IT Services has deployed two members of staff, to help get the IT infrastructure up and running at the University’s new campus in Dubai. Rashid Ravat, from the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, and Liam Garey, from the Service Desk, flew out to Dubai a few weeks ago. They have provided us with a tongue-in-cheek report on what life is like over there.
Greetings from Dubai!
We’re not going to sugar coat anything – it’s been a bit of a struggle. As soon as we pulled up to the hotel, we could tell the neighbourhood was rough. It’s even more bleak from the hotel balcony.
We ventured out to get our bearings, but found that there’s not much to see or do.
Working conditions aren’t much better. As you can imagine, these surroundings would make anyone long for Birmingham!
It’s not all bad, though. We have state of the art air conditioning in our office.
The coffee shops on campus look strangely familiar:
We found a friend when purchasing our printer. No harm came to “friend” – or printer!
We understand that this has made for grim reading so far. If you’re still with us, we must warn you that it gets worse still.
This is what’s considered food in Dubai:
And the architecture leaves a lot to be desired:
However, the police are much friendlier than reported.
That’s all from us for now – we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with news from Dubai. You can see more photos on our SharePoint site if you wish.
Many thanks to Liam and Rashid for their entertaining account of life in Dubai. We will be back a more detailed update about how work on campus is progressing in the New Year.