Immigrant New York

Waking up today I was excited and sad at the same time because this was our last class. Excited because the extensive walking was coming to an end but sad because I really enjoyed learning about the history of New york and also trying the different types of food from various cultures.

Our last classed provided us with a heavy amount of rain but thankfully we were  indoors which helped us avoid all that rain. Our first stop major stop was the Tenement Museum, we got there earlier than scheduled so to kill time we looked our the gift shop there were many things I wanted to buy there but there item were pretty expensive.

It was finally time for our guide of the museum and it was definitely worth the wait. Our tour guide did a great job in explaining the history behind the museum. We went in to one of the apartments that help a family of about eight members and this apartment had only a kitchen bedroom and living room. Supposedly the Mother and father and the infant slept in the bedroom, the two older girls slept in the kitchen and the three boys slept in the living room. Besides there not being enough space to hold a family that large the rooms were so tight and at this time was no electricity and there was only one window which was in the living room, living in heat also was a major problem. There was also no bathrooms located in the house the three toilets that the building were down the stairs outside that had to be stared by the whole building. Clothes had to be washed by hand and the water that one needed to wash clothes and do all their other duties was carried in the building from outside and the dirty water that was used was thrown out the window when it was too tiring to walk down the stairs. Listening to the life that the immigrants had to live made me appreciate life so much more. At that moment listening to that tour guide it made me realize what do I really have to complain about because life could be so much worse.

 

We then made our was to get some authentic food. I was not really a fan of this place what I did enjoy was the sesame chicken and the vegetables but I would not go back nor recommend it.

Our final stop on this final day was a tour given by a college student from Stoney Brook University. The tour consisted of showing us around the Bowery, little Italy and Chinatown.One thing I learned about chinatown is that at one point the Chinese individuals were band from coming into America between the years of 1882 through 1943 until 1943 the law was repealed and this discrimination ended.. Today we also stop by the Yung Wing public school which is named by Yung Wing. Yung wing was the first Chinese individual from China to graduate from Yale University to become a teacher. He married a white woman had two kids but decided after creating a family he wanted to go back to china to help his country. He went back to China and open many school for children in China and this lead to lead to a big change from the time on in China.

We then went to building named the Kletzker brotherly Assn. This building was first there to help out the Jewish immigration with medical care, help them look for jobs and other things as well.
Right by that building was the Forward building which was the largest newspaper company in that time for the jewish. The paper was written in yiddish by editor Abraham Kahan.However, in the 1970's the newspaper company moved up town and the Foward building was bought by an evangelistic church but later turned into a residential condominium.

Overall I must this today was very informative and all the information presented was delivered really well by exceptional tour guides.