Prior to entering the Tenement Museum, I devourer a McDonald’s “Big Mac” and a medium-sized fries, in hoping to satisfy my appetite and to give me a burst of energy to stay awake during the tour, which I assumed to be like any other tour, dull and cliche. On arriving on the corner of the intersection of Orchard Street and Delancey Street, I saw the building I assumed was the Tenement Museum and seeing it under construction did not aid to my expectations; I was disappointed and for that reason did I decided to buy something eat. Despite the trip’s initial impressions, not once did I doze off nor diverged during the tour’s presentation. Surprisingly, I believed I was living vicariously through another immigrant, who had just arrived during the early 1900’s. The actress playing as Victoria Castoria, who I assume was a fictional character served only for the purpose of emulating the life of an immigrant during the 1900’s, was completely believable. Unwittingly, I volunteered to play as the father of a German family of ten and found the experience of conversing with the fake Victoria ridiculously satisfying, engaging and didactic. I truly believed I was a father of ten by the time she asked me what job I previously had in Germany. What I learned from the introductory lesson affirmed what I was taught when I was studying American History in High School but walking through those dark, narrow hallways and listening to Victoria as she describes her hardships as the only female in the family as I sit in the cramp, archaic room reinforced my understanding and perspective of life as an immigrant during the 1900’s. Overall, the tour was enlightening, interactive, and surprisingly not soporific; it was not what I expected.
-Jason Zheng
