January 18, 1916 – Our first day in New York. We had just arrived off the boat from Ellis Island and made our way to the Henry Street Settlement House. We needed to find a place to live. At the Settlement House, a kind settlement house worker said he could help us. He took us to 97 Orchard Street to see a tenement. When we got there, the landlord wasn’t there but Victoria Confino, another tenant, was. She welcomed us into her home. Below are some of our journal entries from our first day in America.
January 18, 1916
Dear Diary,
When we got off the boat I was freezing and starving. I felt sick and homesick. I felt new – all these people – different clothes, skin, and languages. It was so different from home. I was super tired and drowsy.
I met Victoria in her house on Orchard Street. Victoria is nice, Jewish, and tall. She has a lot of brothers. She is 14 years old and wears pretty fabrics. She is smart and normally wears bright colors. She is happy but she has to sleep in the kitchen and doesn’t get a lot of sleep. She has a good work ethic because she is the only one doing chores.
Victoria’s tenement is small, cramped, and cozy and only has three rooms. Victoria didn’t go to school in her home country and learned to write in English by looking at books.
Our family did decide to live in Victoria’s building because we came to be good friends with Victoria and her family.
So today was a fun learning experience.
Sophia (June)
Dear Diary,
When I first walked in New York I was scared that people would think I was weird because sometimes when people see someone who is new to their culture they think there is something wrong with them, but they just look different.
Victoria was wearing a shirt, a red shirt, and a bandana. Victoria had three rooms: kitchen, living room, and a big doorway. Victoria told a story about her brothers and her culture. One of her stories was about how David, her brother, slept on the floor. Every night she would get up and put coal in the fire to make it warmer. Victoria didn’t get much sleep because of that. We did not want to rent an apartment here because it didn’t have enough rooms. The oven was in the wrong place. It looked like garbage and it did not have a home-like feeling to it.
It was a very intense moment for me.
Francesco (Shaffer)
Dear Diary,
Today we met Victoria Confino. She is a fourteen year old girl who immigrated when she was ten and lives in tenement house. The apartment holds ten families and there’s not a lot of space. Victoria sleeps on the kitchen floor!
Victoria told us where a candy store was and how she used to have a goat in Kastoria, where she used to live. She showed us books and said that’s how she learned to read and write English. I tried to read a little bit of the book and I couldn’t read ANYTHING. It’s okay though, I’ll learn.
Victoria told us about American coffee. She even showed us how to make Turkish coffee.
The landlord wasn’t there today, so we couldn’t get a tenement apartment. So, we decided to talk to him when he came.
Ariana (Paloma)
Dear Diary,
I am Emma a girl from a family of nine. We arrived in New York yesterday from Italy. The first thought I had was, “How do so many people live here?”
This man took us to a tenement home but the landlord wasn’t there. So, he took us to a girl named Victoria’s tenement. She was kind but very energetic. Her tenement was very small but cozy. It was kind of like her, she was two feelings that were very different.
In the end, we decided to try to get a tenement in that building. It was nice to have a friend downstairs from us. But I had my family anyway. It was an interesting day in America.
Sarah (Lila)
Dear Diary,
I am very excited to start over and make new friends and fix things with my life.
We went to visit an apartment with a woman in it named Victoria Confino. I learned that she was ten in the second grade. I also learned that she did not go to school where she used to live.
Her tenement apartment was very small – it had three rooms. Apparently back in Kastoria, she had a bigger house and a baby goat.
We tried to get an apartment there because it was bigger than normal but we are still waiting for an answer from the landlord.
Emma (Emilia)
Dear Diary,
We arrived in America feeling lost. We met a man who took us to a tenement building on Orchard Street. We were supposed to look at a tenement apartment for us, but no one had the keys so we saw Victoria Confino’s tenement instead. Victoria was a teenager who had a lot of brothers. In their tenement, some of them would sleep on the floor. Victoria wouldn’t get much sleep because she had to put the coal in the furnace to heat the house. The mom and dad sleep in one room, but it is very hot in that room.
The Confinos brought blankets with them that were special from Turkey. Victoria wanted to wear colorful clothes like in Turkey, but she wore darker clothes in America so people wouldn’t think she was new.
Victoria was not the happiest living in America. She would rather go back to Turkey which is home to her.
Giorgio (Ziva)