool hotel on the outside... you can't go in unless you are a guest so i dunno about the inside. anyways... the beach was fantastic. we went before noon so the sun wasn't too strong but it was clear and a little breeze... beautiful water! absolutely fantatsic sand...very beautiful. had a very very nice time. when the sun was getting a little too strong we headed back to the hotel for a shower and then had lunch at a nearby place. after that, i had to go buy some 
souvenirs and explore more of the city so i did that. got some tacky local souvenirs and had to haggle a little bit for it but in general it was a lot of fun. they call their shopping areas here "souq" pronounced like sook. we meandered through the "spice" souq and then the "gold" souq... really fansinating structures though. actually, going back to urban design again, one thing i thought was very interesting was how tight the city fabric was, so tight that it basically did not allow cars in some place and these areas were lined with shops and it just felt very very interesting. i believe the desnity of the build structure might have been a result of trying to maximize shading opportunities in response to the climate. i mean, in a weird way, its interesting to understand an urban fabric that inherently responds to the weather in way that creates a fabric so different than your "conventional" western city. i mean, its that sort of tension between the past and the native and the present and the foreign that makes dubai an intersting place urbanistically... the two worlds really are side by side and intermingling. for our last night in dubai, we had a fantastic dinner of spanish tapas... that was WAY WAY TOO EXPENSIVE... haha... i think i spent like 125 dirhams, which comes out to 
be about $35...well.... actually, now that i calculated it...its not THAT bad... but when youa re usually spending less than $10 for other meals... hmmm.... well.. its ok to splurge. haha. if anything i should care about how much i smoked in dubai. dubai is one of those places you can pretty much smoke anywhere...and where the ciggs are dirt cheap. one guy in our group bought packed for 35 cents...packs!! my own marlboros were a very very affordable $1.50 more or less.... haha... much better than $6 - $8 would you say? hence i bought like a carton...heehee. i still am planning on quiting smoking on my birthday so i got only two or so months to puff away... might as well be economical about it haha. .
ah, finally our trip back to the states. a headache panging 7 am flight which meant we had to leave the hotel at like 5 am. surprisingly i didn't sleep the first leg, that to amsterdam, but on the second leg i was totally wigging out. i am not sure if it was just because the seat was uncomfortable or what but i tried to sleep but i was having a headache and my noise was stuffed up and ahh... just felt like crap in general. did 
get to see pride and prejudice though which i love and i think i should get the dvd now that i think of it.... " you have bewitched me, body and soul, and i love, i love, i love you". haha...love it. oh, short little story though... but apparently on our amsterdam boston leg, a poor lady apparently had "heart" problems and we had to make an emergency medical landing somewhere in newfoundland. whoa... so i kind of got to go to newfoundland...haha. we finally got back to boston about 7 pm boston time which was great. after getting home, i actually decided to completely unpack, do laundry, and even watch a little TV... just to start feeling back at home i guess. this weekend is not going to be too much fun though, as i have lots of "catch up" to do with readings (which i did a significant amount on the flights but still not enough) and just get done with shit. actually i just realized that i was late on some credit card payments, guess all that runninga round at the end of last month it must have slipped my mind or whatever. anyways, back in boston, and back to real life.
get to see pride and prejudice though which i love and i think i should get the dvd now that i think of it.... " you have bewitched me, body and soul, and i love, i love, i love you". haha...love it. oh, short little story though... but apparently on our amsterdam boston leg, a poor lady apparently had "heart" problems and we had to make an emergency medical landing somewhere in newfoundland. whoa... so i kind of got to go to newfoundland...haha. we finally got back to boston about 7 pm boston time which was great. after getting home, i actually decided to completely unpack, do laundry, and even watch a little TV... just to start feeling back at home i guess. this weekend is not going to be too much fun though, as i have lots of "catch up" to do with readings (which i did a significant amount on the flights but still not enough) and just get done with shit. actually i just realized that i was late on some credit card payments, guess all that runninga round at the end of last month it must have slipped my mind or whatever. anyways, back in boston, and back to real life..
dubai was very fun. i am glad i went. i got to know studio mates and hopefully made some new friends. and hey... it was a free trip. can't beat that.
posted by faux chink @ 10:55 AM
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