The Meg Decade: This Is Paradise?

I recently took a trip to the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. While this may seem like a lavish trip for a recent college grad, it was virtually expense-free -- besides the plane ticket. I was kindly invited by Tyler, the guy I was dating. Here we are together (happy) overlooking the famous Trunk Bay (one of the world's top 10 beaches) on our first full day of exploring.

Flying from Arizona to the USVI was no easy task. We flew from Phoenix to Miami; Miami to St. Thomas; a taxi ride to the ferry; and finally a ferry from St. Thomas to St. John. Thank God for those free rum shots in the St. Thomas airport! It was after 10pm by the time we arrived to our destination and it was 85 degrees with 100% humidity -- a serious change from the dry heat of Arizona. Tyler's friends ushered us to one of the island bars directly from the ferry. Upon entering the bar I caught a quick glimpse of what looked like a wet, creepy clown. Ohmygod I thought, that can't be my reflection in the mirror. Not only did the humidity make my makeup look like I was a part of a circus, but my hair was so frizzy and wild that I didn't recognize it.

I couldn't wait to take a long, cool shower. So, after a few drinks we went back to our "villa." A beautiful, four-bedroom home, complete with all of the amenities. Our hosts advised us to use the a/c sparingly -- that opening the windows in our bedroom would suffice for a night like this. In addition, they received their water from a cistern (more or less a receptacle that collects rain water). That said, if we could please take showers that resembled this process: turn water on for 5 seconds to get wet, turn off water, shampoo/soap, turn on water quickly to rinse, and immediately turn off. YOU'VE. GOT. TO. BE. KIDDING ME?! Ok, fine. The low-maintenance, Northwest girl in me says, "No biggie... I can deal."

But that wasn't all.

Next, the island rule: "In the land of fun and sun, we don't flush for #1." Remember folks, I'm on a vacation with a guy I'm getting to know. Well, looks like he's going to find out exactly how much water I drank that day depending on my pee color... lovely! Ah, that brings me to my next interesting island fact. Tyler and I were each given a gallon of water for the week to brush our teeth with, wash our faces, and drink. My eyebrows raised as I thought, I drink a gallon of water a day in Arizona. Again, I wasn't complaining here... just didn't realize I was going camping for a week.

Regardless of the oddities of living for a week on the island, we had incredible food, wonderful hosts, and a trip most people only dream of having. Here's a snip-it of pics from the trip.

Paddle boarding was a blast!