Goodbye Europe

I snuck into my house with Christian and scared the life out of my family who thought I was coming home tomorrow.

Hilarious video to follow.

Thanks! I have so much to learn!

Currently I use
35 mm f/1.8 nikon
18-200 tamron

But occasionally I’ll use a nikon f/1.4 50mm (this is a vintage one though.. Not sure how the new ones are.) happy shooting!

I held back about five gallons of tears today (I can say gallons now that I’m going back to the states— woohoo) 

I’m going to miss all of this so much so so much. Especially our devoted and ever so loving faculty and staff.. I can’t explain how much I admire and love them. 

& Saying goodbye to a city that I’ve been longing for all my life isn’t all that easy as well— I’m so thankful that I have the wonderful Los Angeles to welcome me home though… not too shabby.

 Study abroad in London.
Check. 

Sunny and I have decided that its extremely difficult to get on Jesus’ level. How is He so patient with us? How does he stand our annoying ways? How does He love us? We can’t understand…
We’ve come to the conclusion that we obviously can’t even love people on our own and therefore need Jesus SO BADLY to even function.
Jesus we need you!
Sincerely,
Sunny Wu and Gina Choi

We have exactly a week left in London and I’m starting to actually feel that it’s really all coming to an end. When I arrived in September, I didn’t realize that this would all be over in three short months— jam packed with traveling, classes, studying, guests, and of course— falling in love with the beautiful city of London. Now that I’m making arrangements to go back to sunny California, it’s hitting me: In 7 days, I’ll leave London not knowing when I’ll ever be back. As long as there is a way for me to come back to London, I’ll make every effort to return. I’ll bring my children here and show them where I studied. I’ll bring my parents and introduce them to the city I fell in love with. We’ll go to high tea and share macaroons and laugh about how hard I worked this summer to save up. How I had to put my pride down email them asking for money. I’ll share stories and pictures with my grandchildren, and tell them how amazing this experience was— how it changed my life completely, radically, entirely. 

I’m so thankful that God has been preparing me for this three month journey all throughout my life up until this point. He guided me to the right University that had one of the leading international programs in the US. He allowed me to be accepted into the program. He placed me right where my heart has been wanting to be so badly for so many years of my childhood. I would have been happy with maybe a week vacation in London— but no, when you ask God for something you think you want.. He just really gives you everything.
Now I’m writing this entry with quivering lips and teary eyes with a heart full of such thankfulness that Jesus provided so much for me to be here and to have such a rich and fulfilling semester. This was not my own doing, I did nothing to deserve all of this… so thank You Lord, thank You so much. I loved it— all of it.

In reaction to the awesome service and worship at Hillsong church at their evening service last night —- I left my $1500 dSLR Nikon camera hanging from its neckstrap over the seat in front of me. The service is the busiest one of the day (2,000 + people).

I walked out of the service and left it hanging there for anyone to snatch and simply walk out of the doors with. I realized I’d left it on the chair after I walked into the packed lobby of Dominion Theater where I fought against the crowd and made it back to my seat, only to find it empty.

After frantically searching for it for about an hour along with the Hillsong staff, I decided it was time to go home and to leave my contact information with the cloak room upstairs. “It’s just so easy for someone to walk out of the theater with it.. someone probably took it home..”
As I was going up the stairs, I noticed a small screen with my photo on it—- my camera! An older Irish man was standing on the balcony stairs putting the photo of me to every girl that passed by. 
“This is your camera!…”
He was standing there for almost an hour to make sure that the owner of the camera got it back into her hands rather than handing it off to a security guard or staff member.

Dear kind sir, you have no idea how much that thing means to me.
There are still perfect strangers with integrity in this world.