I am not a mule. Candy land. Rooftops.

The flight was awesome!  I was bumped to first class and I actually got a chance to sleep peacefully during the flight without Dude harassing me, wiggling, orkeeping  me awake .  Flying has an effect on me that, well... Pretty much puts me to sleep IMMEDIATELY.  A couple years ago as a Christmas present AlphaPoppa sent me on a discovery flight as an intro to earning a pilot license,  it was beyond thrilling and I loved it.  Only one problem... I got sleepy as soon as we got in the air.  I'd love to be a professional pilot, but who the hell wants a sleepy pilot?!?!   I guess that's not my calling.

Anywho, I slept, I ate, and I slept again. The flight was only 2 hours and 15 minutes from Atlanta,  I promise you I've spent longer periods of time stuck in traffic on 285 during rush hour.

Next I had to pass through immigration to enter Bermuda; in doing so you have to provide the address of your intended stay, one freakin' problem!  My phone, for some reason, couldn't get a signal, meaning I couldn't get into my FB messages to get Rhonda's address.  The immigration agents took me to a back room and were very helpful looking up the correct information for me.  I usually take a screen shot picture of all important info sent to me in case I cant get wifi, I'll never make the mistake of forgetting that again!  After getting my passport stamped I was sent in my way to customs only to be stopped again. 

"Hello miss.  Do you have anything to declare?"

"No."

"Are you traveling alone?"

"Yes." 

"Miss please step over here a moment so we can further check you."

All I could think was welcome back to traveling solo!!!  Some of you may have figured out why I was stopped but for those of you who don't know, allow me to explain.  I am an immigration/ customs/ international travel red flag alert.  Why? I fit the discription of a drug mule.  Or drug trafficker.  Often young women are chosen to transport drugs in their belongings or in their bodies in order to move drugs from one country to another.  Usually these women are at the least semi- good-looking, and they travel alone.  The fact that I have dreadlocks just made me triple suspicious.  Dreadlocks = Rastafarian = marijuana= drug dealer... I believe all immigration a use this exact equation.  Since I know the routine, I patiently waited as the officers went through my bag and asked me about who,what, why and for how long I was to be in their country.  I understand they are just doing their jobs and at least the officers here put my stuff back in the bag unlike other places I've been. 

After these two delays I finally made it out of the airport where my driver was waiting for me holding a sign with my name. My driver clivey was quite a delight. He teased me about trying to "drive his car" when I tried to get in on the right hand side.  As a British territory all cars have the steering wheels in the right, passengers sit left.  I apologized embarrassed but still liked his sense of humor.  The plan was for clivey to drop me off at the school where Rhonda teaches.  She is also a high school Spanish teacher.  Clivey however was in a talkative mood and decided to give me a long tour of the whole island first,  and boy was that a treat!  First off I did not know that the famous actor Micheal Douglas is from Bermuda, born and raised!  Also NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Ross Perot have homes here.  Bermuda is so freaking colorful it just automatically made me happy .  Every home is painted a different bright color, it's like that old school game candy land.  I love it!  My favorite part of the tour was learning about the  bermudian rooftops.  Each and every rooftops here is made of white limestone and built in a sort of staircase design.  As it rains the water is purified by the limestone as it rolls down the roof and is collected through a plumbing system that routes the purified rainwater through the house as drinking and bathing water.  Now how genius and Eco-friendly is that!  Little things like this keep me hooked on travel.

After my hour long tour we made it to the school. I was just in time to sit in on the last 15 minutes of Rhonda's last class and to meet some of the students and teachers.  The school was lovely, and predictably teenagers are the same all over the world.  Ha!  

Once we got to Rhonda's house we went into full catch-up mode.  We hadn't seen each other in 3 years and we had plenty of laughs to share.  Her 7 year old daughter and I took selfies and talked about her transition from living in the BVI (where I met her mother while we were both teaching Spanish in a local school) to living in Bermuda.  She gave me the low down on everything in her prim and proper new Bermudian accent. We walkld around and visited neighbors, went to the grocery store (prices are double and triple of those in the US!!! OMG!),eat and chat the rest of the night.  I checked in on my crew in Atlanta and hit the sack.  I'd been up since 4am Atlanta time and even though I took naps I'm going to make the most of fully resting while I am child free.  Enjoy the pix peeps!