Hello, America #3

Quote #1:

"This is what I love about America! The knowledge of possibility's and the freedom to achieve, if only I work hard." - Elli, page 94

Significance:

Elli said this quote after her first day of work at her second job, she was telling Alex about how someday in the future she wanted to be like her co-workers Sally and Evelyn.  She was just saying how people take advantage of how great America is, she says that a lot in this book.

Personal Connection:

I chose this quote because I think that it really represented America.  A lot of people come here for better opportunities.  I can relate this to the Immigrant project we are doing right now, the person I'm interviewing said that they came here because they had a very good opportunity here.  When you are here, as long as you work hard you can achieve whatever you set your mind too.

Question:

Do you think Elli will ever become a teacher?

Quote #2:

"Friday morning drags on & on"

Significance:

This was the part where Elli was at work, waiting for the day to be over, so that she could go visit her mom in the hospital. During this time I'm sure that Elli was feeling very anxious and worried because her mom was getting an operation , and I'm sure that she was very distracted and not getting very much work done at work.

Personal Connection:

I choose this quote because I can relate to it. Every Friday when I wake up I think that it's Saturday morning but it turns out that there's still one day of school left.  Friday's are slow.

Question:

How old is Elli?

Hello, America #2

Quote 1:

"No one noticed the number on my arm." - Elli, page 68

Significance:

Elli was referring to when a bunch of people came to her cousins house and shook her hand to say goodbye.  The reason why I choose this quote was because I was just reading this book and then I read this sentence and I remembered that she was a survivor of the Holocaust.  I just completely forgot, I mean Elli is just so normal, like any other immigrant, living a normal life as if nothing happened.

Character Analysis:

Elli- Elli is such an strong character. She went through  so much back in Europe, she lost so many family members and friends, and she is still haunted with the memories.  She's just here in America as if nothing happened, still persevering towards her dream of becoming a teacher.  Elli is a character that anyone can look up to.

Question:

Has there ever been a time when you were reading this book and you forgot about Elli's past?

Quote: 

"I guess we've taken everything on campus for granted." - Judy, page 70

Significance: 

In this part of the book Elli was visiting the Brooklyn College campus, and she made all these comments on how everything was so pretty, on things that her friends had never noticed.  Elli said that the schools back home were just concrete buildings.

Personal Connection: 

A lot of times when your really busy you don't notice the little things in life.  For example if you pass by the same things every day you don't really notice them, but if somebody is like visiting San Diego from a different city their like 'wow that's cool' and your like 'yeah i never really noticed that.'

Question:

Has there ever been a time where you didn't notice something really obvious?

Hello, America #1

Quote 1:

"How does it feel to have a different pair of shoes for every outfit? How many pairs of shoes do these girls have? I have been happy with the one pair of shoes I own . . . forever grateful that they fit well . . . forever remembering the shoes I was forced to wear in the death camps, the agony of walking miles and miles in shoes two sizes to small . . . " - Elli, page 23

Significance:

This quote represented that Elli's life was different now, compared to her life back in Europe.  Elli went from only having one pair of very uncomfortable shoes during the Holocaust, to learning that in America people throw away pairs of perfectly good pairs of shoes just because they break. I think that Elli feels that this is very strange and that Americans are very wasteful.  

Personal Connection: 

I feel like we really take things for granted, not just here in America but all over the world.  There is a lot of poverty all over the world and many people only have one pair of shoes, some people don't have any shoes at all & sometimes we just don't realize that.

Question:

Do you think that Elli will ever get used to America & be able to forget her past?

Quote #2:

"In Europe people talk to each other on trains. Here why doesn't anyone say hello as they sit down next to another passenger?" - Elli, page 37

Significance: 

This quote represented one of the many things Elli encountered that were different from what she was used to back at home.  I think that this was when Elli realized that she was not in Europe anymore and that she would have to get used to all of the new changes here in America. 

Personal Connection: 

When you do to other countries you realize that the United States is a very strange country with different customs.  In any other country when you go anywhere weather it's a store, or a bus stop, or a bank, or anything you say hi to the people and talk to them or they will get insulted.  Here, in America if you start talking to random people, they just look at you like your crazy, it's really different.

Question:

Has there ever been a time where you had to adapt to change?

New Americans Museum Reflection

From Haven to Home was a very interesting exhibit about Jewish people that immigrated to America and how it has affected our country.  In this exhibit I learned lots of interesting things about the Jewish history in America.  The first group of Jews came to America from Europe in 1654, they came to New Amsterdam (New York)  & it was only about 23 people.  During this time Jews were looked down upon, they lived in New York's lower East side and a lot of them worked in factories.  Over time more and  more Jews came from Europe because they felt like they were not treated equally because of their religion.  During the 1820's more synagogues were built & in 1834 Rebbecca Grantz opened the first Jewish Sunday school.  In 1924 congress decided to start having  an immigration limit, this was right before Hitler began the Holocaust and this was not good for the European Jews that wanted to escape to America.  Even though there was an immigration limit 200,000 Jews still came around the Holocaust.  I thought that it was really sad how America started there immigration limit as soon as the Jews needed it the most.  In this exhibit I learned a lot about  the hardships and accomplishments of the Jewish people & how they have impacted America.  

I liked the exhibit Children of Immigrants because I enjoyed seeing the child's story by looking at the photographs.  All of the children in the photographs had a whole new life in front of them, here in America.  The photograph that I found the most interesting was the one with all the little kids that came from different cultures at school in Chicago.  I liked this one because all of the kids were from different backgrounds, due to immigration.  All of the kids were so different, but at the same time they were so similar.  When your a little kid in elementary school, where you came from doesn't matter, everybody just gets along and plays together as if they've know each other their whole life.  The quote I choose was "The greatest thing I hope in my life is to become a successful person & to have family and friends to support me, not to be looked at by the color of my skin but by who I am inside" - Samaria Durakovic, Yugoslavia. I chose this quote because I thought that it really applied to this exhibit and it really liked the way that Samaria said what she hoped for in the future.  I hope that Samaria became a successful person, had her family and friends to support her, and was not looked at by the color of her skin but by who she is inside.

Immigration

Immigration is when somebody moves from their home country to another country, to live there. There are many reasons why people would leave their home to immigrate to another country. Sometimes immigrants leave their homes in search of a better life. People move to the United States because the United States is a free country where people have lots of freedom and many rights. For example here we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, there are other country's that don't. 

 

The United States is a pretty new country, it  only started about 230 years ago, and that's not a very long time compared to other county's.  So every body that lives in the United States came from immigration at some point in their family's history.  So United States has been affected by immigration in a huge way.   This is a very unique country, this country is very diverse and there are many different cultures, because the people come here in search of a better life come from all over the world.  If you go to other countries they won't be a diverse as this country because those countries have been around for hundreds of years, so there aren't as many immigrants like in the  United States, that is why people that live here come from so many different backgrounds.   

 

I think that immigration is a good thing because without immigration it would be so boring, everyone would be from the same cultures and backgrounds, nothing would be new or different. Another reason why I like immigration is because like many other people without immigration I wouldn't exist.