February 23^rd is Pink Shirt Day. People across Canada will wear pink shirts in support of an anti-bullying movement. Why pink shirts you may ask? The movement started in 2007 at a high school in Nova Scotia. On his first day of school a male student wore a pink polo shirt to school. Some of the school bullies called him names and threatened to beat him up because of the colour of his shirt.

When other students saw this they felt it was time to take a stand against bullies. Using the internet they contacted as many other students as they could and the next day all students came to school wearing pink t-shirts.

Every group of young people has to deal with bullies. The number of bullies is small, but their effect on their victims is large. Be joining together the students were able to show that they are larger in number and more powerful than the bullies. Bullying at their school has dramatically reduced since the movement was first launched.

The movement caught national and international attention. After the first day the organizers were soon contacted by Canadian and American media. The idea caught fire and has since spread across the country as a national anti-bullying day. Teachers and students will show their support this month by wearing pink. For more information on Pink T-shirt day visit the website, www.pinkshirtday.ca.

Next month lots of fun activities will be at KGIC.

Japanese cultural day is March 2nd at KGIC Vancouver campus. 

KGIC students will volunteer at the Vancouver Food Bank on March 15th.

Don't forget to wear green this St. Patrick's Day on March 17th.

     Because February is the month of love we thought we'd bring you a story about a couple in love.  While red or pink might be colours more likely associated with Valentine's Day, the couple I'm going to introduce you to are a vision in blue. 

     Prepared for a rainy winter in Vancouver Chien Ching (Louis) Lu, 30 and Wan Ling (Angel) Yu, 26 entered the classroom for the first day of TESOL for Children in November clad in Gore-Tex jackets of a similar blue hue.

     The Taiwanese duo, who met in a university healthcare class, have been dating for three years.  What originally attracted them?  For Angel it was Louis' confidence and conviction in his own beliefs, while Louis felt that Angel was really kind and friendly.

     The two talk about the future a lot and will likely include marriage later this year.  Part of that future is a desire to open a cram school back in Taiwan and that's what led them to KGIBC-CTC.

     The pair didn't live together before coming to Canada, but have been cohabiting since arriving in Vancouver and it's been eye opening for both of them.  According to Angel, "[Louis] likes things very clean."  Louis is happy to report that Angel is a very good cook; his favourite is her rice and dumpling soup.

     Coming to Canada together helped as they didn't miss family and friends so much.  They were still surprised by certain things: that you have to sign a contract for everything from cell phones and school to apartments and how expensive things are In Vancouver especially with taxes and tipping.

Because of that they haven't eaten out much during their four months here, but plan to check out White Spot for a Valentine's Day treat.  Nothing else though. Louis isn't big on celebrating Valentine's Day and anniversaries so much, but prefers to celebrate every day.  He did that by surprising Angel with a beautiful necklace the first year they were dating.  Plus it came in a box of her favourite color.  Blue. Tiffany.

     On the topic of romance, Angel was impressed by a time when she was very sick and Louis left his busy product management job and drove all the way to deliver her hot milk tea and then almost immediately had to turn around and drive back to work.

      Angel can hold her own romantically though.  Louis treasures a CD of music and photos of their relationship that Angel made for him and even though she doesn't particularly like singing she covered every tune on the disk.

     Our joined at the hip campus couple graduated on February 11^th in gowns of their favourite colour and while they won't be living together, let alone in the same town, I'm certain these two will manage to keep the love alive.

Every winter from December to February, junior students at Surrey KGIC go on weekly fieldtrips. These trips are part of the curriculum and provide unique learning opportunities for the students. Sometimes the field trips are during the morning classes, giving students one more day for their reading and writing homework. But at least twice a month, the trips are for the whole day. This past month, one of those day trips was a visit to Science World and a boat ride on False Creek.