I’d do one family one, they just had them taped to the wall behind the bar and it was a bar probably the size of Oscar’s on Sansom. It was your typical dive bar type area, stickers, dollars, notes, whatever. I really liked it, cheesesteak was mid tier but seeing your home away from home was so worth it. Plus the people were great.

My boyfriend and I went back in 2018, it was actually a really fun experience, I’d recommend. But please bring a $1 bill to write your names and say you are from Philly on it, they had a few on the wall but of course we had no US money on us. Have fun!

Omg my boyfriend said to me as he was leaving today “does it smell like children’s art supplies out here”

I love bus drivers because they will throw off assholes and then give you the happiest you’re welcome when you exit and say thank you.

Does anyone know if you could just buy all their turtles and release them back from where they came? I feel so bad for these turtles and I’d spend some cash to just get them back home.

I agree, TAs are expected to be everything all the time without even a thanks but it can be really rewarding if you enjoy teaching. Also as someone said most times our contracts state we cannot seek other employment. I will note as someone else said there is a lot of expected privilege that makes graduate school much easier for people who have rich parents or a partner who can take on extra finances. I had a fellow grad student tell the graduate advisor he couldn’t afford tuition if they took away his remission and he was told to ask his boss for a private loan. And when you do have a majority being supplemented by parents they don’t care if others are struggling so why would they strike or complain? I hope the temple TAs get at least the bare minimum they are requesting but once the university pulls their remission they won’t last without going massively into debt.

Here’s my two cents as a TA in the city, 21k is on the low end but at least at my university that’s decided per department and I know for a fact temple TAs of my field made more than we did. The job is for 20 hours of teaching but they include grading time and office hours. It’s not easy or enjoyable to live on but it’s doable and from what my professors have told me the way they see it is we are students first and being a TA is secondary and we should want to graduate and get out not be comfortable. We thought about unionizing but every higher up we spoke to about it said it would be a bad move because that pay is based on what the department has, and unfortunately that’s not a lot, so we’d get nothing except disdain. I’m not defending either side I’m just giving what facts and experience I have. I think a lot of people see these universities and all their money and big paychecks for admin and don’t realize how poorly the money filters down, most professors have to supplement their pay with grants and then they are expected to use that money to supplement their grad students. Admin doesn’t care, they are a business, whereas the actually people providing the services are academics.

For the second time in my life I now realize I would not have had a word in my vocabulary for anything other than a dip egg. The other time was when I was to Trader Joe’s and asked for a buggy and the worker had no idea what I wanted and I had no translation for it haha.

Yeah seriously, stick around Drexel and Penn and you’ll be fine, especially if you use the shuttle services and the public safety escorts.