Dubai- Trip and Day 1

View from my 11th floor window

(spire at the very top is the tallest building in the world)

Julie,

Well as I sit here starting the first of many Dubai letters I am looking out of my hotel that over sees much of Dubai and a skyline that includes the tallest building in the world (to be completed in December).

Wow, I can't believe I'm here.

Here's a little recap of my trip. I left St. George early Thursday morning and jumped a shuttle to the Vegas airport. When I got to the airport the baggage check in line was REALLY long, but ended up only being about a 20 minute wait. It helped to solidify in my mind however that I am HORRIBLE when it comes to picking the line that is going the fastest. Whether it is waiting for gas at Costco, trying to pick the fastest lane in a traffic jam, or in this case trying to pick the fastest line to check in your bags, I cannot do it. I ended up being in line about 10 minutes longer than the people I started standing next to. When they went to one line, I chose the other and bingo bango bongo their line picked up speed and my line came to a complete stop.

Once I went through security, I went to my gate and realized I still had 2 hours till takeoff which was now going to be 3 hours till takeoff since my plane was delayed. As I was sitting down, I heard my gate making its final boarding call for the 9:58am flight to Atlanta. I decided to give it a shot and see if I could jump that flight so that I could just wait longer in Atlanta instead of waiting forever in Vegas and then rushing to catch my connection once I got to Atlanta. The lady was really nice and switched it for me really quick and bam! I was on to Atlanta. I was happy I got an isle seat especially since I was like the last person on the plane, but that was about the last thing I was happy about on that flight until it was over.

The flight ended up being a smaller plane with two columns of 3 seats to a row on each side of the plane. Apparently, this little fact happened to be more than the lady seated next to me could handle and as soon as I sat down all she kept mumbling to herself was how bad this sucked, how she couldn't believe she didn't charge her ipod, and best of all (from a ridiculous standpoint) how she was panicked that this plane wasn't one with individual TVs on the back of the seats because then she couldn't watch movies and it meant we were in an older plane and in her mind, older planes are more likely to crash. WOW! We actually talked for a little while once we got into the flight and she was a really nice lady, but I couldn't believe how panicked she was over such a little thing.

Once I landed in Atlanta, I found my way to the terminal that I would be flying out of and I got something to eat. Then I sat down and did some studying for a while. I had about a 4 hour wait and considering how long that is, the time actually went pretty quickly. Before I knew it other Duke students starting showing up and we chatted and as we were boarding we ended up finding out that there were 10 of us on the same flight.

My biggest hope for the flight was that there wouldn't be anybody in the middle seat next to me so I could have a little more room. Luckily there wasn't. I watched 2 or 3 movies and a few TV shows. I slept for about 30 minutes on three different occasions, but every time I woke up my back would be KILLING me. I'd then have to get up and stretch it out, walk around and then sit down and watch something else. The biggest annoyance on this flight was the guy on the other side of my row. He decided that since the middle seat was empty he would use that for his personal bed and was laying across both seats so his head was right next to my leg. "Um, excuse me sir, but you are severely breaking the unwritten rule of personal space."

We arrived in Dubai at 7:45pm local time which is about 9:45am Utah time. Needless to say, an hour and a half of sleep over 24 hours wasn't really enough so I was excited to get to the hotel.

We are staying at the Emirates Tower Hotel and this place is AMAZING! I am staying on the 11th floor and as you saw from the picture at the first there is a pretty good view. The rooms are really nice and spacious and the desk space is going to be really nice for studying.

Even the towels on the ground are very plush and soft.

Notice the toilet in the back on the left and behind it the bidet :)

Notice the key placement of Rubber Ducky compliments of the hotel ;)

This is the cabinet behind the mirror above the sink. All the canisters have complimentary items titled sewing, shaving, dental, shower, beauty. And a water bottle with a jogging map and a hotel embroidered wrist band.

After all the excitement, checking in, unpacking, and some ironing, I got to bed around 11:45pm.

Day 1

I woke up about 6:45am and slept pretty well for the first night. Breakfast is at one of the hotel restaurants (there are like 5) and it was really good. I ate pretty quickly so I could be ready in time to take our cultural visit to a Muslim Mosque here in Dubai.

