Sorry for the lack of updates - I have been busy apartment/moped hunting for the past few weeks. Everything fell into place last week when I got my license, moped and apartment. The apartment is a charming little studio in Hamilton Parish, fully furnished. I got the bike from an expat leaving the island. There are usually a handful leaving the island every week so it's a good way to pick up some cheap used items.

I visited The Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo. It's situated in a quaint little village called the Flatts Village, with small shops and scenic waterways. They have Bermuda native fish displayed, and also some South American birds and Australian mammals. A tiny Museum of Natural History nicely illustrated the geography and geology of Bermuda.

The Bermuda TCD (US equivalent of Department of Motor Vehicles) reminded me of one Simpsons episode (a cartoon for the adults, in the states) where one of Homer's sister-in-laws, who works at the department of motor vehicles, said "some days, we just don't let the line move at all" and the other one said, "yeah, we call them 'weekdays'". To spare you all the horror story, it took me more than 3 hours to do my 10 minute driving /10 minute written tests and my license. My friend Donna suffered through 6+ hours of this when she was here. I'm finally driving in Bermuda with a valid license.

It's kinda funny because a resident needs a license to operate the moped but if you are an inexperience right-side-of-the-road-driving-tourist from the states, you don't need one.

I moved into a very small studio apartment this past weekend. Actually, it felt like a hotel room because it has a similar layout and size. It's good enough for me and I get a small gardening area in the back so hopefully I can grow something good. The apartment is in Bailey's Bay, a very beautiful quiet bay with small boats docked in the shallows. Traveling is now twice as far (20 minutes total by moped) but I did't mind it (for now).

I went to my first movie theater in Bermuda and saw Prince of Egypt - excellent animation, highly recommended to everyone although they cut out a whole bunch of stuff. The screen very small but more than adequate that night since the movie was so engrossing.

I also ordered cable because there's not much to do here at night except drinking at the bars. Most of the stores close at 5 so there's no shopping either. I spent 3 long minutes reprogramming my clock radio. I'm glad I still have 9 out of 12 of my presets available since I am sure a few more stations might pop up in the next 100 years or so.

I also ordered my phone service last week. The Bermuda Tele Comm LTD was kind enough to fit me in their busy schedule for a February 16th connection to flip a switch, a mere 6 weeks away. I know they are very busy because they are threatening - I mean trying to get the government to approve a 100% hike of monthly local phone service to $36/month or else they might have to cut some jobs. I guess I better practice my smoke signals so I will have a way to communicate for the next month.

Work has been busy and interesting so far, so I'm not too bored. Things are finally settling down for me and I think I finally saw most of the touristy things in the winter time, so the updates will be less frequent here.

That's all for now.