When most college kids think of vacation, camping out with rebels in Libya probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Not so for Chris Jeon, a 21-year-old UCLA student who has been living at a rebel outpost near the front lines of conflict in Sirte. “This is one of the few real revolutions,” he told the Christian Science Monitor. “I thought I’d just come check it out.” Jeon bought an $800 one-way ticket from L.A. to Cairo, then traveled by land across the border into Libya. His parents don’t know he’s there and he doesn’t speak Arabic, but he’s happy to be “helping” the rebels, though he hasn’t yet engaged in combat. He plans to return to California the day before school starts at the end of September.