This tour was awesome. It is made for those unfamiliar with Muslim traditions and cultures so they were very open to people asking questions, they showed us why they pray the way they do, why they dress the way the do, etc. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. I'm including a couple videos below. The first one is a demonstration of a prayer and then second is part of the explanation of what each part is. (couldn't get the videos to load, I'll have to add them later.)

The rest of the day was the beginning of Term 2. We had Decision Models class first for two hours and then Managerial Economics class for two hours. I actually think I am going to enjoy most parts of both classes so I am really looking forward to this semester, but I was also REALLY tired during both classes. I obviously haven't fully adjusted yet and classes were going on between 2am to 6am Utah time so hopefully I will get better in sync with the time here by tomorrow.

Tonight the Dean of our program was at dinner with us. We were suppose to network with him I guess, but I only saw him for about 30 seconds. The food so far has been fantastic, but some of it is a little too fancy for me. I've gotten plenty to eat, but I have also noticed all my meals so far have had a lot of food left on my plate because the food is just above my simple taste.

Now, my goal is to really focus and hopefully do some more studying for the GMI exam that is tomorrow.

Love you babe,

Brock

Term 1- Grades

Julie,

I am happy to report I got my grades for Term 1 and yet I am still happy to report!

As a little background, Duke has its own unique grading system. The program initially established itself as a pass/fail program. Well over the years they have developed the grading system to be more tiered like most grading systems and so now they go Superior Pass (SP), High Pass (HP), Pass (P), Low Pass (LP), and No Pass (NP). In order to graduate from Duke you must have a GPA equal to Pass. Duke also recommends that each class have a grade distribution of 25% SP, 40% HP, and the last 35% P, LP, or NP.

I was pretty sure I'd get a good grade in managerial effectiveness up until I took the final (since I didn't spend anytime studying for it). I was always nervous for what I would get in financial accounting, but there I was confident I had done everything I could.

My ME grade came in first and I got an SP! I was really happy to find out I had done that well. A few days later I got my Accounting grade and it came in as an HP! Boy was that a relief. I was pretty sure I would at least get a pass, but this being the first term and really having no idea how well I did on a final that turned into one big 14 hour blur, I was nervous to see an LP when I opened up my transcript. Whew!

Well I was definitely happy how this term turned out and now it is time to get ready for Term 2 in Dubai. My next post will be from the other side of the world, so until that letter...

Love ya,

Brock

Term 1- Distance Week 7

Julie,

This week felt pretty low key, but i guess any week will feel low key when it follows a week that you study for and take a 14 hour final.

This week we started back up on our CCL and GMI classes that have been on hold since we left London. For GMI, we are preparing for the exam we will be taking the first day in Dubai. It is a macroeconomics class and we are only evaluating it on a survey level, meaning no in depth math or graph analysis like I did in my undergrad classes. Hopefully that means I will be able to navigate the exam pretty well.

CCL had a little bigger requirement. We had a team video due as well as a team business analysis paper. The video was a piece of cake :). Ok, so maybe that's because Brett did it all by himself. The paper ended up being a mess because no one had been assigned to lead it out. Kerry volunteered and delegated out the different parts. I think everyone ended up doing their parts ok, but the other problem is the paper was due Friday night. Without the boring details, we ended up finishing the paper right at the deadline, but I didn't feel like it was anywhere near the quality of the other work we had done during the semester. Hopefully it still gets a good grade.

This week is suppose to be a break between term 1 and term 2, but I've already received all the materials for term 2 pre-reading. That fedex package is kind of mysterious. You really want to know what is in it and what the next term has in store, BUT at the same time you wish it just wouldn't show up so you wouldn't have to find out.

Now that term 1 is over and I am 1/6 the way through my MBA program, I've been reflecting a little bit on what I have learned in this first term. And not just what I learned in Managerial Effectiveness and Financial Accounting. More so what I learned about myself and this journey.

