Aloha, eh? Anyone living or ever lived in Hawaii???

[Godwhacker]

If so, what's it like?

There is a job opportunity there that I may be interested in. I know the standard of living is rediculous, as well as the houseing market, but wanted to know if there is anything else that is good, bad or ugly about living in Hawaii

The job would be on Oahu, near Honolulu (at/near Tripler Army Hospital).

Thanks!

GW

[livius drusus]

Plant Woman grew up in Hawaii, I do believe. I've gone there on vacation several times (Oahu, Maui and Kauai) and loved it, of course.

Does the job pay well enough to make house purchasing possible, do you know?

[Godwhacker]

I did do some searching/research online. I can certainly afford a house, yes, but the houses there are not nearly of the same calibre that you would find in most of the U.S. at the same price range. That, coupled with the higher cost of most everything, would mean that the standard of living would be less, and the house we would get would not be nearly as nice as our current place, unless my wife found a really good job there as well.

The job would offer a +25% over typical (U.S) salary, but I hear that the costs of housing and living are more to the tune of 30-60% greater.

I also don't know about the quality of the public schools, etc. My little brainiac is going to need an ubernerd education!

In terms of finances, the move would be bad. But then again, how many people get an opportunity to live in Hawaii?

[Plant Woman]

I didn't grow up there, but I lived there many, many years after I got out of college. I left in the 80s so what I know of it might have changed.

If you love the beach, sand, and sun, Hawaii of course cannot be beat. If you love a lot of people that side of the island will of course be good. Up in the hills housing tends to be more affordable, but expect being packed in. The housing market is high, groceries are high, gas, electric high. However, if you like beach, sand and sun entertainment can be cheap. Snorkeling, swimming, surfing, body surfing all fun and cheap once you have equipment.

Housing is weird. I lived in a beach cottage on Sunset Beach (North Shore) that was valued at a million dollars (back then, I don't know what it is worth now) and paid $585 a month rent. I loved the North Shore as it wasn't crowded and I worked in Waikiki. A bit of a commute, but I thought it was worth it to live on the prettiest place on the planet.

I was told I would never find work there, but I found a job my first interview and then went on to find better work once I established myself as a resident, not some vacationing haole (pronounced howlee) wanting to stay 6 months. I don't know the job market now.

Crippler as we used to call Tripler is a pink monstrocity up on the hill. At least it used to be pink. I remember it well. You will have to get used to being the minority, which I thought was cool and wish a lot of people could experience it. It might change some people's way of looking at race. I love that you often see double and triple rainbows. The people are very nice, I made a lot of friends, but lost a lot back to the mainland. The hiking is fantastic, the water is breathtaking and waiting for the green flash at sunset is the funnest thing to do on the planet. You don't park your cars to long in one place cuz they probably will be eaten by a banyan tree.

The public education system is not that great, although I enjoyed the University and all the botany courses, I could cram in for fun. You can send your children to private schools though.

Island fever is a problem for a lot of people and many don't last living there for more than a couple of years. I island hopped a lot on vacations and that seemed to keep me from getting antsy to leave the island permanently.

You are right about the houses, many of them are of post and beam construction and single walls. However, you don't need more than that for the climate, but it makes for hearing what the neighbors are up to.

The history is really cool what with kings and queens and palaces. I loved exploring ancient burial sites. Of course if you are near Tripler you are near Pearl Harbor. I wonder if the mall in Pearl City is divided still by a taro farmer who wouldn't sell his land forcing the mall to be split in two with the farm in between. They built a monorail to go between. Lots of little interesting things like that go on. The last year I was there I experienced a hurricane, they don't come often to Hawaii, but they do happen.

I didn't want to leave, it was the hardest thing for me to do. I couldn't watch any programs about it for many years as I became very homesick. My husband and I want to go back for our 20th anniversary and visit where we married and honeymooned.

[Godwhacker]

Thanks for the insight and information, PW! I appreciate it.

Im a minority in my own home (1.5 Caucasian vs. 3.5 Asian) so I doubt that the minority issue will bother me that much. Is there a significant Chinese community on the island? That will mean alot to my wife and in laws.

I have some time to do more research and think it over. :chin:

[godfry n. glad]

Thanks for the insight and information, PW! I appreciate it.

Im a minority in my own home (1.5 Caucasian vs. 3.5 Asian) so I doubt that the minority issue will bother me that much. Is there a significant Chinese community on the island? That will mean alot to my wife and in laws.

Yes.

I can't find any recent data, but in 1970, according to the Harvard Encylopedia of American Ethnic Groups, the Chinese heritage of the Hawaiian population constituted 7% of the population, the highest of any state in the union. It did note that 96% of that Chinese population lived in the Honolulu environs, although only 20% of them lived within the Chinatown in Honolulu. Intermarriage has diluted it somewhat over the recent decades, I'd guess, but then, that shouldn't be any kind of stumbling block for you.

[Plant Woman]

Yes there is a Chinese community; however, since it is such a melting pot, as Godfry says the races can be Heinz 57. Portuguese, Phillipino, Korean, Japanese, Samoan, Haole, Hawaiian all mixed together. I worked with someone that was half Japanese and half Irish and that made for an interesting combination. Your wife will want to find out about the history of the Chinese in Hawaii, especially during World War II. She will be proud to learn that story.

[JoeP]

Aloha, eh?

I didn't realise Hawaii was part of Canada.

[LadyShea]

My SIL lived there and it drove her nuts (not that she is indicative of normal people...she's Polly Perfect stressball and drives all of us crazy). If you're a, um "type A" personality shall we say, the complete lack of any sense of urgency, or get it done, can be problematic.

Even just vacationing there I was struck at how slow a cashier at a convenience store was. People were lined up to the door. Not due to incompetence, just merely an attitude of "I'll get to it eventually".

