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Focusing on Egypt and Dubai - The Blogs


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Egypt and Dubai Trip Blogs

Group 5 - Desert Adventurers
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Pre-Trip
May 17
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May 31

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Final Thoughts and Photos

[May 31, 2008]

From the beautiful beaches, to the shockingly peaceful society and unmatched cultural acceptance from nearly everyone, Dubai seems like it will soon be the promise land that New York once boasted of being. It is an incredible land of opportunity, especially for knowledge workers entering the job market with higher

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Last Day in Dubai

[May 30, 2008]

Today was the last day of our Study Abroad program. In the morning, we were free to make plans to explore the city. Some group members went to Jumeriah Beach and others went to the Mall of the Emirates. The Mall of the Emirates is well known for its indoor ski resort and for being the largest mall in the world.

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Meeting SZABIST Students

[May 29, 2008]

In the evening, we visited SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology). This university was founded by Benazir Bhutto in honor of her father, former president and prime minister of Pakistan.  She served as the first (and so far only) female Prime Minister of Pakistan for two non-consecutive terms.

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Booz & Co Discuss Dubai

[May 29, 2008]

Today, the class had a very informative and insightful visit at Booz & Co.  Recently Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting Company, one of the most reputable consulting companies in the world, announced on May 16th that they were splitting into a Global Commercial and US Government groups.  Our class met with the

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Different Spectrums of Dubai

[May 28, 2008]

Today, we started our day with a visit to UPS, then had lunch at the Burj Al Arab and finished the day with a desert safari. 

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Learning about the DIFC

[May 27, 2008]

Today, we visited the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Walking into the DIFC almost seemed like we were stepping into a futuristic setting from a designer catalog. We were met by Sally Yousif, a GSU Global Partners MBA graduate who now works in the DIFC, and Dr. Zeinab Shalhoub (Dr. Z), who also works in the

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Interview with Heritage for Henna Founder and CEO

[May 26, 2008]

"Always fresh, always natural, and always pure" are the words Fathiya Ahmed uses to describe her henna product. Fathiya is the founder and CEO of Heritage for Henna.

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First Impressions of Dubai

[May 26, 2008]

When first entering the downtown area of Dubai, the scenery of the buildings and creative architecture they each display is absolutely surreal. During the day, the city is gorgeous, and at night, it is spectacular.

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Photos from the week

[May 25, 2008]

On Sunday, we flew back to Cairo to catch our flight to Dubai on Emirates airline. We spent a good portion of the day at the airport where we worked on our blogs. Since very little happened today, we wanted to share some of our photos.

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Weekend in Luxor

[May 24, 2008]

On Friday evening, we flew from Cairo to Luxor via EgyptAir.  We arrived at night and it was about 42 degrees Celsius, which translates to 108 degrees Farenheit.  We settled in at the Sofitel Karnak Luxor Hotel for the night and headed out at 6am the next day to visit the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens

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Lunch with Local Agent Entrepreneur

[May 23, 2008]

Our group had the opportunity to meet and interview a successful entrepreneur at the Heliopolis Sporting Club in Heliopolis, Egypt (a suburb of Cairo). Violet Nashad is the founder of Garyval for International Trade. Her company works with the suppliers of chemicals, serves as a local agent to non-Egyptian chemical

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Eye Opening Experience

[May 23, 2008]

An NGO or Non Governmental Organization is an organization that is not run by the government but can have very governmental like functions.  Today, we met with Dr. Laila Iskander, the founder and managing director of Community and Institutional Development Group (CID), and Ezzat Naem, executive director of a

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Evening with Local Architect

[May 22, 2008]

Today we interviewed our entrepreneur, Karim El Hayawan, for class. He is an architect by academic major but he is and has been running and working in a very successful interior design firm that he and three friends started themselves. He said that it was just perfect

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Entrepreneur Panel at the Social Fund

[May 22, 2008]

The afternoon was spent at the Social Fund for Development office with Ms. Hanaa El Hilaly. Hanaa led a panel discussion with several entrepreneurs in Egypt. The entrepreneurs on the panel shared their stories about the success and failures in their businesses.

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Lunch with Dr. Mohamed Radwan

[May 22, 2008]

Along the Nile River, there are a number of popular American restaurants. We had a quick lunch at TGIF with Dr. Mohamed Radwan. Dr. Radman teaches Entrepreneurship at several universities in the Middle East. He also runs Platinum Partners, a strategic Business Development firm. Dr. Radwan shared several of his

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USAID - United States Agency for International Development

[May 22, 2008]

Dr. Joe Ryan was our speaker during our visit to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) office. The Foreign Assistance Act mandated an agency be created to assist organizations with economic assistance. The agency was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. USAID does not lend

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US Commercial Services at the US Embassy in Egypt

[May 21, 2008]

The last visit of our day turned out to be the most fruitful in terms of the information we learned and would be able to use in the future. Also for most of us, it was the first time we had ever visited an American Embassy. This aspect of the visit made it very unique among the places we had visited throughout Egypt so far. We

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American University in Cairo

[May 21, 2008]

At the American University in Cairo (AUC), Dr. Sherif Kamal talked with us about AUC’s history and what changes were taking place.  He is associate professor in the BEC School (Business, Economics, Communications).  AUC will celebrate 90 years in 2009.  It is currently located in the heart of Cairo but is

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American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt

[May 21, 2008]

Today, our class visited three locations: the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham), American University in Cairo, and the American Embassy.  At AmCham, we met with Hanaa El Hilaly, Mohamed El Kalla, and Hisham Fahmy.