I may have mentioned this in an earlier letter, but when we were in London, I remember someone speaking about life being a three legged stool as a CCMBA student. You have work, self, and school and you need to balance all three otherwise the stool falls. Well at that time, I remember thinking, really my stool is 5-legged. Work, School, Family, Church (callings and responsibilities), and Self (taking care of myself physically, mentally, and spiritually). To really be successful and happy, I think I need to be a good judge of balancing all five and that is what I have trouble with.

When I arrived in London, I felt like I had a good balance of Church, Family, and Work. I even would say I was balancing myself well and was improving steadily. But almost like a juggler who adds one too many balls into his routine, there have been points that I have felt they all came crashing down.

Now that Term 1 is over I feel like I am balancing Family, Work, and School, but Church and Self are struggling at this point. With Church, I don't feel like I am handling my church responsibilities with the Young Men very well. I am lucky to have a scoutmaster like Brandon that plans well and takes his calling seriously. I feel like I try to attend everything I can, but I feel like I am struggling because I am not able to commit 100% of myself to them. I wish I could be doing more to assist those boys and really let them know that I care about them.

With Self, I think this is the number one thing I struggle to keep in balance. I'm not very good at taking care of myself physically and often times spiritually. I will go on streaks where I am doing really well, but then something small will occur that I feel like completely throws me off and I spiral down to where I started or to a point even worse than that. For example, most recently when Cole was born I felt like I was getting myself back on track with my eating habits although I wasn't doing very good when it came to exercising. Well when Cole was born, I thought "I've got so much stuff going on right now I will just not worry about this for a couple days and once we are all home and settled, I will worry about it." Well now it has been two weeks since and I feel like I have downward spiraled to where I don't watch anything I eat and I just become more and more out of shape every day. This is a constant battle for me. Often times I will see an athlete on TV, watch a triathlon, or do something like go to the St. George Marathon and I will think, "I want to be like some of these people that have dedicated themselves to improving their selves and look what they can do now. But then I think, "If this person spends 20 hours a week training for these events, what are they sacrificing? Is it family, work (career success), Church (spiritual)? Do I need to sacrifice something else I am doing really well right now in order to achieve that goal or is there a way to balance it with everything I am already doing?

Can I be a huge success in my career, with my family, as a Church member, as an MBA student, and with my self development physically and spiritually? You here stories all the time of successful businessmen whose families never saw them because they were constantly working, or guys that spend so much time on self development and family that they never become very successful professionally? Can I do it all or I am forced to let one fail? How can I best balance my time and efforts to be the best at each one of these?

Hopefully as I continue through this journey of school I will be able to find out how to better balance all of these parts of my 5-legged stool as I am unwilling to let any one of the five suffer. There must be a way to help them all succeed!

Thanks for your support and love through this first term. Only five to go!

Love you,

Brock

Term 1- Distance Week 5 & 6

My Finals Dungeon

(It actually was quite a nice setup, but I spent WAY too many hours at this desk)

Julie,

Week 5 was a preparation week in a sense because week 6 is finals week. I am still struggling to find a place and time that works best for me to study. My biggest problems seem to be fatigue and distractions.

I usually try to study sometime in the late afternoon after I have been to work for the day. I thought this would be the best time because it would allow me to have work over for the day and be able to focus on my school work. For some reason however it is becoming less and less a good time to study. I constantly feel tired around that time and this week I even fell asleep with my head laying on the desk while I was sitting in the chair. Not the most effective...

I am having a hard time figuring out what other time would be a good time however? Guess I'll have to try a few other times and see what works best. My other problem is distractions. We both realized right off the bat that it wouldn't be good for me to try and study at home. Too much going on so that is when I decided to go to the library. That spot actually worked pretty good, but the biggest problem was location. It was out of the way from work and home so it takes extra time to get there and set up. After a few weeks, I decided to start trying going to your parents house since it is close to the office and is relatively quiet. The biggest distractions I find aren't necessarily with the location, but accessibility. I need my computer for certain documents I have to use or download that are too big to print, plus for my duke email and the platform to get everything from, BUT that also means I have access to my other email, facebook, etc etc. I have found lately that even when I leave work, I am still getting work emails, and other things that I end up doing for the first hour of "study time". I guess what is really hard about this is that I love what I am doing at work so much. I love being involved in everything that is going on in the office, so it is hard for me to shut that part of my brain off and focus on school. This will definitely be a work in progress.