I've had to deal with similar here in the Redneck Riviera. I called several companies for an estimate on some work, and one managed to call back and come over within a week. The rest went fishin' or to the NASCAR race or whatever and thought nothing of returning my call 10 days later. Hawaii is similar from what I have heard, only people are surfing instead of fishing. Part of our area is technically an island as well and people refer to it as Island Time same as Hawaii

If you can get into the same mindset, or are already relaxed/laid back, you should be okay.

[godfry n. glad]

I've only visited, but, yes...you must adopt a completely non-A mindset. It's part of the charm, actually. Hawaiian time; there are bumperstickers in these parts about being on Hawaiian time. A close friend calls it "Rez time". It's a close relative to the "Workman's Parallel Universe" posed by Dave Barry.

[Dingfod]

I've had to deal with similar here in the Redneck Riviera. I called several companies for an estimate on some work, and one managed to call back and come over within a week. The rest went fishin' or to the NASCAR race or whatever and thought nothing of returning my call 10 days later.Same thing here in Okrahomely, if they would show up at all. It was a huge change from Utah where living on Mormon Time meant they'd be a half late to everything. If one showed up to a 6:30 PM party at 6:30 nobody would be there for at least another half hour.

[Plant Woman]

Yup, Hawaiian time is something to get used to. But once you relax into it, it is a much healthier lifestyle. Type A personalities take note!

Oh and seeing lawyers in shorts with a suit coat and tie is pretty cool.

[Godwhacker]

I think I can handle the non-Type A issue. I think a bigger problem is that I am allergic to tourists. I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

I don't mind if the tourist areas are seprated from where everyone else lives. I just had the cheesy tourist trap environment. For example, Orlando, FL, to me, is pure hell (well, if I believed in a hell, it would resemble Orlando).

Im not so sure about the wife. She is more Type A. I don't know if she would be able to handle the increased cost of living, etc.

Seems like every place that I want to live in is either overcrowded (e.g., Houston, Chicago), too expensive (e.g., San Fran, San Diego) or there is no market for what I do there (e.g., Toronto). Ah, I complain too much!

I am continuing my research! Thanks for the input.

[Chris Porter]

Ah, I lived in Hawaii for about 10 years, and would probably still be there if it wasn't for a family emergency and some work related changes that made moving back to the mainland a bit more enticing than they normally would be.

I lived on Oahu, in Kaimuki, which is the suburb of Honolulu just above Kahala, the ritzy coast south of Diamond Head (extinct volcano). This is pretty far away from Tripler, which is much further northwest.

The older stock houses are normally made of a single board on frame, with no insulation. So sound in a house carries. In the area of Tripler, there is a lot of stock housing. Some of it seems newer than where I was (Kaimuki's quite old), but it also appears to be the single clapboard construction. Coming from the midwest, where there's winter, the idea of a single layer, one-board construction house never occurred to me.

I was in the Tripler area for some time, since the pet quarantine facility is there, in Aiea, and I had a cat I was importing. Near there is a large indoor shopping mall, Pearl City shopping mall, has lots of attractions. Also, there's Ala Moana in Honolulu proper, though it's in reach of Waikiki Beach. If you rely on public transportation (which is pretty nice, compared to Chicago's), Ala Moana is a depot-like area, you can catch buses there to all parts of the island.

You will possibly get used to the prices quickly. I was coming from Chicago proper, so the prices did not seem all that out of line to me to begin with.

The snorkeling is fantastic, btw, and is one reason I looked in the Kaimuki area for housing, because it's only a 20 minute walk to the beach in Kahala. And all the beach area is public, too. The weather is pretty much unrelentingly pleasant. There are almost no thunderstorms, and Hawaii is in an area that is more often than not bypassed by cyclones (though not always).

Travel between islands is by plane, the prices are OK. Vacationing on other islands is really good, because it seems that each has a slightly different climate and especially so for the Big Island.

If you have specifics, you can always pm me.

[Godwhacker]

Thanks Christ, appreciate the input!

Ironically, the wife really wants to move to your neck of the woods....WisCONsin...as her sister lives there. I think she is mental for wanting to live closer to relatives than in paradise, but hey, I don't call her "dear leader" for nothing...

When I was a kid, my family lived in Waukesha for 4 years. I can't imagine moving from Hawaii to WisCONsin. That must have been harsh!

[Pinecone]

Hey I lived in Waukesha for about a year and a half about 8 years ago!

(What's that got to do with Hawaii Pinecone?)
(Not a damn thing...)
(Well then shut up.)
(Ok...sorry...)

[Godwhacker]

A few years ago when we first visited my sister in law, they took me back out there to the house where I lived from ages 5-9. It was way weird. Waukesha is much bigger now that it was then. My old childhood house used to be in the sticks, and the house now is surrounded by other homes.

Milwaukee itself, downtown and close burbs, however, doesn't look too different.

[Chris Porter]

Thanks Christ, appreciate the input!

Ironically, the wife really wants to move to your neck of the woods....WisCONsin...as her sister lives there. I think she is mental for wanting to live closer to relatives than in paradise, but hey, I don't call her "dear leader" for nothing...

When I was a kid, my family lived in Waukesha for 4 years. I can't imagine moving from Hawaii to WisCONsin. That must have been harsh!

Oh, no not at all. I grew up just north of Chicago, anyway, and moved to Hawaii to go to the University (and then I immediately got a job afterwards). I've always liked the variety of seasons in the temperate zone more than the tropical zone. I mean, the sun barely moves north or south in Hawaii, and the day lengths hardly vary. I really enjoyed the swimming in Hawaii, which you can't do here, but I enjoy the change of seasons here more than in Hawaii.