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Day & Night at the Pyramids and Sphinx

[May 20, 2008]

Today was the day we were all waiting for – going to the pyramids!  We started by visiting Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom (about 3000 BC). Here we saw a statute of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx.  The statue was carved out of limestone.  We learned that he lived to be about 92 years old

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Khan el-Khalili, Evening Dinner, and Cruise down the Nile River

[May 19, 2008]

In the afternoon, we got to visit the famous Khan el-Khalili Bazaar and do some souvenir shopping. We definitely saw lots of entrepreneurs here. We had been forewarned about the authenticity of the goods sold here, so we were prepared to aggressively negotiate the prices.

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IBM Egypt

[May 19, 2008]

Our day started with a trip to IBM Egypt which was opened in 1954 and currently has about 500 employees. The building is located in a very nice corporate complex with other fortune 500 companies. When we arrived we had to go through a security guard entrance where we were instructed that no pictures were allowed.

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A Cultural Adventure

[May 18, 2008]

We arrived in Egypt at 2 a.m. completely exhausted from the 30 hour trip across the world. We had some meetings during the day but we were fortunately able to get an immediate taste of the local culture with an Arabian night adventure.

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Egyptian Museum

[May 18, 2008]

As we left the hotel for the first time since our arrival in Cairo, we realized how close we are to the pyramids. In fact, it is about a 10 minute drive to get to the pyramids and sphinx. Check out our first glimpse at 2 of the most famous pyramids in Egypt. We are moving around town in a charter bus so the elevated view provides an even better scenery.

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Amsterdam Visit

[May 18, 2008]

tulip museum

Tulip Museum in Amsterdam

We left Atlanta around 4:40pm (Atlanta local time) on May 16 on a KLM flight to Amsterdam and arrived on Saturday morning around 7am (European local time - 6 hours ahead of Atlanta). We had 12 hours to spend in Amsterdam until our next flight to Cairo so we decided to go into the city. Everyone divided up into smaller groups based on interests. One of the places visited was the Anne Frank House. This museum contains the actual hiding place of the Frank family. Having read her story long ago, it was a great refresher of her actual story but more importantly a reminder of the struggles of individuals during war time to stay safe and alive. Quotes from her red journal and photographs were on display throughout the museum. At the request of Otto Frank, Anne's father, the rooms they occupied have not been furnished with the furniture. Instead, there is a model of the layout to give visitors perspective. The rooms are incredibly small for multiple individuals to occupy 24/7. This is a must experience in Amsterdam. Some of our group members took a boat ride cruise through the city. We left Amsterdam at 8:45pm and arrived in Cairo at 2am (Cairo time - 7 hours ahead of Atlanta). In the Cairo Airport, we were graciously greeted by our trip host Mohammed. After the drive to the hotel, we finally checked into our rooms and had the opportunity to rest from the long trip.

group 5 photo

Dinner at Fanoos

[May 9, 2008]

On Friday night, the class went to dinner at Fanoos, a Persian restaurant located in Sandy Springs. This allowed us to get some exposure to the Middle Eastern cuisine before we departed for the Middle East. At this dinner, we had a guest entrepreneur join us. Our guest, Ms. Ibraham, is the owner of Egyptian Corner - a retail store located in Discover Mills in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The store sells various goods from Egypt including clothes. During dinner, all of the students had the opportunity to speak individually with Ms. Ibraham. In my personal conversation with her, I learned that Egyptians are very friendly especially to Americans. She reassured us that we did not need to be concerned about our safety while in Egypt. Next, we spoke about public transportation. I had recently learned that the first car of each metro train is reserved for women. However, I had also found a conflicting source that indicated the 4th and 5th cars were reserved for women. Regardless of how many cars are reserved for the women, they are allowed on all cars including those with men. The decision on which car to ride is solely the women's discretion. Since Ms. Ibraham has family in Egypt and can navigate through the streets in a personal car, she does not have to rely on public transportation. Thus, I could not resolve the conflict of which metro car was reserved for women. Thus we moved on to discuss conducting business in Egypt. She explained that while she had a business license in the US to conduct business, she did not need to have one in Egypt to purchase the goods that she imports to the US for her retail store.

group 5 photo group 5 photo

Business Culture in the United Arab Emirates

[May 9, 2008]

Here are a few things about the business culture in the United Arab Emirates:

  • A key element to conducting business successfully is to establish good personal relationships.
  • It is common to discuss the well being of family members prior to discussing business.
  • Intermediaries are often used to speak on behalf of someone particularly to deliver a message that a request is refused.
  • Hospitality is important. Food is often shared and enough is brought for everyone. A guest should accept a beverage and take a small portion to show respect to the host.
  • People tend to speak and stand closer together when talking in the UAE. There is less personal space during conversations than we are accustomed to in the United States.
  • A person may become excited and started yelling during a conversation, but this does not mean they are angry. They are expressing how sincere and passionate they are about the subject matter

Camel Racing

[May 7, 2008]

I found this very interesting.  Not living in a land of camel racing I never realized how valuable a camel could be.  Apparently camels can be judged by their features making them worth millions.  Check out the article below which discusses how the prince of Dubai recently purchased a camel at almost 3 million dollars.  Apparently, it still doesn't top some of the most popular horse sales which have been well over 10 million dollars, but amazing nonetheless!

Article found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/08/dubais-prince-buys-27-mil_n_95696.html.

Introduction to the Desert Adventurers Group

[May 1, 2008]

We are Group 5 and were tasked with coming up with a new name for our group - so we've settled on Desert Adventurers. Our group consists of Fazana Creighton, Yasmeen Johnson, Linda Launey, and Tony Uriegas. Our bios along with our classmates are found on the Student Participants page. To read ours specifically, click on our names above.

We are looking forward to this trip and hope you find our blog postings enjoyable and educational as we blog about our daily activities during this trip.

 

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