Shorts...or Pants?

So I like to play this game when I'm walking down the street...

First, allow me to explain something. You know Bermuda shorts? Well people actually wear them here (hence the name). But not only do they wear them -- they love wearing them. And everyone does it. Men of all ages, races, and occupations don their knee socks and a pair of (often brightly coloured) shorts. The most popular colours seem to be standard navy and khaki, as well as a host of pastel colours (yellow, pink, turquoise), and "bermuda red". Which is really just red.

So back to the game...

So there are cars/scooters parked along the sides of the road, so often you'll see businessmen walking down the street and you can only see them from the waist up. So to pass the time I try and guess what they'll be wearing underneath: shorts...or pants (in my head I always say this like "Deal or No Deal").

I find I'm humourously wrong a large portion of the time. You see, you think you can judge by someone's appearance, but you can't. In one example, there was this old dude, a real old-money kind of guy: white hair, full beard, crisp white shirt, and a double breasted navy blue blazer with gold buttons. Very distinguished looking fellow.

He cleared the line of parked cars: pink shorts and red knee-socks. Awesome.

It's more fun than it sounds.

Pictures I

See? All the buildings are this kind of pastel colour.

Me on H4 in front of my hotel.

Heather #4, in all her glory.

Some more pictures are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/richdchang/Bermuda

End of Day One

What a day it has been. I took my new scooter out to Horseshoe Bay earlier today to meet up a fellow IBMer. I was a little nervous on the drive, as the scooter (and the left side of the road) take some getting used to, but I'm getting more comfortable on it. The speed limit is 35 km/h but everyone seems to drive around 50.

My new ride is pretty sweet. She's a red two-seater with some zippy acceleration. I've named her Heather #4.

So Horseshoe Bay was breathtaking. Easily one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been on, and definitely going back there next weekend.

Took Heather #4 out for a spin at midnight to aquaint myself with Hamilton. That "capital city" of Bermuda is about twice the size of Queen's campus and has only about 1,000 permanent residents. It's quite nice. Everyone here is very polite, and always greet you with a "good morning/afternoon". Reminds me of Scotland.

So apparently it's quite typical for IBMers on the island to work long hours during the week, so I don't know when I'm going to get to post again, but I'll try and write now and then so long as people seem to read it.

I think I'm going to like it here.

The beginning

So I'm here. I'm on the island.

It's beautiful.

Perhaps I should elaborate. It's like I'm back in Europe. Can't say exactly which country. Perhaps a mix of Croatia and Italy. The building are all light pastel colours with pristinely white rooftops. All of them. Even government building and churches. Must be the style - I'll have to look it up on Wikipedia. The streets are narrow and the "city" of Hamilton is small and charming. I'm going to explore it a little once I'm finished here.

I just arrived at the place I'm staying for tonight; it's a beautiful furnished condo that belongs to a Project Manager that is taking a couple days off. He's got a spare room which I have taken for my own. I met some of the young IBMers I'll be working with, they seem like cool people. One from Denver and another from Vancouver. There's an assortment of cold beers in the fridge, but I think I may go off in search of real food.

I'm going to go now and rent a scooter. A scooter. I'm excited. It's going to rock.

More later, must go explore...