Week 5 ended WONDERFULLY! It had nothing to do with work, but with Cole's birth. I am so glad everything went well and that both you and he are healthy. Now I know we are all going to have some new adjustments with a new family member, mason's adjustment, work, school, and everything, but it feels so great to have this beautiful baby boy in our house!

Week 6- Finals week

Well this week has been a major stress point. During the week, my team and I had been emailing back and forth about how stressful this financial accounting exam was and out of no where this poem came to mind that I passed on. I'm including it for the memories :)

k schipp is just on a trip,

she definitely runs a tight ship,

and Pat she don't want none of your lip. :)

So here's a little tip,

Finals have now appeared on the radar blip,

and off your hair you may want to rip,

but don't use the bird you may want to flip...

Just calm down and of your coffee take a sip.

By the end of this week your stress you can snip,

Because in the grand scheme of this MBA film strip,

Financial Accounting is thankfully only a clip!

The End

Words unfortunately not utilized in this production (skip, dip, jip, yip(ee), whip, slip, drip, zip, quip, pip (squeek), and hip)

Much love,

Hope this brightened your day :)

At times I almost feel like I get a little loopy and I definitely feel like I am still adjusting to and learning how to juggle all that is necessary to juggle to do this school thing. It is definitely an adventure.

(Day or so later) Right now it is Saturday morning and I am awaiting the beginning of my financial accounting exam. I have ME class from 9:15 to 10:15am so I will start the test about 11am. For the record, we have 24 hours to submit the exam after we download it and after talking with some of my Duke classmates, I should be planning on about 12 hours. ughhh!

I find myself being pretty nervous right now. I am not sure how this test is going to go or how well prepared I am. I have legitimate fears that I will completely fail this test and so all my hard work all term will be worthless since this final is worth 45% of our grade. I probably have these types of fears before every final I take, but they still come up every time I take a final. My other fear deals with my Managerial Effectiveness final. I have NO IDEA how to study for this final. Pretty much all the questions are based off of class participation questions and whether or not you got the idea of each class, BUT we don't really have any notes to pull from and how the heck am I suppose to remember the classes I attended back in London and every class since then without a little guidance? Anyway, that makes me nervous, but when Sunday night rolls around and I am finished with all of this stuff, you won't believe how happy I'll be just to be FINISHED!

Update: Well they are over... both of them. They are finally over. Man that financial accounting was a beast! My plan was to begin to at 11am on Saturday so I could hopefully punch out the 12 hours or so and be done by midnight and have it over with.

Well murphy's law came into effect. The Duke platform crashed and none of us could access either final. I ended up not being able to start till 12:40pm. I took the test in two hour chunks. Every two hours I would head upstairs and take a break for 15-30 minutes and then get back at it. It was definitely an interesting test. Some parts felt like they went pretty well and some parts were SO FRUSTRATING. By the end of Saturday night I found myself more often pounding the table or growling in frustration because I didn't understand the question. By that point I knew that I was exhausted and it was time to call it a night. That was at about 10:30pm so I was at about 10 hours into the test. I don't know if you remember, but Saturday night I WAS OUT! Cole was up like 3 times that night you said and I don't remember hearing a thing!

Well I got up at 6:30am, got dressed and headed back into town to take the test. I ended up going for a another 3 1/2 hours. Can you believe that? 13.5 hours to take a final? That is so crazy. I am yet to find out how I did, but I almost don't care... I'm just glad I'm done.

Managerial Effectiveness wasn't as bad. I actually didn't end up studying for it at all, but I think I did ok on it. I guess we will see when the grades come out.

Term 1 is officially finished. Unfortunately that doesn't mean we have a break and we now have to start getting ready for Term 2 and Dubai. We are 1/6th of the way done. That is actually kind of crazy to me. Its been quite a ride so far and only more fun to come right?

Love you babe, Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement. I really does mean a lot to me. You are the greatest!

Love,

Brock