Chicago

The Charity: Teach For America, Chicago

The Girl(s): Aviva, Tanya, and Wendy

Teach For America, an organization I was personally part of, often elicits mixed results. As far as I’m concerned, your organization is only as good as the people running it. That is why I can, with good conscience, support TFA Chitown. Aviva, Tanya, and Wendy are all phenomenal assets to education in America, and are undoubtedly driving towards change in Chicago’s educational system.

Top Five things to do in Chicago:

Five: Catch a game, any of them (Chicago is a sports city, and I don’t say that lightly)

Four: Eat at Portillos

Three: Eat Deep Dish Pizza

Two: Navy Pier

One: The Bean (Daly Plaza, and the other displays) at Millenium Park

Things I passed on: Chicago has a lot to do, and I could probably make a list a mile long. Catch a show, wriggleyville, visit the universities, catching a game (Fire, Bears, Bulls, Cubs, Sox)

Good places to stay: Tcorn and K’s place. Beautiful.

Chicago’s Ratings. On a scale from 1 to Boston: 8

Chicago has water (great lake is ALMOST ocean), city feel, sports, history, a palpable feel and culture.

Chicago doesn’t have a mountains, great weather, or the Olympics.

The story: Chicago feels like home. It is strange to say it, but it does. I could see myself living there. I probably won’t, but I could. Harsh winters, a city that cares about sports (and that is a big factor), a history, a definable feeling- Chicago is pretty awesome. My parade was a bit rained on- quite literally, but that didn’t stop me from hauling around 50lbs of luggage in the rain around Chitown. It “dampened” my spirits a bit, but I fought on. I took the Blue line into the city and wandered around the Millennium park, which is going on my list of best parks in a city in the US. Obviously, Boston takes the cake with the Gardens, and the Commons, but after that Millennium park is up there. Then I walked to Navy Pier, which was a bit of a haul in the rain, but I wasn’t getting any drier- so what the heck. It is a typical tourist trap, but it has a established feel to it, sort of like visiting a Bourbon Street- historic, locals might be there often, it might be part of the definition of the city, but it isn’t quite local. Still fun though. Anyways, Chicago would be a good place to be in the dry warm weather, and probably a little less fun in the freezing cold snowy windy weather that is about to descend upon it.

TFA CHICAGO.