Surprise Camping Trip!

Haha suckas! I found out yesterday that the fourth and fifth graders are going on a school camping trip to learn about nature or whatever. They will be gone Tuesday (today) and Wednesday (tomorrow), the positive upshot of which is my regular classes are all cancelled. Hooray! I still have to do my after school classes, though, so it's not all a free ride. But that's the thing about teaching public schools in Korea: nobody tells you when random things like this are happening, so it's always a surprise! In fact, one of my friends stayed up late last night and got up early this morning to hammer out some lesson plans, only to find out that she didn't have any classes today. SURPRISE! It's so dynamic!

Similarly, I'm going to be gone next week from Mon-Wed at an off-site GEPIK orientation/teaching seminar. So it'll be some time again before I have a full week of classes. Woot!

In other news, I'm hoping to go to Seoul this weekend to see the Steve McCurry exhibit that is showing there. If you aren't familiar with the name, Steve McCurry is a very prominent photojournalist who has focuses mainly on Asia. He rose to fame in the mid-80s with his chronicle of the Afghan War, first by being embedded amongst the actual fighters, and then through his documentation of the refugee situation. He is most famous for his iconic photograph, "Afghan Girl", which the National Geographic magazine ran as the cover to its June 1985 issue.

You can see why it's so famous. And hopefully why I am so excited to go see this guy's work. Out of anyone I've seen, he really has a serious knack for capturing some essential humanity in all of his subjects. Captivating.