Your walking tour of the Lower East Side takes place on Tuesday, December 1st. We will leave after math class and take a bus to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  After our program there you will meet the parents who are coming along at the museum’s visitor’s center and head off checking out places for our online guide book.

You have received two assignments as a group: a lunch stop  and a dessert stop. While at both be sure to take notes, collect information (menus, business cards, etc), and get a good sense of the place so you will be able to write it up back in school for the guidebook.  Otherwise, have fun checking out the neighborhood — and look for other signs of immigration — try to find one new place for us to add to the guidebook.  We need places of worship, shops, and other places like that.

Last year Pauline Frommer told us about her research for the guide books she writes. She pointed out that it is important for you to see what you can learn about these  for others.  (Don’t just say the food is  “yummy.” Give us a sense of what the place looks and feels like as well as what the food is like for others — even those whose taste may be different from yours.). You are the second class to do this map and so we are counting on you to make it really worthwhile for others to use!

Here are the assignments. Please go in the order given (as there is no way you can all be at Economy Candy at the same time).

• Group 1: Rosario’s Pizza (for lunch), Economy Candy, and Cafe Roma (for dessert)
• Group 2: Economy Candy,  Grand Italian Food Center (for lunch) and Ceci Cela Cafe (for dessert)
• Group 3: Economy Candy, Nyonya Cafe (for lunch), Sugar Sweet Sunshine (for dessert)
• Group 4: Creperie (for lunch), Economy Candy,  Century Cafe and Bakery (for dessert)
• Group 5: Economy Candy, Lombardi’s (for lunch),  Rice to Riches (for dessert)
• Group 6: Sushi Hana (for lunch),  Economy Candy,  Ferraras (for dessert)

Old Country and Journey

• Money from the old countries came in all shapes and sizes.
• You were inspected before you came by the steamship company so they would not have to pay for you to go back.
• Some steamship companies required you to come three days early for inspection.
• If you were under 16 you had to have $25 to enter alone or you had to be with an adult.
• People came from places with very different sorts of cultures.  (For example, the case of baby shoes from different places.)

Arrival

• Some of the mental tests were unfair because they assumed experiences the immigrants hadn’t had. For example,  people who had never drawn before were asked to draw a diamond.
• There was testing for trachoma as it was so contagious (especially before antibiotics).
• They had reading and writing tests in many different languages.
• There were money exchanges.
• They put chalk marks on people to indicate something was wrong.  Each mark had a special meaning.
• If you were detained it was in another area behind a fence. Some people were separated from families.
• The dormitories were people were detained were crowded with three levels of beds. Sometimes they ran out of beds and people ended sleeping on benches or even the floor.
• They served the women and children milk, but not the men.
• If a child under 16 was sent back an adult had to go with them.

2. Go to the House Blog to navigate to the map of our online guidebook (use the Online Guidebook FAQ).

3. In OpenOffice, write descriptions for your lunch place and the other place you were assigned.

4. Spell check your descriptions, ask a teacher to check them, and then, cut and paste them into the online map. (Sign into that site here.

Your job during this two hour tour is to see what you can discover about immigration past and present in this area.  Be sure to take notes, photos, and collect business cards, flyers, menus and anything else that may give you more information.  You will use all of this back in school for our online guide book.

Each group has been assigned a lunch stop and one other place to visit.  Remember what Pauline Frommer told us about her research for guide books. It is important for you to see what you can learn about the restaurant  for others.  (Don’t just say it is “yummy.” Give us a sense of what it is like and what the food is like for others — even those whose taste may be different from yours.)

Groups are also encouraged to see what other places are along the route that we may want to add to the guide book. Keep your eyes peeled, cameras ready, and pencils on standby! There are all sorts of interesting shops, buildings (especially ones that have gone from one use to another — say a synagogue that is now a church), and monuments.  You are the first class to do this map and so we are counting on you to make it really worthwhile for others to use!

Everyone should go to these two places before or after lunch depending on how close your restaurant is to them.

• Guss’s Pickles
• Economy Candy

Here are the group assignments:

Group 1

• Angel Orensanz Synagogue
• Katz’s
• Dessert place of your choice

Group 2

• Essex Street Market
• El Castillo De Jaqua
• Dessert place of your choice

Group 3

• St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Mexican Restaurant
• Dessert place of your choice

Group 4

• Buddist Temple
• Kebab House
• Dessert place of your choice

WEATHER:
Even though the weather has been fairly warm, children should bring a jacket or sweater as the ferry can be quite chilly and we are ending with an outdoor picnic in Battery Park.  If rain is in the forecast please be sure your child has rain gear. The museum is indoors, but we will have to wait for the ferry outside. (Hopefully, we have a beautiful day, but if not we will return to the school for an indoor picnic.)

WHAT TO BRING:
The children should bring two bags: one, a snack and drink (which they may eat on the bus on our way to the ferry) and one, a lunch with a drink for when we return in Battery Park.  Both should be in a backpack which will be left on the bus during our visit to Ellis Island (as security on the ferry does not allow them).  Please no soda, glass bottles, or anything with nuts.  They will not need to bring anything else.

PLEASE JOIN US:
You are welcome to join us. Please let me know as soon as possible, if you can indeed join us.   Parents should meet us at the ferry (after buying your own ferry tickets) at 9:30.  You can buy the tickets online or at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. We are leaving school at 9:00  and will take the first ferry we can make. We will be heading back to school around 2:00 to arrive by 2:30.

The children brought along their Arrival booklets and eagerly took notes on what they saw. I’d brought a copy of the book along and it was exciting to see firsthand so much of what Shaun Tan clearly used when he researched the book.

Here are a few of the many of Heidi Lipton’s photos that she graciously allowed me to post here. You can view more of them here. Thanks, Heidi!

The children loved the ferry ride, especially the seagulls flying so close to them — just like the birds in The Arrival (if not quite as many).

We saw this photo as soon as we walked into the Museum. Since there is a very similar drawing in The Arrival, the children were very excited to see it.

These photographs looked just like the endpapers of The Arrival!

Reading, learning, and note-taking!

Old elevator (and a little yellow Arrival booklet clutched in a hand).

A great time was had by all!