A Travel Back in Time at the Tenement Museum

This Saturday we traveled back in time to (old) New York! We all met at our usual spot, and we googled where the tenement museum was, and found that it was in the historic lower east side. We confirmed with each other what route we would take, by using our Moovit app. It was confirmed that the fastest way would be to take the 4/5/6 downtown to Bleeker Street, and then a transfer to either the F or M train to Essex/Delancy street. We easily walked south to Orchard Street-and made our way to the Tenement Museum. We began our tour in the ground level entrance to the "bar" and we learned a lot about Beir and KinderBeir, none of us got to try this-so we imagined what it would be like in the time where children were able to drink what they considered "The Family Drink". We learned about how many families would live in each apartment and how bars would make revenue and what type of socializing happened in the bar. We were each given a character to read about, and as a group we discussed what our characters family was composing of, their origin, the occupation the family members hold, and their veteran status. As we learned about the past, a lot of comparisons were made on budget and lifestyle and how much has changed over the years. We walked through the tenement into the kitchen through to the bedroom where an entire family would share a modern day version of a queen size bed. We even took a peak at the outhouses, after this we were shown a digital exhibit that we would get to view pictures from the years in the past, to understanding what objects were of the time period. After that, we decided we would take the same route home, but we remembered, we live in the modern era-where trains on the weekends run on their own schedule, so we did some problem solving. We discussed as a group-some even without a map, and decides what alternative routes we could take. We agreed that we would take the J train to canal street, and then take the Q train on the 2nd ave and 86th street stop. It was an awesome time checking out how "the other half" lived - and it made us all appreciate living in the modern era.