You take a train to the Russian port city of Riga and board a steamship carrying crates of beets to France. The ship is crowded with other immigrants like you who are spending all they have to get to America. The small ship is filled with crate upon crate of vegetables and there is scarcely room for you. You sleep where you can and keep your mind off of how miserable you are by reading the Hebrew prayer book your mother gave you- it was her grandmother's, and one of the few possessions you own aside from your clothes and some gold coins sewn into the lining. 

A few days later you reach the French port of Cherbourg where you will board an immense ocean liner bound for New York City. You have never seen so many people together in one place. Everyone is shouting in a hundred different languages. Panic begins to rise in your throat and you wonder if you did the right thing. 

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Before you can board the ship you must prove that you are healthy. The ship must pay for the fare of passengers who are rejected in America and are careful to screen out those who might not pass inspection. You are directed into a health station where you wait in line to be checked by doctors to make sure you aren't carrying any diseases, such as typhus or tuberculosis into their country. Men are ordered into one room and women another. Attendants are shouting in different languages for you to undress, you're examined and your clothes are thrown into a steamer. After a very long time of standing in line you are inspected and passed through. 

On the docks you and hundreds of other travelers walk up a gangplank to the lower decks. You look up to see the huge smokestacks belching out black clouds. A large chunk of the money you have saved went in to pay for the $10 third-class ticket. 

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Everyone is in such a hurry and you can see the anxiety on the faces of your new companions. On the dock, women are waving and blowing kisses to their loved ones above. For the first time, the excitement of your journey hits home. You are going to America!

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For the next two weeks your home will be in the lower decks of the ship called Steerage (because these cabins are closest to the mechanisms that steer the ship.) The loud clanking of the engine echoes through the steel hallways and the hissing of the furnace room below reminds you of a ghost story your brothers used to scare you with. You share your 8-foot by 8-foot cabin with 5 other women; three from Russia, one from Poland, and one from Germany. The conditions are crowded and there is absolutely no privacy. You spend much of your time trying to read an English language newspaper that some had discarded but the language and the letters seem hopeless. After a week, the cabin reeks of humanity. There is one washroom with 10 sinks that provide cold salt water for washing and bathing, although after a while it is filled with tin pails that are used for soup at lunch and washing at night. The sinks are constantly filled with other peoples' laundry not to mention bits of vomit from those who couldn't make it to the deck. The toilets are likewise shared by the men of your hallway. 

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The cabins are no place for someone who wants peace and quiet. Most of the time you spend your days on deck watching the vast ocean or playing cards with some new friends you met. After a while you have been able to sleep through the never-ending sounds of babies crying, lovers quarreling, and mothers threatening their children for misbehaving.

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Then one day some yells, "Land, land!". Everyone rushes to the deck to get a glimpse of New York City. You have never seen anything as amazing as New York City with its towering buildings that soar into the sky. However, the sight of the green lady with her crown and lamp held high fills you with the most joy. You have been told that with hard work anyone can become rich in America. In America, people can start their own businesses. In America, Jews can own land and worship at the synagogue without fear of a police raid. In America, people can criticize the government without being sent to a labor camp. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of all of the promises that America holds for you.