Last Saturday, a group of volunteers and I worked at a family’s home in Fleischmanns, N.Y., Hurricane Irene had caused massive damage to the houses and buildings in this town.
In several locations, trees were ripped from their roots leaving large gaping holes in many front lawns. Additionally, the high water flooded the basements of many of the residents’ homes. Insulation was ripped out and large deposits of mud and sand were formed in these basements, disrupting mechanical equipment like water heaters.
We shoveled dirt out of the cellars and transplanted it into the holes in the lawn. While we took a break and ate our lunch, Dominick, the owner of the house we were working at, came and talked to us about the flood and his evacuation. The story was really touching and I cannot imagine how scary it must have been when the hurricane hit.
Sunday, my Silk Roads class as well as several other classes headed to New York City to view the new Islamic Art exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit was really interesting and it was great to connect the themes and ideas we learned in class with their physical representations at the MET.
Recently, I was a member of a group that had to present on Islamic art. In our presentation, we used pictures from the MET’s website. During our tour, we were able to see the artwork in person that we had showed.
As you can see, I had quite the hectic weekend, and it did not calm down for the rest of this week. With Thanksgiving break quickly approaching, many students are rushing to finish assignments and get them out of the way before they travel home to be with their families. I cannot wait to be home and to spend time with the friends and family I have been missing.
Happy early Thanksgiving!