Atlanta

------------

I always get nervous before I go on a trip to a new place. Always. No matter how much I prepare or try to think ahead I always have that thought in my mind that things can go wrong. It the voice in the back on my min that is always telling me that no matter how much you hope that you dont run into issues, you think you will. So for me it always has been that thought that I will loose my luggage or that the guys at the security gate will want to go through EVERYTHING I bring with me. The thought it always there and I always think that somewhere along the line it will happen. 

For this trip it was mostly the fact that I have never traveled internationally before and on top of that I have never had to switch so many different times to get somewhere. 

So of course my Dad decided to come into the airport with me and make sure to not only walk me through the check in process but to also buy me a drink. For us it seems to be a normal thing to have a drink before we go somewhere or when an occasion comes around. Of course I don't mind that and I quite like the tradition in itself. It not only is some time to sit and chat about anything we want to chat about but also a time to have some father daughter time. 

Once we were done with the drink we walked down to the gate where i would have to venture on my own. The fun thing about security is that you never know who is in a good mood and who is not in such a good mood. I honestly wasn't sure how it would go and I always think that they are going to make me pull out my camera gear to go through it all. Quite honestly I think its a pain in the ass and I was hoping that it wouldn't happen. So I get tot he guy at the booth and hand him my ticket and passport. He scans the ticket, looks at the picture and sits there for half a second. Once hes done making sure that I am in fact, Sarah, he lets me through. Now the thing about this particular part of security is that you have to make sure you electronics are out for them see and of course they make you take off your shoes and so on and so on. So I get to the booth and I start taking out my stuff and placing them in bins. My computer is out flat with the go-pro, and the bag is next to it. From there I place my camera bag in another tub and send it through. Then I take of my jacket and take out my phone and place them in the other. I start to walk away when I realize my watch is still on. The last time I was in the ATL airport they made me take off my watch. To be honest i'm not sure why but they did. I went to take it off but the lady shook her head and said I can leave it on. Really I was surprised. I told the lady about last time and she was caught off guard by it as well. She just said that the guy would just want to see the watch itself. So I wait my turn and then go through, and my dad calls it this, the******scanner. If you have never been through one its a huge scanner where you stand in a tube like structure, hold up your hands and then the scanner goes around you and your done. Basically it can see through your clothes and the idea is to make sure nobody has any weapons or "Shapes" in certain places. So creepy but whatever. Fine. I get it. I just didn't know that was what it was until my dad told me about it. 

Really after that everything went well. I tried to go to the exchange place to try and get the kiwi money ahead of time but sadly they were out of stock. Its kind of annoying but that just means I try again at the next place. 

---------------

The flight 

I'm not gonna lie this flight was a little nerve racking. I had no knowledge that there was a storm going on all the way from Virginia to Texas.  Apparently it's a pretty bad storm and because of that the flight was behind schedule. For a while we sat in the plane while we waited out turn and I nervously waited our turn for take off. Overall I was worried about how things were gonna go. The sky was cloudy and it was raining in Atlanta when we initially took off. 

Once it was our turn and we got in the air it took a good half hour before the caption announced that we had to make a change in our course and it was because of the storm. To be honest I was a little worried about how much time I was going to have to make all the necessary arrangements before I got on the flight. I knew I had to change my money to kiwi dollars, I needed to write this article and find my gate. 

Since I've never been to L.AX before I can say that it was definitely something that I was concerned about .I just wanted to make sure everything was done before I got to new Zealand. 

Throughout the flight I will say that there was quite a bit of turbulence and because of that I felt a little sick during the flight but luckily it passed pretty quickly. 

The flight was a total of four hours and some change and I managed to watch quite a few movies along the way . Overall I would have to say that it was pretty successful.