Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Imogen wrote:]
You know where it's pretty awesome to be a teacher if you're in the correct districts?

Texas. You should move here. We always need awesome math teachers!

Wish I could. A lot of my friends are in Texas right now, so I would be totally cool with moving there. I'm stuck in Chicago for a year while my husband finishes his PhD, then we are getting out of here as soon as possible.

If we do end up coming to Texas, I will have to have you tell me where the best places to teach are. Until then, I will probably continue ranting.

If I get hired at this one software company, I'm going to offer to redesign their application page.

Zedability wrote:If I get hired at this one software company, I'm going to offer to redesign their application page.

Lasciare speranza if it's the one I think it is.

Indefinite Integral wrote:Ugh. I. hate. Chicago.

I never ever ever ever want to live here again. The teaching job market sucks, the bureaucracy is worse, the city is way in debt, which means taxes just keep going up. As a teacher with 5 years experience including time teaching AP Calculus where I raised the AP pass rate by a significant amount I can't even manage to get a job at a decent school. In 10 months of applications, I've only had 3 interviews. The worst part is I don't even feel like I have any other skills besides high school teaching. I just spend all day on the internet, bored out of my mind except for the 3-4 hours a week I spend tutoring.

Hugs to you Indefinite Integral. For part of the time I was in young women's I was in the ward that included the University of Chicago. My YW leaders were Utah transplants, and all there pretty unwillingly while their husbands did graduate work. They really, really hated it. I think people who feel socially and culturally at home in Utah - or places like Utah - have a very hard time in a place like Chicago. (The reverse is true, too.) But if you ever want thatonemom's guide to getting the most out of the Windy City while you have to be there, let me know.
Also have you looked into the Catholic School system for jobs? The Catholic schools out there are pretty darn good.

thatonemom,

Yep, one of my three total interviews was with a Catholic school. I even got a call-back interview with them, but they decided to "go a different direction".

My husband feels the same way about Chicago. He has been here since 2010 and is itching to get out. Trying not to compromise my identity too much, we are actually in the ward you referenced. To be honest, I was a bit scared but also excited to get out here and try something new. However, the longer I have been here and the more I learn, the more I want to leave. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I can't seem to find a decent job and everywhere I turn I just run into even more inefficient bureaucracy.

We are trying to take advantage of some of the cool things the city has to offer, but if you have additional suggestions (preferably low-cost ones) I'd love to hear them.

Here are some free things in the Chicagoland area. I did some poking around to make sure they were still free, since I moved away back in 2000. You'll have to go through some rougher areas to get to some of these places, but that's true if you go too far in any direction from U of C.

Free stuff:
Lincoln Park Zoo
Chicago Botanic Gardens
Lake Shore Drive is really pretty if you've got a car
all the beaches around Lake Michigan
The Art Institute has a free night once a week. Possibly it's Thursday but it's best to double check.
All the museums have free days. This site: http://www.chicagoparent.com/picks/museum-free-days has a run down. I especially like the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. The science museum has this really cool international Christmas tree exhibit each year.
Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain are kinda cool to see.
Watertower Place
The Magnificent Mile with all the really high-end fancy shops
The Chicago River, especially when it's been dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. (St. Patrick's Day is huge there, btw)
The Harold Washington Library
There are a lot of really pretty Catholic (and other) churches throughout the city. Most are open every day.

Here are some other sites that list free stuff but I don't know much about them:
http://www.choosechicago.com/articles/v ... TIONS/420/
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment ... in-chicago
http://www.fodors.com/world/north-ameri ... o#!1-intro
http://www.chicagotraveler.com/free-things-do-chicago

Other random things:
Get a picture with the Michael Jordan statue outside The United Center, or that weird Bean thing downtown (that was after my time)
Eat as much authentic ethnic food as you can. The food in Chicago is so amazing.
Watch them film a TV show/movie somewhere in the city. Sometimes they need extras, too, so that can be a fun experience if that's your kind of thing.
Try to pick up a Chicago accent. Start putting the definite article in front of everything, especially place names.
Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Go past Midway airport. It's an airport, right in the middle of a neighborhood. Weirdest thing.
Volunteer with any kind of population that would make you a more competitive teacher wherever you move next. There's just about every kind of student somewhere in Chicago.

If I can think of anything else I'll let you know. I haven't lived there in a long time, and I'd never move back, but I still have a lot of love for the place.

My evil stepmother has gotten my father all into "Synergistic Healing." This woman never saw pseudoscience she didn't like. I hope my mom comes to haunt him as a ghost.

Today, I tasted a cucumber slice at work that looked suspect before remembering that our containers of food are dated.

The cucumber had been sliced on the 12th. It tasted very, very strange. And I can still taste it a little.

I'm pretty much convinced there are more things I dislike about working at a tech startup than those I like. That was a mild rant...

do you work at a tech startup now?

Yes, I've been there about 7 months.

Another rant, sorry I'm hogging the rant thread. I'll keep it short. I really greatly dislike talking to my brother (on the phone, luckily we live far away, and I feel bad for even saying that). He seems to have no filter and says really rude things and I have a hard time defending myself because he is quick and I am mostly just shocked at being confronted about things most people don't discuss.

I have a professor who is incredibly....precise in his expectations. Most everyone in his graduate seminar is afraid of commenting because of how he grills people, and he's just as hard on written work. I submitted our first longer paper (5 pages) and I'm waffling between extreme relief at being (temporarily) done with it, and extreme anxiety that everything was wrong and I'm going to flunk out of grad school.

I hate that I have this anxiety, and I hate that I'm going to have to deal with this for several more years.

mic0 wrote:Another rant, sorry I'm hogging the rant thread. I'll keep it short. I really greatly dislike talking to my brother (on the phone, luckily we live far away, and I feel bad for even saying that). He seems to have no filter and says really rude things and I have a hard time defending myself because he is quick and I am mostly just shocked at being confronted about things most people don't discuss.

Perhaps email would be a better way to communicate if you wish to keep in contact.

It would be a good suggestion on general, but not in this case. Thanks though

mic0 wrote:I'm pretty much convinced there are more things I dislike about working at a tech startup than those I like. That was a mild rant...

What exactly do you dislike? There's a chance I'll end up at a tech startup, so it'd be nice to know some downsides before starting.

I've disliked the programmers, the social isolation, and the noxious buzzwords of tech companies. Startups tend to attract an annoying "company man" true believer personality that clashes with mine.

*brogrammers. Now it's in my phone.

Marduk wrote:I have a professor who is incredibly....precise in his expectations. Most everyone in his graduate seminar is afraid of commenting because of how he grills people, and he's just as hard on written work. I submitted our first longer paper (5 pages) and I'm waffling between extreme relief at being (temporarily) done with it, and extreme anxiety that everything was wrong and I'm going to flunk out of grad school.

I hate that I have this anxiety, and I hate that I'm going to have to deal with this for several more years.

You won't flunk out, you'll just get a B! Supposedly in my program that was the equivalent to a D ;;