Monday 10/5 - Your Arrival Time is 3:18pm

As I boarded the plane for my connecting flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to St. Thomas, I found myself compelled to send out a few "Just in case I never told you, I love you" text messages because I was quite certain this was the vehicle in which I was going to die.

How small was this plane? Well, when the "this is your captain speaking..." spiel rang through the plane, I turned to the guy next to me and said, "Dude I'm sitting right next to you. You don't have to use the loudspeaker."

After a quick 28 minute flirt with death, I stepped off the plane and into the 85 degree sunny weather. I quickly made my way over to the bar which was conveniently located right next to the baggage carousel. I asked the barkeep for the local beer, and she passed me a Presidente - but before serving it to me she rubbed a napkin around the inside of the mouth of the bottle. When I asked her why, she explained (in a language that I'm pretty sure quite possibly could have been English) that there is sediment on the inside of the bottle, and she showed me the newly dirtied napkin as proof. Looking back, this hasn't happened with a single other beer that I've been served on island, nor need it have been done. Maybe she had a special batch.

I got my bag and met up with new roommates - Kiersten and DC. There are three things I immediately learned about St. Thomas:

1. There is no open container law.
2. Beer koozies are king.
3. Not all beer koozies have bottoms.

I discovered rule #1 when I saw that Kier and DC had open beers in the front seat of the minivan. I discovered rule #2 when I noticed that both were equipped with koozies. In an action widely known as the "ceremonial first beer" DC passed me a Presidente and a koozie to help keep my beer cold. Upon inserting said beer into said koozie, I discovered rule #3. I am a firm believer that this set a precedent for the rest of my stay (or hopefully just my first week) because I've spilt a beer in every establishment I've since visited.