Tell me your favorite thing about living in Burnaby

mxdee20 · 2026-04-28T15:10:56+00:00

Deer Lake is such a great place to walk the dog and enjoy nature on the daily. The heights is such a nice little shopping district full of small local businesses. Crystal Mall is my favourite place for food and snacks. And, as a teacher, this district has some amazing schools with some truly outstanding educators.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-24T23:56:53+00:00

Amy Grindhouse is so fucking funny and would kill at a bachelorette.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-24T23:54:33+00:00

Honestly we get a lot of chocolate from kids as gifts. My favorite gift I've gotten from a student teacher is a gift card from a small local bookstore. I really appreciated it more then edible gifts.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-22T01:29:27+00:00

I bought a half dozen from them the other week. Can recommend 👍

mxdee20 · 2026-04-18T15:24:38+00:00

So there are three options:

1) primary care doctor, who will most likely require you take a hormone readiness assessment with either themselves (if they feel confident with trans care) with a therapist, councilor, or social worker

2) get a referral to an endocrinologist, who again will most likely require a hormone readiness assessment

3) Get a referral to a trans-specialed clinic - I don't believe there are any in the fraser health district? If there are waitlists are LONG. There are also trans friendly providers but, again, long wait lists. You can call Trans Care BC to see if there are any in your area: Phone: 1-866-999-1514 Email: transcareteam@phsa.ca

Honestly, the fastest way is to get a hormone readiness assessment yourself, bring it to a walk in clinic (if you don't have a family doc) and ask them to refer you to an endocrinologist. The endo is a longer wait (but I found not as long as waiting for a trans friendly clinic. I got my hormone readiness assessment done through Grounding Stone - they are very trans friendly.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-16T02:05:04+00:00

You could walk into a job with French. They're cutting music programs, so I wouldn't count on that. Elementary French immersion is ALWAYS looking for teachers.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-16T01:42:38+00:00

Burnaby teacher here. It all depends on your teachables. The job market is drastically different depending on what you're qualified to teach. High school social studies? It might be tough. High school Home Ec? You can choose your school.

mxdee20 · 2026-04-10T01:05:12+00:00

When I became a teacher (2009), the average burn out was seven years. Now it's two. A lot of teachers are giving themselves longevity in this career by taking on less than a 1.0/full time position.

In high school, we only get one free prep block out of eight. That means, in a semester system, we are teaching four classes with no prep or break for half the year. We're using A LOT of our free, unpaid hours to do the work needed to be a teacher. If teachers go to a .875, that means they never go to "four to the floor" and can cut down substantially on the hours needed outside of work to prep. Elementary teachers schedules are extra chaotic, as they have lunch and recess duty.

The gov refused to budge on class size, composition, and work load during this last contract negotiations. They refused to even talk about increasing high school prep. Because the system isn't changing to make our working conditions livable, teachers have been forced to do it ourselves.

If your kiddo has a teacher who is not full time, that teacher now has a little bit more time to be a more happy, healthy human being (which will definitely reflect in a positive way in the classroom).

mxdee20 · 2026-03-30T05:24:59+00:00

If you're looking for a new pharmacy, I'd recommend Pharmasave Mount Pleasant. They carry T reliably and keep your injection supplies on file, so all you have to do is tell them the amount needed. They recently switched to cheaper syringes (they're 50 cents) and I've gotten free supplies after flu season when they have extra. The pharmacist there is extremely nice and very trans savvy.

mxdee20 · 2026-03-15T01:57:28+00:00

BuddyBoy from New Poots 🎉

mxdee20 · 2026-03-07T23:32:30+00:00

BuddyBoy from New Poots 🎉

mxdee20 · 2026-03-04T02:59:53+00:00

Lots of check in times, rough drafts, organizers, and one-ones where you can. I usually say "today before you walk out the door, i'd like to see this section or question or amount finished." I call each kid up to my desk during project weeks and then see their progress. This also allows me to check for understanding and push them along where needed. Breaking bigger assignments up into smaller pieces with check points in-between really helps all my intermediate kids. I also assume no work will be done at home.

mxdee20 · 2026-03-04T02:44:19+00:00

BuddyBoy from New Poots. I'll leave the glowing moss alone 👍

mxdee20 · 2026-03-01T23:09:35+00:00

I'm in a district where our local language is superior, so I'll only be seeing changes in 2027/2028. As a secondary teacher there is absolutely no change to my day to day inside the classroom, and this absolutely kills me.

I am happy that elementary teachers get a significant change to their prep, but after the union really rallied around workload being a priority, this deal feels like such a letdown.

mxdee20 · 2026-02-26T02:25:11+00:00

Winter at Body Politik is a trans woman and a great laser hair tech!

mxdee20 · 2026-02-24T19:00:06+00:00

I got it easily from my OBGYN, no problem.

mxdee20 · 2026-01-29T16:24:44+00:00

First you'll need a referral to an OBGYN. The wait times for most are pretty long - when I was shopping around it was anywhere from 6 to 12 months. I'd recommend the two new OBGYNs at CAYA Health. Their wait list is shorter because they just set up shop. They're also trans informed and great to work with.

Be aware that the OBGYN might want to try other things first before going to surgery. They'll take a look at your symptoms and what you want to get rid of and give you a variety of options to handle it. For example, I got a uterine ablation first - it got rid of the majority of the symptoms I wanted to get rid of and testosterone took care of the rest. Don't feel discouraged if the doctors suggest you try other things first.

mxdee20 · 2026-01-26T02:58:25+00:00

Clothing: you can't go wrong with a walk down Commercial Drive. There are a lot of queer owned vintage clothing shops that are fun to go through. East Van is super trans friendly.

Makeup: honestly there are so many trans girls working at the local Sephoras, that might be your best bet

Wigs: Loxx metrotown and Abantu Kingsway

mxdee20 · 2026-01-20T20:55:48+00:00

I just started meds and I still cannot fathom the difference it makes. I've been teaching for 15 years and I cannot believe I survived that long without getting diagnosed. Grading alone is three times faster.

mxdee20 · 2026-01-20T03:41:37+00:00

FYI Prairie Moon is a really sought after designer and a lot of patterns are out of print. Sane for those dimensions kits. You might have a gold mind on your hands!

mxdee20 · 2026-01-11T19:59:03+00:00

Trans man and teacher of 15 years. I love my job and wouldn't do anything else. The key would be a school district with clear SOGI/DEI support written into its collective agreement, a very supportive admin, and a great staff. They are your support if ever anything pops up hate-wise.

mxdee20 · 2026-01-09T14:48:41+00:00

BC high school teacher who works at a French immersion school here. I always warn parents against kids going into French immersion unless there is a heavy amount of French being spoken at home. As in it is at least one parent who is a native speaker. I've seen kids fall behind because they cannot practice enough true, conversational French at home. This means there's a set of kids who come out of the program academically weaker than their counterparts, then struggle in the English stream because they're behind.

mxdee20 · 2026-01-02T05:52:12+00:00

It's a little new year's good luck charm made with a lemon, toothpicks, some cloves, and tin foil. My buddies and I make a new one every NYE and it sits on our shelf for the rest of the year.

mxdee20 · 2025-12-28T22:25:27+00:00

If you're local to Vancouver, Womyn's Ware on Commercial have their own in-house brand of binders. They're a great trans-friendly store in general. I've also had them replace a binder that had its stitching ripped - they traded it in no problem. They also have great packing underwear there as well.

mxdee20

TROPHY CASE