Bermuda

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Home : 2002 : July : 29

Bermuda
By Kristina

I haven't taught or lived in Bermuda, but have visited. It's lovely. It's also very expensive. The locals I met seemed to have a good standard of living, although they work very hard to maintain it. (Most of the locals
I met worked two or three jobs.) I visited several residential areas, and they were all quite nice--none of the squalor you see outside of many resort areas.
I did get the impression that labor regulations are intended to make it hard for outsiders to get work, probably because it's such a small place and they want to make sure locals have jobs. But if they have a hard time finding

teachers locally, you probably wouldn't have much of a problem, although as you said, you probably wouldn't be able to stay indefinitely.

Everyone speaks English. Lots of British import food available, and lots of fish and chicken and rum. I don't remember the food in the markets or restaurants being anything terribly unfamiliar. American and Bermudian money is used interchangeably. You ride ferry boats from island to island, kind of like getting on a public bus. They do get some strong storms--when I was there, on a day when the palm trees were bent horizontal to the ground by the wind, I asked a guy at the hotel if this qualified as a hurricane. He laughed and said "No, just a little storm!" Not what this California girl was used to at all!

Let's see...other impressions...I remember the locals all seemed to know each other, which is probably because the place is so small. In December, the local channel broadcast an hour every afternoon of a guy in a Santa Claus suit reading local children's letters to Santa. And I remember charming local schoolkids, all in uniforms (Bermuda shorts, blazers, knee socks, hats) walking in double lines. Now you've made me want to teach there!