Observations by a Digital Nomad in Bermuda
Once upon a time, there was a global pandemic. Bermuda, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, invited remote workers to their beautiful island to escape since they had almost zero COVID cases. As the travel opportunist that I am, I jumped at the opportunity to live somewhere beautiful that happened to be much safer and warmer than my apartment in Toronto’s winter. I was privileged to have a job and supportive leadership in order to live in Bermuda for about 3 months. In this article, I am speaking from my experience, filling in my gaps with research, and asking Bermudian friends to fact-check me. While I am certainly no expert on Bermudian culture, I appreciated it as much as I could while I was on the island.
First thing’s first: Bermuda, the Bahamas, Barbados and Barbuda are four different places. Here are some unique and fascinating things about Bermuda.
What is Bermuda?
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory that is internally self-governing. Bermuda is tiny: the archipelago (large group of islands) is about 24 miles (40 km) long and averages less than 1 mile (1.6 km) in width(Britannica). Hamilton, referred to as “town” (i.e. going to town), is the capital.
Culture
Accent
The Bermudian accent and slang are somewhat of a cross between British, Bostoner, and Jamaican. Whereas asking where to sign in Toronto would get you the response “on thuh line”, in Bermuda what you’d hear is closer to “oin di loine”. However, many Bermudians I met studied abroad (especially in Canada!) and had the same accent as I did.
Race
Before leaving, I had people sheepishly ask me what a Bermudian looked like. Whereas people from a lot of islands may have a more homogenous look, Bermudians can look quite different from one another. “Are Bermudians Black?” Yes. And also no.
For a while, my travels took me to places where people looked very homogenous. Blond hair and blue eyes in India, Morocco, and Mainland China was A THING. I was used to people staring at me, asking me questions, taking photos of or with me, and just generally sticking out. Bermuda did not bring me that same experience. In fact, I was (flattered to be) mistaken for Bermudian quite a few times.
